Kevin Harcourt – Center for Alternative Fuels

By: Ian Ramsey
Over the last 150 years demand for energy has soared as countries all across the world become more developed and require vast amounts of energy to fuel their expanding economies. With some of the largest countries in the world still developing this rapid increase in energy demand is set to continue as countries such as China and India grow economically.

The majority of the world's energy is still generated from traditional fossil fuels. However, this is somewhat concerning as these non-renewable resources are inevitably going to be exhausted one day, hence the need for a major shift towards renewable energy sources. Renewable energy resources such as solar power and wind power are a very attractive alternative to fossil fuels as they are for one renewable and never going to be exhausted and they are also environmentally friendly as opposed to fossil fuels which produce a large amount of environment damaging green house gasses when burnt.

The leading source of renewable energy at present is hydroelectric power. This method of generating energy relies on water draining down from higher ground and turning a turbine which then produces energy stored in a generator. The most effective way of using such energy production is to build a dam that filters through water to produce energy. After the initial production costs of building a dam this energy production is seen to be a relatively cheap method of production. In recent years around 15% of the world's electricity has been generated by hydroelectric energy, with some countries going as far as having nearly all their domestic electricity generated via this method.

Renewable energy resources are the future of gas and electricity production as countries all across the world invest in these methods.