In California Southern California with its more than 20 million residents has the greatest demand for power in the United States. The scarcity of water resources coupled with abundant sunshine and huge amount of available land make Southern California the ideal place to generate solar power.

Solar Power is green energy that helps to reduce greenhouse gas emission thereby lessening the carbon footprint; both President Barack Obama and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger advocate the generation and usage of solar power.

Presently there are 11 large solar thermal farms that are going through the nitty-gritty to get the permits from the California Energy Commission. There is a mad rush to get the approval for these industrial sized projects since Federal stimulus funds, which could amount up to 30% of the projects’ costs, is going to expire by the end of 2010 and this contribution is going to be available only if the projects start by the end of the year.

If all these projects get materialized, the federal contribution towards the costs is going to be nearly ten billion dollars. It is a difficult proposition to balance energy needs and economic benefits without compromising on environmental concerns and therefore, this deadline has created the importance of coordination between different interest groups having billions of dollars riding on these projects.

Some environmentalists want to ensure that these projects take care of all these areas without flouting environmental laws; however, some are of the opinion that a minor amount of habitat destruction is worth the substantial economic and energy gains from these projects. 10 of these 11 proposed solar farms are going to be based in desert areas with one of these in the southern San Joaquin Valley and one of these 11 proposed farms is going to be located around 4.5 miles southwest of Primm Valley, Nevada on the Ivanpah dry lakebed; this is why this project is going to be called the “Ivanpah” farm.

The project would require hundreds of construction workers in the short term and 50 employees in the long term for its operation; therefore, it is going to have enormous economic impact on the Primm area. Once operational, the Ivanpah solar farm is going to generate green energy sufficient to cater to the electricity demands of more than half a million California homes and is also going to provide a big boost to the California utility companies since, under the federal mandate, by the year 2020 these companies would be required to consume 33% of their energy demand from renewable resources.

To comply with the environmental laws that required lessening of damage to desert tortoise and other rare plant habitats, the Ivanpah solar project has been restricted to 3,500 acres, which is a reduction of 12% from the original size. The tight timeline has made the project developers skeptical as to whether the deadline for the federal stimulus is going to be extended or not. Regarding this the California Senator, Dianne Feinstein has proposed legislation; however, since there is no guarantee of an extension, these solar farm projects are trying level best to get approval by the year end.

In a year, the California Energy Commission approves about 7 major energy projects in the state, which typically include natural gas or other energy sources. These projects are creating unprecedented demands on the energy commission, which is stretched to the limit, not only due to the tight deadline for the federal stimulus funds, but also for the employment opportunities that these can bring, once underway.

There are several debates about the two sources of energy, the renewable and the nonrenewable. We produce and use energy from these two sources for various purposes. Energy plays a crucial role in our daily life and we cannot imagine a situation that we go without electricity.

Almost all our utility equipment inevitably need electricity for their functions. However it is appropriate to evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of energy. The assessment here starts with Nonrenewable energy:

Nonrenewable energy is derived from the earth. It can neither be repeatedly used nor replaced in short period of time. The coal, oil, natural gas, all belonging to the fossil fuels, constitutes this category.

The present technology makes it too easy to mine the coal and oil from the earth-bed to utilize as energy sources. This process is relatively cheap, affordable and widely available. But the main disadvantage of this form of energy that it is irreplaceable and would exhaust from the earth, by prolonged exploitation. This is because the fossil fuel energy is developed from the decayed bodies of animals and plants remaining buried as deposits for millions of years in the earth- bed.

These are transformed into combustible materials that come out as fuels. By constant exploitation at the present level, these deposits may not last long, for the use of the generations. Nonrenewable energy also contributes adversely to the nature, by way of pollution of the environment resulting from carbon emission. The mining and oil production paves for atmospheric pollution and causes climate change.

Besides destroying the eco-system, oil production leads to pollution of our water beds like lakes, streams and wells and destroy the animals and plants in large scale.

So how about renewable energy? The powe produced from renewable sources is termed as renewable energy. The sources like solar power, windmill power, tidal power, hydro power, bio fuel and biomass are the best examples for this type of energy.

Renewable energy does not cause atmospheric pollution in any manner. It is renewable and efficient and can be produced with locally developed systems. A disadvantage with this energy is that it cannot be economically exploited, stored and reused according to the requirement.

The cost of production will also be exorbitant than the other types of energy, in the present day scenario. It is wrong to believe that the sources of renewable energy always produce clean energy. For example, the wood is a renewable source of energy but when wood is burned in a furnace, the carbons that emit from combustion pollutes the nature.

It similarly happens so, when bio- mass is burned to produce energy. From a comparative analysis, it can be found that the sources of nonrenewable energy are going into extinction by vigorous and irrational exploitation, to meet a major portion of our increasing energy needs.

Hence in the coming years new forms of energy are to be developed that would not pollute the environment. The costs are one of the forbidding factors for exploring the renewable energy at the required level. But the energy generated from solar power will be clean, renewable and possible without exorbitant cost.

A renewable energy source is energy available from natural resources such as sunlight, wind and tides, which are renewable or naturally replenished. As distinct from fossil fuels, which take millions of years to develop, sunlight, wind, rain and water are natural resources available in abundance.

Many people consider the use of solar energy, the widely known clean energy is of recent origin. However, the solar panels were utilized to generate electricity in the 1920s to heat water instead of using costly conventional electrical heating systems.

Renewable Energy from Past to Present

When fossil-fuels were discovered, the use of solar energy was discontinued giving way to the more affordable and dependable fossil-fuels at that time. However, these petroleum products had an adverse effect on the environment causing pollution due to emission of harmful gases and added to that their levels also started depleting.

These factors contributed to the resurrection of renewable energy resources. Currently, solar power plants, wind farms and solar thermal plants are extensively utilized to provide energy to the whole towns and cities. The population using alternative sources of energy has cropped up all over the world with Canada taking the lead as the first country to take pride in having an entire community utilizing only solar power.

Apart from this, the technology is rapidly changing and with that the term, ‘renewable energy’ is being redefined.

The Future of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is generated when natural resources such as wind, water and sunlight are harnessed though propulsion. However, the movements of humans are also being regarded as clean energy resources. For example, New Energy Technologies is at present carrying out tests to generate kinetic energy from ‘speed bumps’.

The ‘bumps’ are in fact a reverse of the classic ‘motion inhibitors’. These flat panels dip a little into the ground when a car passes over it. The difference in height between the road and the dropped panel causes the bumps.

Under the panel, 2000 watts of instantaneous energy is generated for every car that passes over the speed bump. With 1000 cars passing over the speed bump every day, 2,000,000 watts or 2,000 kilowatts of electric power is generated every day.

During the course of a month, this figure touches 60,000 kilowatts. This is sufficient electric power to cater to 60 homes on an average for the whole month.

This method of generating kinetic energy is not restricted to speed bumps alone. Israel is testing the roadways that generate small amounts of electricity as cars pass over the specific roadway surface. The amount of energy generated is only 400 kilowatts per kilometer (0.6 mile). Although this does not appear to be a significant amount of energy, if the whole of the interstate system of the US were to be utilized to generate kinetic energy, the 75,000 km stretch of the roadways generate 30,000,000 kilowatt of energy.

This undoubtedly is another unique definition of renewable energy. The new concept of treating kinetic energy as a renewable energy is gaining ground all over the world, with Tokyo is installing flooring that harvests power from the visitors who visit subways daily.

Dance clubs are making use of the energy generated from the movements on the floor to produce electricity. Even asphalt is being regarded as the major material for garnering thermal energy in desert climates when roadways can reach very scorching temperatures. There are plenty of sources for supplying new and unique renewable energy solutions to assist us in the transitional phase to shift to more long-lasting and environmentally friendly energy sources.

Even at present, there are numerous new technologies that can facilitate heating the houses, recharge our batteries and illuminate the entire backyard using ‘green’ energy sources.