8 renewable energy sources that could replace oil and gas

1. solar energy

When it comes to renewable sources, first of all, everyone remembers solar energy and panels for its conversion. Exist two types of such generators - photovoltaic and concentrated type.

The former work like this: when a conductor or semiconductor in a battery heats up due to the absorption of solar radiation, a potential difference is created between cold and warm regions, and an electrical current.

Generators of the concentrated type collect light, it heats the liquid, it turns into steam and generates electricity by rotating turbines. The principle of operation of such panels compares favorably in that it allows you to accumulate heat, which means that they remain limitedly effective at night.

In addition to generating electricity, sunlight can also apply for heating liquids directly - for example, in swimming pools and showers. A large tank located on the roof of an eco-friendly house will save a lot on electricity.

2. biofuel

Biomass is material derived from living organisms, most commonly plants or algae. They live on solar energy and water, multiply efficiently, and have a docile nature.

The most common source biomass at the moment is wood, that is, dead trees, branches and stumps, cuttings of boards, wood chips and other production waste. And also crops - millet, hemp, corn, soybeans, miscanthus, sorghum, sugarcane, bamboo. In addition, an excellent source of biomass can become algae because they grow very fast.

From all this, you can get ethanol, butanol, hydrogen, methane gas, syngas, biodiesel and more.

The advantage of energy, built on biomass, is the efficient disposal of waste. From everything that people cannot or do not have time to eat, you can get fuel. Already now its production is good established in the United States and Brazil, as well as in Southeast Asia.

True, switching to biofuels does not solve the problem of global warming, because it still has to be burned, just like oil and gas. But at least it grows on its own and doesn't run out like minerals.

3. ocean energy

Ocean waves, tides and currents create a huge supply of kinetic energy - it’s even a pity that so much goodness is wasted. But in fact, some countries have already learned to benefit from all this - For example, in the UK built the world's largest wave generator Oyster.

The principle of operation of such devices is as follows: waves move floats, those drive the piston pump. He, in turn, drives sea water to the shore through a pipe, where it turns the rotor of a hydroelectric generator.

In addition to coastal tidal power plants, there are projects for underwater modifications. They will work like an ordinary windmill: a huge mill with blades is fixed on the seabed, a powerful current turns the shaft in the generator.

In addition to the banal use of the kinetic energy of tides and currents, there is a more extravagant way to extract electricity from the seas.

The fact is that the Sun constantly heats the water surface of the Earth - in fact, the oceans are a huge battery. It is estimated that even 5% of the heat it produces provide generation of 10,000 GW of electricity.

Hydrothermal oceanic power plants will help in this. work they are like this: we lower a huge pipe deep to the bottom of the ocean, which will take water from there. After entering heat exchangers with warm liquid near the surface ocean under conditions of reduced pressure, cold water begins to boil not at 100 ° C, as usual, but only at 27 ° C. Cold steam is formed, it rotates the turbines, and we get electricity.

Currently, such experimental facilities located in Japan and Hawaii.

4. wind energy

Mills were invented at least in 700-900 AD in Persia, and they are familiar to everyone got in Medieval Europe. For almost 600 years the wind has been there main source of energy until humanity massively switched to coal and steam engines.

The first ever wind farm invented in July 1887 by Professor James Blyth of Anderson College, Glasgow. But the locals refused to use it, considering the electricity "an invention of Satan."

Later, the professor built another turbine, powering the local lunatic asylum from it.

Now wind energy is becoming popular again. She used in half the countries of the world. Denmark, for example, receives thanks to it, 56% of the electricity consumed, Uruguay - 40%, Lithuania - 36%, Ireland - 35%, Great Britain - 24%. Windmills are also widely used in the USA, China, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Latin America and Africa.

Windmills are good because they allow you to create electricity from the air where it is impractical to pull the wires. In addition, they work more efficient at night and in winter, when solar panels, on the contrary, lose power. So these two sources of energy complement each other.

Yes, windmills also have some disadvantages: their blades sometimes knock down birds in flight, and the supports are shaking so that the worms crawl out of the ground. However, researchers at the National University of Singapore held comparison and concluded that these generators are responsible for a disproportionately lower number of avian deaths than fossil fuel plants.

5. Static electricity of water vapor

An exotic new way to generate electricity found in 2020 by scientists from Tel Aviv University. We all know that lightning strikes during thunderstorms. They are produced when water vapor particles of different densities - from tiny droplets to ice floes - collide with each other and electrify the environment around them.

Scientists repeated this process in the laboratory and found that if the air humidity is more than 60%, then static electricity can already arise between the particles. And if you build high enough metal poles, they can literally charge from the water vapor in the air. As a result, wires can be drawn from them and power the infrastructure.

Of course, you can hardly light a metropolis with electricity from water vapor. But this is a very promising way to get cheap energy for developing tropical countries where there is high humidity.

6. geothermal energy

Scientists have calculated that cooling down 1°C of the Earth's core will release 10,000 times more energy than is contained in all known fossil fuels. And it, for a second, is heated to 6,000 ° C and cools down by 300-500 ° C in a billion years.

That is, it is simply incredible reserves of energy! The sun will turn into a red giant before we have time to exhaust the potential of the earth's core.

Geothermal springs now nourish power plants in Iceland, New Zealand, Italy, France, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Kenya and Japan.

Only a small part of the planet's geothermal resources are exploited for commercial purposes - most often such stations are located at the boundaries of tectonic plates. But if you put on stream drilling wells to the mantle planets, it will be possible to draw energy simply from underground anywhere at all.

Indeed, such a project exists only in theory. We dig a well to the Earth's mantle, fill it with hydraulic fracturing fluid and get an artificial hot aquifer. And then we put turbines on top and make electricity.

The only but: need a really huge hole - about 10 kilometers deep.

7. artificial photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the process that occurs in plant cells, during which water and carbon dioxide are converted into oxygen and glucose under the influence of sunlight. That's just repeat it can be done in laboratory conditions without the help of plants.

Scientists in the United States, Sweden and Japan are developing commercially viable artificial photosynthesis methods that allow from carbon dioxide and water to create fuel, resins, plastics and fibers. And if the research is successful, we will be able to make fuel and building materials literally out of thin air.

In addition, it is not necessary to completely refuse the participation of plants and aquatic organisms in the process. For example, to breed photosynthetic blue-green algae, and then distill them into bioplastics and biofuels is also a viable option.

8. Infrared thermal radiation of the Earth

The sun's rays fall on part of the planet and heat the surface and atmosphere. The other side of the Earth at this time, on the contrary, gives off the energy accumulated during the day in the form of infrared thermal radiation. The planet produces 10¹⁷ watts of heat, and all this wealth is meaninglessly dissipated into outer space.

Australian engineers invented a device called a thermoradiation diode that generates energy not when heated, but when cooled. And if you create a fairly large model of it, which will accumulate heat during the day and give it off at night, you get something like a solar battery that works around the clock.

And if make photocells that capture infrared light (these are already in night vision devices), and use them to absorb the thermal radiation of the planet, you get the so-called collector emission energy. And it will allow you to make electricity at night just out of thin air.

panels, capturing thermal radiation of the planet's surface at night and scattered ultraviolet sunlight during the day, you can will cover all high-rise buildings in metropolitan areas and get a good additional source electricity.

In addition, such emission energy collectors, when not needed, could be transform in the towers of the passive radiation cooling (PDRC) - they would give off heat more efficiently into space than the surface of the planet. This would help save the Earth from global warming.