by Kevin J. Putnam

Created on: August 14, 2008   Last Updated: August 16, 2008

Energy in the sense of how the word is popularly used, is a force that drive motors, engines, and heats homes. Renewable energy is a force that can be reused over and over and over again. Like wind, sun, water, and geothermal. Being "renewable" also implies that it is non-polluting. The capturing and exploiting of energy that is renewable as been around for thousands of years. Wind power, water power, solar and animal power has powered our culture up till recently. It is only been in the last hundred or so years where fossil fuels have been used to power our cities and homes.

The processes involved in using renewable energy are a lot simpler than that of non-renewable energy. Take wind power for example. Wind forces a turbine blades to rotate, which in turn drives a generator which converts the turning motion into electricity. The electricity is then stored in batteries or used right away for energy needs. If all our cars were electric, the technology for powering our cars would be much simpler than that of refining oil into gas. Wind, solar, and hydro all convert motion into electricity. Electricity can then be used, thats it. To process oil it takes huge distillery's and enormous amount of energy just to get the gallon of gas to then make electricity. Using electricity is already in place for a great percentage of our power usage. It is transportation primarily that needs to be changed along with the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Renewable energy, in other words, can be used for all of our energy needs. The problem is not a lack of energy but a lack of incentive to drive us to use renewable energy. Transportation is what we are used to. In other words, if we would have started out using electric cars years ago, there would be not problem. Cars would be smaller, stations would be set up for convenient recharging and the thought of a gas-guzzling stinky SUV would have not been attractive. All of the technology for this was in place years ago, it is how we use the energy we have more than trying to get more oil.

Energy is used when we rides bikes, walk, talk and play. All that energy comes from plants, sun and air and it is all renewable. We eat food and convert it to use for heat and movement. When we drive a car, it is energy that moves the car. Energy is energy no matter what the form, there are not different types of energy just different conversions of it. Changing energy into different forms of forces creates heat, which at times is used directly or is just a by-product of converting. When energy is used it does not make any difference if it is renewable or fossil fuel, it is still energy being converted. It is how the energy is obtained and converted that defines if it is renewable of not.

Since there is plenty of renewable energy, there is no shortage of it. There is a lack of ways to collect it and convert it. Hydro-electric dams power whole cities and are used world wide. Wind is everywhere, such as geothermal and solar. We are surrounded by renewable energy and we have all the technology in place to use it. It is more our habit of using fossil fuels that needs to be changed to make the leap back to renewable energy.

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