Kids’ Guide to Renewable Energy: Understanding Solar, Wind, and Hydropower Resources with Examples

Imagine a world in which the electricity that powers our gadgets, our houses and our schools never runs out and never creates environmental pollution. Yes, the creation of such a world is possible and is underway. This world will be fueled by renewable energy coming from a clean sustainable source that will never run out. Let’s explore three of these most fascinating renewable energy sources: solar, wind, and hydropower.

What Is Renewable Energy?

Energy is the form of power utilized in many places around us. In our daily life we are using this energy to light our homes, run our vehicles, prepare our food, etc. We’re getting maximum energy in today’s world from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. These fuels are non-renewable resources of energy which we are running out of at a large scale. Also, burning these resources causes pollution due to the release of harmful gases resulting in climate change.

Renewable energy is a form of energy that can be regenerated and comes from natural sources that are replenishable. For example, solar energy comes from sunlight, wind energy comes from flowing wind, and hydro power comes from water flowing in the rivers. These are some of the sources of clean and free energy available almost everywhere on Earth.

Here are the three main types of renewable energy resource:

• Solar Energy or Power from the sun
• Wind Energy or Power from Wind
• Hydropower or Power from Flowing Water
  
  

What is Solar Energy?

Solar energy is the conversion of sunlight into electric energy or electricity. It is the most abundant source of energy on earth. There are special solar panels placed on rooftops or in large fields used to form electricity from sunlight. When sunlight falls on solar panels, they turn sunlight directly into electricity like magic. Let’s learn how it works.

How Does It Work?

Solar panels are a collection of tiny unit cells called solar cells. These solar cells are made of semi-conductors. When the sunlight hits them they release electrons to create a flow of charge called electricity. This process is called the photovoltaic effect. This effect was given by a French physicist named Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in the year 1839.

Examples of Solar Energy

• ISS (The International Space Station) runs on solar panel wings that provide all of the power it requires.
• Since the year 1970 there have been solar-power calculators available that are widely used by many people already.
• The Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, India, is one of the biggest solar farms in the world.
• Vehicles powered by solar energy are being developed and put in a competition in events such as Australia's World Solar Challenge.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Energy

• One of the biggest advantages of solar energy is it is renewable and doesn’t pollute the environment: No air pollution, no noise pollution, free energy from the sun.
• It can be used to power our houses, rural areas, and even a country.
• The disadvantage is it doesn't work at night or on very cloudy days.
• It is also a little expensive to install solar panels.

What is Wind Energy?

Wind energy is the kinetic energy that harnesses the energy of moving air to create electricity. There are giant turbines called the wind mills which have huge blades that spin due to the flow of wind to generate a spinning motion. This rotational motion creates energy that gets converted into electricity. These turbines are enormous and are commonly installed on hills or plains, and even near to the sea beaches.

How Does It Work?

In a wind turbine the blades spin due to the motion of wind. These blades are interconnected with a shaft that is connected to a generator that converts motion(kinetic energy) into electricity. The amount of electricity it produces is directly proportional to the speed of the wind. So, the higher the strength of the wind, the more electricity is produced.

Wind Energy Examples

• China's Gansu Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in the world that has thousands of turbines covering a large desert region.
• Half of the electric supply in Denmark is generated from wind power that sometimes exceeds its requirement.
• A wind turbine with a blade as long as a Boeing 747 airplane can be taller than a 30-storey building.
• Since the winds in the sea are stronger as compared to the land, the offshore wind farms are built in the sea, 

Advantages and Disadvantages

• Wind energy doesn’t emit any smoke or pollution and is a clean renewable source of energy.
• Such wind farms can be easily made on farmland as farmers can still use them for agriculture.
• The disadvantages of wind farms is that it can be only used when wind in blowing
• Large turbines are not suitable for bird habitats.

What is Hydropower?

Hydropower, also called hydroelectric power is the oldest renewable source of energy that generates electricity from the flowing water. It uses the power of water to create motion of wheels that run turbines. This renewable source of energy is powered by rivers that will run for thousands of years!

How Does It Work?

To create hydropower there are big dams constructed across a river to collect water in large amounts. On opening the gates of the dam, the water rushes in high speed through the pipes. This high-speed movement of water spins turbines fast that are attached to a generator that generates electricity. The water flowing through the river keeps generating electricity.

Hydropower Examples

• The world’s largest hydropower station is in China’s: Three Gorges Dam. This dam can create electricity equal to 18 nuclear power plants.
• Almost 90% of Norway' s electricity comes from hydropower as it has large water resources like rivers and waterfalls.
• Built in the 1960s India’s Bhakra Nangal Dam is a great resource to provide electricity to rural India.
• Even small streams can generate 'micro-hydro' power for remote villages with no other electricity supply.

Advantages and Disadvantages

• Highly reliable source of energy: As water can be stored in reservoirs and used when needed this resource is highly reliable.
• Once the dam is built, there is very low emission.
• The construction of huge dams sometimes floods valleys, impacting the life of residents and wildlife in nearby places.
• Needs a river or other water source, which isn't always feasible.

Why Does Renewable Energy Matter?

Change in climate is one of the major threats to our planet. Burning fossil fuels releases toxins in the atmosphere that cause heating of earth. Conditions like extreme weather like heat waves, rise in the sea levels, and melting of ice glaciers are the consequences of this.

The best way to deal with this threat of climate change is the use of renewable energy. Creating energy through renewable sources of energy such as wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, and solar panels contribute greatly to lowering the quantity of dangerous gases in our environment.

How Can Kids Contribute?

• Save Energy: Stop the wastage of energy by switching off lights, fans, and screens when not in use.
• Spread Awareness: Talk and inform people around them about renewable energy to spread awareness.
• Choose environment-friendly ways and policies for saving the environment.