With alternative energy being the course the world is taking, renewable fuels are an obvious choice. A renewable energy source is something that can be replenished over a short period time. The five renewable energy sources are water (hydropower), geothermal (using the Earth's natural temperature), wind, solar and biomass (organic material from animals and plants). These are natural ways of getting energy and usually lead to little or no emissions.
Renewable energies have been used for as long as people have been around. Just because we are aware that we can use renewable fuels for alternative energy doesn't mean it is going to happen. First, just because the option is available doesn't mean it can always work. Renewable energies can be inconsistent. On cloudy days solar power is less, on calm days wind turbines can't be used and during droughts hydroelectricity isn't used as often. However, the more often renewable fuels are used, the less often non-renewable fuels will be needed.
There are some countries that have taken a bigger interest in finding renewable fuels for alternative energy. Germany has taken a huge role and has become one of the leaders in the industry. Germany set a record by investing over $10 billion (U.S. dollars) in alternative energy that includes wind turbines, solar cells and bio-gas power plants. These renewable energy resources account for 10 percent of the energy production in the country. Many other countries can't say the same.
Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world. The country produces ethanol fuels from sugar cane. The emergence of this program has resulted in ethanol providing 18 percent of the country's fuel. The United States has only started using ethanol
Other countries have not made as huge of an impact, but are still working on ways to get renewable energy resources. Large private companies have also begun their own research into other forms of energy. BP (formerly British Petroleum) is a British energy company that is largely based in the United States, has recently pledged to give $500 million over the next ten years to help establish the Energy Biosciences Institute. It also announced it would use $8 billion over the next ten years to research renewable fuels for alternative energy.
The EBI is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is part of the EBI. The EBI was set up to explore new and cleaner energy mainly for road transportation. It is to look into how to use biology, nature, anything that could be used as a clean fuel source.
However, there tends to be problems between government and companies at times when researching renewable fuels are alternative energy. The U.S. government and Geothermal Energy Association have been at odds for some time. Congress doesn't see geothermal as a main source, but the GEA has been fighting for it. Geothermal energy is used by getting to the heat of the earth, usually by drilling a few miles into the earth's crust. There are parts of Iceland that strictly use geothermal energy.
Finding renewable fuels for alternative energy is going to get more important as the years go on. As the global climate crisis continues and as the grip on oil dependency tightens, people will be looking for other ways to get energy.
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