We in EnergyBeta provide you information and free downloads on renewable energy and related topics. Our mission is to spread the use of renewable energy in a global scale. We cover topics from general renewable energy concepts to the different types of renewable energy, like solar power, wind power, geothermal power, and ocean energy including tidal power. You can simply browse our articles by following the links to your right. You will also find articles related to different technologies related to alternative energy and some articles on new ideas.

Below is a brief introduction to Renewable Energy and Few Renewable Energy sources.

Solar Power

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Sun is our main energy source. Solar power will not end, or in another sense, we will not live to see the end of our sun. Solar energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. It sends us unimaginable amount of power everyday hidden in its rays.

According to research data currently available, the Sun radiates 174 Petawatts (Pw) of solar energy every day. Out of this roughly 30% of energy is reflected back to space, and another major share is absorbed by our atmosphere. Even if we get only 10% of this energy which is about 17.4 Pw per day, it is still more than the whole daily energy requirement worldwide.

Do you want to learn more about Solar Power? Visit our Solar Power Section. You can also download the Renewable Energy Guide for more information 100% free. This eBook covers the subject of solar energy in more detail.

Wind Power

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Wind energy has been converted to other forms of useful energy, especially mechanical form even long time back. Energy stored in Wind is used to turn a windmill and then to used to grind grains and other stuff.

Unlike solar power, wind energy is always present, day and night alike. This is a very important advantage of using wind power. Wind power is comparatively cheap to produce. It takes little space when compared with solar panels. Today Europe, especially Germany is leading the way in Wind energy.

There are number of ways to use the power of wind. The wind mill is the common choice. Nowadays windmills are almost always used to produce electricity. If you want to learn more about wind energy visit our wind energy archive. Our free eBook renewable energy guide has a complete section on using wind energy. You may download it for free, by following this link.

Hydro Power

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Just like Wind Power, people from ancient world knew how to use the power of flowing water to do something useful.

like turning a waterwheel and grinding their grains. Hydropower today though is mainly discussed with electricity generation. There are thousands and thousands of dams built around the world to convert energy stored in water flow into electricity.

Unlike, solar or wind, hydropower is more stabilized. Most countries use hydropower in big scale to produce electricity and achieve some other benefits is create like irrigating the lands and controlling floods. Currently micro hydro plants are gaining in popularity. Small hydroelectric plants are used to power up small communities.

You need higher capital investment to build a hydropower plant though. But hydroelectric plants are very much cost effective to operate in long run. More information about hydropower can be found here on our archive. We have a dedicated section on hydropower in our free eBook the renewable energy guide. You can download this eBook 100% free by following this link.

Geothermal Power

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Earth crust is heated and its molten rocks forms lava. This heat is a great energy source. Earth’s heat is available regardless of the place, and it is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This makes geothermal energy a great reliable renewable energy source.

Obviously, building geothermal power plant will cost more, as it is little complex to build. But it works almost on autopilot. Only little maintenance is needed. This makes the operational costs of the plant low.

Iceland is the leader in geothermal energy. Nearly 18% of their energy comes from geothermal while US has a great potential too. You can read more about geothermal energy here. Renewable energy guide contains very informative section on geothermal energy. You can download the eBook 100% free by following this link.

Biomass

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Biomass is the most commonly used source of renewable energy. Even the ancient man knew how to use wood to cook their food using firewood. But today, biomass energy mainly refers to burning or using materials like wood and different types of seeds to produce electricity.

Biomass has created a separate market by substituting the traditional oil with the biofuel or biodiesel. This energy sector is becoming. Ability to make your own biodiesel in your own backyard is another reason for the resent popularity behind biodiesel.

There are diverse opinions about using biomass excessively. We have discussed them on this site as well as on the renewable energy guide. You can see our biomass section for more details. You can download our free eBook renewable energy guide for even more information.

Tidal Energy:

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Tides are a great source of renewable energy. Tides are created due to gravitational pull of earth, moon and sun. This is a complex natural behavior. Rising water levels provides a great opportunity to generate reliable renewable energy.

Unlike other sources, tidal waves can produce large amount of electricity with a high degree of reliability. This makes tidal energy a key competitor in commercial renewable energy sector. Building a tidal renewable energy plant needs large sums of capital. Also the technology is costly and relatively new.

Tidal waves are only one form of ocean energy. There are other ways we can use the vast amount of energy hidden in the oceans. These are discussed in our free eBook renewable energy guide. You may download this by following this link. You can learn more about the tidal waves by reaching our tidal energy archive.

There are more renewable energy sources emerging. But what listed above are more stable technologies.

In summary, we have many options open to go green with renewable energy. We can save lots of money if we tap into these alternative energy sources. In addition we will find solutions for the global environmental problems we are facing today.

Today, we have an option to use these alternative sources to produce energy. But tomorrow, we will not have an option; we will have to optin to renewable energy sources whether we like it or not. Ever decreasing oil and coal reserves and environmental crisis we are facing even today will leave us no other option. So act today, go green.

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Instapark® 5W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel with 12V Solar Charge Controller(Image Courtesy Amazon.Com)

We found this offer very interesting. It is a compact solar kit and they provide a cool 53% discount now. Mono-crystalline solar panes can be used much more efficiently in long run. They are not heavy as Amorphous solar panels. This kit comes with the 5 watt solar panel and with the charge controller. Although you will not be able to power your house with a single solar panel like this, you will be able to use this to charge a 12V battery which can be used as an imergency power supply or as a repliable power supply for a camper.

You may click this link for more information. By the time we write this article, this solar panel is available with a 53% discount.

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A study shows you may save up to 700 lbs of paper per year if you read your newspaper electronically on an e-reader. In addition to this if you read your books on e- format you will save another 20-40 lbs of paper. This weight adds up to the amount of paper produced with a fully grown tree. Meaning if you shift yourself from paper based reading to e-reading, you will save a tree a year. Imagine if you are 30, and for the next fifty years of your life you will save 50 trees. Isn’t this fascinating to you? Best part is it is not going to end there.

Consider the amount of water and chemicals used to make the paper. Paper industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries. So you will save large amount of water with every document you read on your e-reader instead of traditional print format. In addition you will have less carbon footprint as you will be getting your documents in e-format as there is no need for transportation. So why people do not use these e-reading devices instead of traditional prints? Let me put some light on this subject. I will take Amazon Kindle as the base for e-readers. Although there are many readers out there, Kindle by far the most successful in terms of performance and its reach.

The first reason for less adoption of this method is because you have to buy these e-readers. A Kindle will cost you about $139. This will put most of the people off. But is it really cost? Yes, but you will benefit in the long run. How? Because most books delivered to Kindle is less expensive than their printed counterparts.  You may save on your delivery charges too. Meaning with the time, your cost of acquiring the device will go off. Instead you will start saving some money.

Secondly people are so used to printed formats and they have a difficulty in going to the e-readers. This probably is a challenge tougher than our first challenge. But the good news is things are changing. Now Amazon sells more Kindle books than printed ones. So definitely these reading devices are coming to main stream. It is not only tech savvy people carry a kindle these days. It is being used by many like you and me.

Third reason, for me, personally the most important reason is the performance of the device. How long battery will last? How many books I can carry in this device? Do I need an internet connection to read books? Will it put strain on my eyes? All these are questions I had to answer before opt in to the e-reader. But fortunately I got all positive answers. Unlike my laptop or any other tablets like iPad which will last less than a day, your kindle will go on for two months between charging. Yes, no mistake. Two months. That is very impressive, I have to say. And a kindle can store 3000+ books in it. Again no mistake. That is a library in a single device. I am 100% satisfied. Kindle do not need the internet connection for you to read the books. You will need connection to buy the books and download them. Once you download you may go anywhere and read. Third, unlike your laptop or iPad or Galaxy Tab, you will not be reading on a normal LCD display, which has proven to cause eye strain if you tent to read long. Kindle has a very high contrast, special display very closer to the read paper. So no eye strain. And even you can read from broad sunlight. There are more features I like Kindle. But for now I will stop here.  You may follow this link to learn more about them.

You can save money and time; you can carry thousands of books and journals with you, you can read with comfort all while saving precious water, while reducing CO2 emissions and while saving a tree a year. Isn’t that cool?

Please leave your comments below. You may get more information about Kindle and other similar reading devices by following this link.

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People are continuously looking for ways to build an environmentally sustainable car, which consumes less resources and emits less amount of CO2 and other gases. One of the preferred methods is the famous “Electric Car”. In concept electric car is a great idea. But when it comes to practice, it has its own share of problems. First and foremost, the infrastructure makes it difficult to operate. If we run out of fuel, we will go to a gas station and fill the tank and we are on the move in couple of minutes. But recharging points for electric vehicles are not widely available and even if you find one, it takes some time to complete the charging. This will at least take 4 hours for a full charge. So if you in hurry, this option will not help you. (In my opinion the better solution will be changing batteries. If we can have places where the battery can be replaced with a fully charged one, and the dead battery can be charged by the station and then can be fitted to another vehicle. This will save good amount of time to the user and will make the system more reliable). In addition, another main drawback I see is that if we do not manufacture electricity using renewable sources, using electric cars will just switch the pollution from the highway to the power plant. So the ultimate objective is not achieved.

This is why I am fond of hybrid technology than pure electric car technology. Hybrid technology can drastically reduce the consumption of oil; hence it will reduce pollution and will save you big bucks as well. One of the most popular hybrids is the Toyota Prius. This vehicle can give you about 50 miles per gallon in contrast to 30 miles per gallon which most of the normal cars would do. This is almost doubled efficiency. So you can save almost half in your gas stations. In addition you will emit only half of the harmful gases.

This technology is now mature and has a great future. Until we switch to more viable solutions, hybrids can save some money to the user and do a great favor to the environment.

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This solar kit comes with almost all the required stuff to produce electricity. It is equipped with 4×15 watt solar panels which will produce good amount of electricity. This kit contains all the wiring required, and the inverted and charging controllers. In addition it contains a good quality frame to hold the solar panels. Basically you have all the stuff you need to build your solar power system. It can be set up in virtually no time. Checkout the video on the site for how easy it is to install the panels.

What I love about this panel set is the neatness. It has very simple and secure wiring paths and neatly designed connectors. Even the charge controller looks really professional. I am sure you will love this. Have a look before this special offer expire. Follow This

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Is nuclear power really cheap?

This is the first question came to my mind when I thought about nuclear power. The answer is, yes it is cheap. But the problem is it is not as cheap as we may think it is. When compared the fuels and operating costs, it is cheaper by a big margin. Nuclear power will cost around just 2 Cents (US$) compared with something like gas which will cost around 8 Cents or Oil which costs around 18 cents per Kilowatt Hour. Refer this for more information. In addition it is easy to transport the nuclear fuel, as it is concentrated. It emits much less carbon, which is very important.

But above figures are excluding the capital costs and indirect costs. When capital costs come in to the picture above figures do change. Cost of nuclear power goes up to around 11 cents/ Kilowatt hour while coal looks much cheaper at around 5 cents/ Kilowatt hour produced. (Refer this for more info). So nuclear power costs almost twice when compared with coal, when just $ are compared.

But coal is not available in abundance as Uranium is. So depending on coal is risky. Coal pollutes the environment heavily by releasing tons and tons of CO2. So environmentally, coal is much more costly. So nuclear power can be the more reliable and less polluting alternative for the fossil fuel.

Is nuclear power worth the risk?

The obvious next question is “If nuclear is not cheap, but a cost effective alternative, is it worth the risk?” If we are to release massive amounts of carbon by burning coal, day after day, we will have a problem. We cannot simply let it happen. We will face more and more natural disasters and the world we live in will be not suitable for living. In this context we will have to look for alternatives.

But obvious alternatives like solar and wind power are just being used in industry scale and still have their share of problems too. So only large scale and reliable alternative proven is nuclear power.

In this scenario, we are left with no other option but to go ahead with nuclear power. But we need to find safer ways of doing it.

In addition, if we stop harassing the nature by emitting tons and tons of CO2 and other poisonous gases, nature will not throw us challenges like earthquakes and Tsunamis making nuclear energy much safer.

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This model Savonius Wind Turbine kit by PicoTurbine, is a very interesting product. It comes in such a way where you can check every aspect of generating electricity with wind power. It contains the obvious like the “S” shaped foils to catch the power of wind and use it to turn the turbine. It contains magnets and coils required to convert this rotation into electrical energy. In addition, this kit contains rectifier to rectify the alternative current produced (AC Current) to Direct Current or DC current. Basically, with this handy kit you will learn almost all the things you will learn by installing large, industrial scale Savonius turbine. It produces a decent amount of electricity for its size too (3.0V/50mA at 12 mph of wind)

If you are looking for a gift, this kit will be a good choice. It teaches very important stuff while being very enjoyable, without an age limit. Check It Out Here

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Image Courtesy Amazon.com

I am a great fan of Sunforce products. They come up with good quality stuff. Sunforce 39810 was no exception. If you are looking to power up your devices in a remote place, or if you want to save a little fortune on electricity, this is might be the solution for you. The great news is, today, as I write this article Amazon is offering a 39% discount on this panel, which will make your return on investment period even shorter.

With 80 Watts of output, you can be assured to get good amount of energy in shorter time period. In addition, this kit is complete with necessary wiring, installation accessories and handy voltage tester. Installation cannot be easier. If you are looking for some free power, I strongly suggest you to have a look at the Sunforce 39810 80 Watt high efficient solar module. If you act now, you will be able to benefit from Amazon’s 39% discount and super saver shipping.

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But when it comes to solar powering your laptop, you have to consider few important factors. First and foremost, you should be able to carry the solar panel with ease. Obviously you cannot carry a huge solar panel like the one you would mount on your roof. They should be light weight and smaller in size. I have seen foldable solar panels; I think a very smart way of making them portable. I have seen solar powered laptop back packs too. How smart is that?

On the other hand, this smaller panel should provide enough power to power your laptop. Although laptops will consume less energy when compared with a PC, they still consume a considerable amount of energy, in some cases around 80 Watts. So to work practically, you will need your laptop solar charger to produce good power.

Among other factors, you will need to get proper adapters to charge your laptop. It will be useless to have the best charger, if you cannot plug it to your laptop. So have a look at the adapters provided with the laptop solar power kit. Make sure you have the one you need.

I consider the length of the power cable important too. I do not like to leave my laptop on sunlight while it charges. Longer cables will allow you to put the solar panel where it can catch most amount of solar power, while keeping your laptop in a safe place without exposing to direct sunlight.

In addition, most of these chargers can power stuff like iPhones, portable CD players and some even capable of giving a boost to your car batteries. Have a look at what your charger can power up in addition to your laptop. These additional features will be invaluable in a case of an emergency.

When it comes to price, I have seen these chargers ranging from $70-80 to $300+. So it really depends on what you go for. Always remember to get a better quality one. You are going to use this in an emergency, last thing you will want is, your laptop solar power kit to fail. Brunton 26 Watt Foldable Solar Array is my favorite, with latest technology and neat design. When I am writing this post they extend a generous 50% discount on the product.

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