Energy 101: 01 - Types of Energy Sources

I plan to organize this blog around the various types of energy sources, so it might be best to define and describe how we produce energy and transmit that power to the consumers.  Firstly the sources are broken into two major categories; nonrenewable and renewable.

The image to the left is the Trenton Power plant in Detroit Michigan.  A 776 Mega Watt (MW) capacity power plant that has three units, the first of which was built in 1949.

Nonrenewable Energy Sources:  These are created by slow geological process and/or have a finite quantity on the earth.  For instance, oil or coal is created in such a slow process, it will take millions of years to create more.  Uranium is a nonrenewable source because there is only a finite amount of this element on the earth, and there is no natural process on the earth that will replenish this source.  In the US coal is the most common fuel source for generating electricity(49.8% according to the DOE), this is mainly because there are extremely large coal deposits in the US and this is a cheap fuel source. 

List of Nonrenewable resources:
Oil
Coal
Natural Gas
Propane
Other Fossil Fuels
Nuclear (Uranium)

To the right are five wind turbines located near the town of Elkton Michigan.  There are a total of 32 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 53 MW.  


Renewable Energy Sources:  Renewable energy is replenished at the same rate or faster than they are used, so they are effectively limitless.  Most all of these sources derive their energy from the sun in some way or another, the only exception to this is geothermal.  For electrical power generation, hydro power is by far the most common.  When considering all types of energy (heat energy for instance) biomass is the most common renewable energy source.

List of Renewable Energy Sources:
Wind
Solar
Biomass
Bio-Fuels
Hydro (water, such as from dams)
Geothermal
Tidal


My future articles will explain how these various sources are utilized to generate electrical energy and how it is distributed via "the grid."