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What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy is energy that is from a source that is not depleted when used.
This includes solar, wind, tidal, biomass, and geothermal.
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Solar is energy that you get from the sun. Here in AZ a lot of people have solar cars or roof panels on their houses to help store energy that they can then use for household items and for transportation purposes. How do solar panels work? Solar panels are expensive to make, but they have a storage battery built into them to help store the energy that the sun gives off to be used at a later time.
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Wind energy is the next energy that we will talk about. Wind energy is captured with turbines. Turbines can be in valleys but more commonly they are in the middle of the ocean. This is because if you build turbines on land they are not getting all the wind due to buildings. Also a lot of people who live near turbines say that they are loud, this causes issues with the community. In the middle of the ocean the turbines get more wind exposure and that is better, because it will help store more energy in the batteries that are stored in the turbines.
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Tidal may be the most expensive way of capturing renewable energy. This is because someone has to go far out into the ocean and set up sensors to help monitor the tides going in and out of the ocean.
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Biomass energy is found from natural land resources such as wood, certain crops, manure, and some waste residuals. The way that this resource is used is by burning it to energy for homes, usually in the forms of heat. This helps regulate what goes into the landfills if we can use natural materials that the planet produces for energy sources. ​
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Geothermal is energy that comes from the core of the earth. The heat from earths core comes from radioactive decay of minerals. The way that we convert geothermal heat into the energy in our homes is drilling in wells down through the earths crust. The heat is extracted in many ways including using water and steam. Geothermal energy is usually used for electricity. The steam that is captured can power turbines on a generator. This is considered a sustainable energy source because it produces little to no green house gasses.
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Geothermal technologies can only be used in certain areas. These areas would be in the most volcanic activity areas. In those places geothermal technologies 90% of the energy sources are powered by geothermal energies.
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