The choice of which renewable energy resource an individual nation should invest in depends on many factors, but the choice is principally driven by the nation’s geography and climate. Secondary factors may include cost, efficiency, resource and expertise availability, and the level of the nation’s current commitment to renewable energy.

First, let us look at wind power. Generating power from wind requires turbines which are made to move by incident air movements. These are coupled to generators which produce electricity and feed it in to storage, or directly in to the grid system. Usually, generating larger quantities of power requires larger turbines, and often large farms of turbines, which, optimally, should be situated distant from each other. Additionally, they should be placed on towers and on higher ground where they are exposed to larger and more frequent air movements. Individual turbines can be noisy although improving technology and design is leading to reduced noise and space requirements.
As an island, the weather of the United Kingdom is well-suited to both wind power and tidal power. The United Kingdom is a significant investor in, and user of, wind turbines. Geographically positioned far beyond the sub-tropics, the climate and peak sunlight hours of the UK prohibit widespread year-round industrial use of solar technology. Wind features as a significant proportion of its commitment to produce 15% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020. In order to alleviate the potential blight on the landscape of large industrial wind farms in a nation of relatively limited available space, the UK has plans to build several large offshore wind farms. Offshore wind farms are generally more powerful than their onshore counterparts since turbines are exposed to the full force of cooling air currents. By 2015, 9GW offshore farms will begin delivering energy to the UK national grid. Such farms could have significant long-term benefits on the UK economy, potentially transforming the country from a net importer of energy to an net exporter, not to mention the potential for global knowledge and service sales.

Countries situated between the sub-tropics with significant coastlines may also make solar power an option for renewable energy. Solar power is derived from solar radiation falling upon chemical cells which react to produce a potential difference in the cell. This is the principle behind so-called active solar. Photovoltaic cells capture sunlight and the resultant electricity is stored in batteries to be used later or offloaded in to the grid. Clearly, solar power is best suited to locations with long periods of unbroken exposure to the sun. Solar can be used in areas of fewer sunlight hours, and where the sunlight is less intense. However, in order to create the equivalent power, it requires a greater area of PV cells and therefore more physical space and cost.
Unlike wind and hydro power generation, solar power generation in any given location is governed by the natural day night cycle. Solar has great potential for countries between the sub-tropics where hot cloudless days are often the norm. Many African nations whose economies and livelihoods have for decades fallen foul of the intense heat and searing sun of the equatorial may, with the use of solar, finally be able to generate sufficient power to join the slow, steady march on the way to industrialization; in the not too distant future, the potential of solar power offers the nations the opportunity to become leading exporters of electricity to the larger economies of Europe.
Passive solar is less appealing to industrial markets as it does not generate large quantities of power, relying more on the heating of materials of favourable thermal mass then re-channelling the heat through air flow.

Modern use of water to generate electricity is an extension of an age-old method. Previously, chaneling water to drop over wheels was used to drive mills and other basic machinery. Due to its roots, hydro is currently the best known and most widely used form of renewable energy production, accounting for about 20% of present global energy production. Furthermore, the basic ingredient, water, is readily available and the process used to create power does not expend the ‘fuel’.
Large scale power generation from hydro entails damning rivers or reservoirs. Often, this is only feasible in countries whose geographical features permit this. The world’s largest hydroelectric plants are in Brazil, Canada, Russia and China. China are responding to their increased need for power by building the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze River. Countries without such an abundance of hydroelectricity usually use it to provide additional power during peak demand periods.
For the small-scale user, micro-hydro energy production is possible by using small flowing streams, or re-using areas where ancient mills once stood on riverbanks. The United States is increasing its support for micro-hydro projects and several remote communities in the United Kingdom already utilize micro-hydro.
Compared with solar and wind power production, hydro is bay far the most predictable as it relies on human-governable constraints. However, there are certain drawbacks. Often, the aquatic ecosystem surrounding hydroelectric plants is disturbed or destroyed. Similarly, the displacement of the surrounding population can be significant; it is estimated that up to 1.3 million people have been effected by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China, in addition to flooding numerous cultural sites.

Although many attempts in the past have been made to utilize solar power and other renewable energy sources as a basis for hydrogen power production the actual ability to do this has been somewhat limited due to the technical aspects necessary in the process. Utilizing thin titania electrodes, for instance, has proven particularly challenging as any electrode design for the most part that has proven effective in successfully extracting hydrogen molecules has also proven particularly brittle in most users and therefore not very reliable as a whole.

New methods are also being explored into utilizing stressed crystal lattice networks powered by solar energy to successfully extract hydrogen particles for usage around the world in both private or commercial senses due to the ability of the crystal lattices to effectively store and release energy as needed. These have proven highly effective in some senses due to the fact the crystal lattice has proven more durable and reliable as an energy transfer conduit and can maintain steadier streams of energy flow, meaning that a system utilizing such a production method in an area as small as a 50×50 foot roof could potentially generate enough hydrogen fuel to provide enough power for a small home with a family of four.

The only downsides that need to be considered in many of these harvesting methods, from an ecological standpoint, is the overall environmental impact the production process may have on the surrounding areas. Magnetic energy, for instance, has proven to be an exceptional potential source of power for utilization in wind turbines and other energy producers, yet often to harvest enough materials to make magnets large portions of rain forest land need to be destroyed and cultivated to extract high enough quality minerals for magnetic production – something that may actually offset any potential benefits alternative energy may offer in at least the short-run if developers are not careful.

In order to combat this and help bring viability one step closer for today’s world scientists have been focusing primarily on the four main alternative energy sources of interest to the public and how to both improve their production processes as well as energy harnessing capabilities: wind, solar, hydro and biomass. While geothermal energy is still receiving some attention due to the limited viability of such devices in most counties around the world the other forms have been seen as much more practical and generally easier to bring about to a viable level first.

This focus on these four forms of developed has led to a number of new discoveries in recent years, including the enhanced energy collection capabilities of solar cells in addition to new solar cell construction methods, improved wind harnessing and energy conversion methods, improved tidal generators and other oceanic current energy converters as well as a plethora of new biomass production and harvesting techniques to bring down costs further and further. This has led to many new developments such as some biofuels to actually come close to being competitive with conventional fossil fuels and, should the developmental trend continue, they may one day in the near future actually surpass fossil fuels in both sheer cost and availability.

In the meantime, however, the relatively low continuing cost of fossil fuel usage is preventing many people from seeking potential alternatives both at work and at home. Although energy harnessing and supply issues have generally been covered the higher cost than the current market leader is still holding back to widespread development and usage of alternative energy and, until this hurdle is circumvented, alternative energy in virtually all non-commercial forms will still remain a pipe-dream for many consumers.

In order to fully establish the artificial structure of the “leaf” that will allow for the hydrogen extraction process to take place Shanghai researchers are exploring native structures found in many local plants that have exhibited high carbon dioxide conversion capabilities such as the Royal Empress tree – a plant that can convert roughly twice as much carbon dioxide on a regular basis than normal trees and use the energy obtained from this to fuel its impressive growth cycle. Researchers hope that by being able to replicate the process in a similar fashion they will be able to obtain energy efficiently on a regular basis to fuel micro reactions that will allow for hydrogen to be steadily generated for usage in fuel cells as well as provide power for other small devices.

Hydrogen power has been seen by many environmental activists as an alternative energy with a lot of potential for usage around the world with even major car developers such as Toyota and GM developing hydrogen fuel cell based car designs, however without effective hydrogen production processes in place to provide the base material necessary to meet consumer demands the shift to hydrogen power from conventional fossil fuels may well remain a pipe dream for many developers until the technology can catch up with the public’s needs.

Although humans have been utilizing water sources for energy for centuries with rivers and waterfalls powering basic machinery years ago thanks to large waterwheels a few decades earlier the private hydroelectric generator industry had not seen much activity from residential owners near rivers, creeks or streams. With the recent push towards alternative energy sources, however, many home owners are looking at investing in water turbines for their own home usage.

The main reason theses home owners are looking towards water generation rather than solar or wind power is generally twofold: hydroelectric generators are relatively cheap in comparison to other alternative energy sources and they have a much higher and reliable energy output on a regular basis. Thanks to water’s high density and the constant flow of streams in a given direction a single stationary generator can typically house a much higher output turbine than wind energy would allow, meaning that a few small hydroelectric generators could provide the same power on a regular basis that a relatively large wind turbine or solar panel would be able to do.

Unfortunately not all home owners are lucky enough to have a regular water source nearby to rely on for power, however the growing interest and availability of hydroelectric generators has made riverside properties that much more valuable and desired on the market thanks to their energy production abilities.

The driving factor behind effectively using the ocean’s currents is in the ability for electrical developers to easily use both hot surface temperatures as well as colder deep-water temperatures in order to both evaporate and subsequently condense a highly soluable material (such as propane) in a closed system in order to driver electricity generating turbines. Sinking large PVC pipes deep into the ocean in order to access the cold current, an offshore electricity generating platform would be able to regularly pump up and circulate cold water to be used in the condensation process necessary to re-condense the evaporated material while shallower surface pipes would regularly channel hot water into the evaporation chamber where the liquid would be re-evaporated and cycled back into the system. Because the system would be entirely closed as well no material would be leaked into the environment other than the natural ocean water used for heating and cooling, making such an energy generation platform both highly ecologically friendly and sustainable.

Current projections indicate that developing as few as 30 moderate sized platforms could provide enough energy for the entire country of Puerto Rico, while additional developments could easily offset energy needs in other tropical areas. While unfortunately this may not be a solution to all of the world’s energy needs due to many of the same limitations affecting these plants as geothermal energy facilities (most notably the limitation of locations as well as development costs) they can still provide a clean, reliable and efficient energy production alternative to conventional power production, especially on remote tropical islands.

Both easy to develop and effective provided the right conditions the developers at Aquamarine Power, the creators of the Oyster, speculate that a mere 20 of these devices placed around a coastal area could produce enough energy to comfortably power over 9,000 homes. Assuming an average of four people living in each home that’s roughly 36,000 people with cheap, effective, clean power all from a few machines placed far off the coast where nobody need be bothered by their presence (except for perhaps some local fishermen, of course).

Currently the first Oyster was deployed off the coast of Scotland near Orkney and has been effectively producing 24-hour power since November of last year. Studies are continuing into the viability of the Oyster in other environments as well as the scalability of the device in order to allow smaller production and the ability for it to be installed in some areas with much less suitable coastal regions that Scotland may have to offer.

Albeit a small step forward the Oyster is a monument to modern development and is proof that progress is being made into further affordable renewable energy sources, particularly in areas such as hydropower outside of conventional dams. With any luck this successful endeavor will encourage additional focus upon hydroelectric energy and may help bring about further advancements away from carbon-heavy energy in the near rather than far future.

Given the current state of worldwide development and interest in renewable energy many new companies are coming out each day around the globe to develop alternative fuel in areas such as biofuels, solar, wind, general green energy (including geothermal power) and even nuclear power. These companies, in order to develop a strong financial base and better develop themselves fully, have begun being openly traded on the stock market and allow investors a keen opportunity to place their money in support of this growing industry while hopefully making a hefty profit in the process.

Major markets looking at development currently include China and Chinese-based companies operating overseas in addition to many areas within the US that are beginning to take hold thanks in no small part to the poor European economy hampering many of the Germany-based giants that have been dominating the field in the past. The regular economic shifting has weakened several key areas in the sector and, if acted upon properly, could easily result minimal risk investments with high rates of returns.

As always, of course, keeping up to speed on the latest news and prices of renewable energy stocks is important to understanding the market condition and how you can best use it to your advantage. To help you achieve this, Biofuelswatch.com has recently opened up a portion of our site to provide readers with the best green energy stock prices available on the market, with prices updated automatically as the market changes throughout the day. To check it out for yourself, click here.

The chips itself is made up of a combination of ceramic nanoribbons and rubber, and upon being flexed it will generate electrical energy. In terms of how such a chip can be put to practical, everyday use in our daily lives it could be, for example, embedded into the rubber sole of a shoe and could thus both create and store energy from just the simple action of the wearing your shoes and walking around as part of the normal course of your day. The concomitant energy created and stored would easily be sufficient to keep a cell phone fully powered and charged each day and could easily be applied to other devices as well.

In terms of powering a device such as a pacemaker developers have postulated that the chip could be positioned close to the lungs, which would then create natural power from the muscular movements of normal breathing. This is exciting for pacemaker-wearing patients as the only current method of replacing a spent pacemaker battery is for the patient to undergo another round of surgery. In the new method, the natural and perpetual motion of the lungs would create sufficient kinetic energy to continuously power the device via the new chip, meaning that pacemaker patients would only require one course of surgery for the initial fitting unless a problem was subsequently found with the pacemaker itself. This will surely appeal to patients and healthcare providers and professional alike.

The new chip technology has a number of different possible applications and has many people excited. The Princeton University engineers managed to combine the chip’s materials so that an electric charge is made in the event that pressure is applied to the chip. As a result, it is able to convert roughly 80% of mechanical energy into electrical energy – a much higher energy conversion rate than most other alternative power sources available out there. Also, as a result of the materials used to make the chip there is likely no danger that it would be rejected by the body if implanted for use with internal electrical devices, This, coupled with the sheer number of medical devices requiring power sources, speaks of an exciting near future.

The chip itself is nearly ready for implanting as a medical device as well as having other potential energy generation methods explored, and due to the materials used is not especially expensive to make. Further the production costs expected to come down even more once they are capable of being mass produced, meaning the potential for utilizing our own body’s movement for energy production may be limitless and become readily available to the public sooner than most people may expect.

1. Biofuels in 2009
2. Solar energy in 2009
3. Wind energy in 2009
4. Nuclear energy in 2009
5. Green energy in 2009

There also were many happenings regarding climate changes, so we reviewed that too.

Let us know what you think.