Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1 Sources of renewable energy
Primary source
Medium
Natural conversion
Technical conversion
Sun
Water
Evaporation,
precipitation, melting
Water power plants
Wind
Atmospheric airflow
Wind energy conversion
Wave movement
Wave power plant
Solar energy
Ocean current
Ocean power plant
Heating earth surface
and atmosphere
Thermal power units, heat
pumps
Solar radiation
Heliothermal conversion,
Photovoltaic conversion
Biomass
Biomass production
Co-generation plants
Earth
Isotop decay
Geothermal heat
Co-generation plants
Moon
Gravitation
Tides
Tide power plants
1.1.2 Sources of Electrical Energy Production
Looking at the sources of energy currently applied world-wide for generating elec-
tricity, it can be seen that fossil fuels in form of coal, oil and natural gas prevail
(65%). Nuclear energy (16%) and hydro energy (17%) follow with almost same
percentage. In the representation of Fig. 1.1 the part indicated as Renewables (2%)
a)
b)
Fig. 1.1 World net generation of electricity (2004) ( a ) per world part and source, in TWh,
( b ) visualization of components
 
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