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Wind power is a renewable resource, which means using it will not deplete the earth's supply of fossil fuels. It also is a clean energy source, and operation does not produce carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, particulates, or any other type of air pollution, as do conventional fossil fuel power sources.

Wind power consumes no fuel for continuing operation, and has no emissions directly related to electricity production.

Wind power's ability to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will depend on the amount of wind energy produced, and hence scalability.

the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source for more than a decade with an average annual growth rate of over 20%.

increasing generating capacity by 50%. With more than 25,170 MW of wind energy

ind energy in the United States could provide as much as 10,777 billion kWh annually

Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, whereas biodiesel yields 93% more. Compared with ethanol, biodiesel releases just 1.0%, 8.3%, and 13% of the agricultural nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticide pollutants, respectively, per net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels they displace, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 12% by the production and combustion of ethanol and 41% by biodiesel. Biodiesel also releases less air pollutants per net energy gain than ethanol.

U.S. Production 13.95 billion gallons 332.11 million barrels

U.S. Production 0.97 billion gallons 23.03 million barrels

The major challenge to using wind as a source of power is that it is intermittent and does not always blow when electricity is needed. Wind cannot be stored (although wind-generated electricity can be stored, if batteries are used), and not all winds can be harnessed to meet the timing of electricity demands. Further, good wind sites are often located in remote locations far from areas of electric power demand (such as cities).

Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to fossil fuel power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and birds and bats having been killed (avian/bat mortality) by flying into the rotors. Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly siting wind plants.

goal for the State to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through improved energy efficiency and renewable sources by the year 2015

renewable resource that could provide a significant amount of clean energy to consumers

Ocean energy Systems to harvest utility-scale electrical power from ocean waves have recently been gaining momentum as a viable technology. The potential for this technology is considered promising, especially on west-facing coasts with latitudes between 40 and 60 degrees:[74]

 Wind power is an interesting renewable energy source as wind turbines can essentially be placed anywhere geographically where there is ample wind to turn the wind blades.

One thing that we haven't written about extensively on the MyEnergySolution.com blog is wind power.  Wind power is an interesting renewable energy source as wind turbines can essentially be placed anywhere geographically where there is ample wind to turn the wind blades.

o put this in context, an average U.S. household uses about 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year. One megawatt of installed wind energy from a single large turbine can generate from 2,400 to more than 3,000 MWh annually – enough to power about 250 homes.

Although this source of energy shows some promise in terms of "clean", renewable energy there have been some roadblocks to widespread use of energy from the tides. This type of energy should not be put on the back burner even though there appears to be limited opportunities at this time

When looking at a wind powered electric generator, many people see a permanent source of renewable electricity. The problem with this image is that wind generators have shorter life spans than the term “sustainable” would imply. Wooden windmills in Holland that used to power industrial machinery before the invention of steam engines were more durable than these picket lines of propellers along our Columbia Gorge. The composite material and rare earth chemicals they require are both perishable and costly to replace. More important, like fossil fuels, our planet has a finite supply of these materials. Wind power is such an inefficient means of generating electricity that a world that seriously relied on it the way we do fossil fuels would run out of the limited resources needed to build and maintain them long before our present trends would exhaust our vast bounty of hydrocarbons.

a tidal energy project is moving ahead in Maine, with high costs but high hopes too. But the 180-kilowatt unit that the Ocean Renewable Power Company hopes to put under water next week is really just a first step. The big question is, how well will it withstand the force of the rushing water?

The region, the Bay of Fundy, is famous for strong tides, but the company has picked a spot called Cobscook Bay, where the current is relatively slow, an average of 5.8 knots, or 6.7 miles an hour. That is the speed at which the hardware will produce 180 kilowatts.

Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive. Forecasts for the future of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices, subsidies, and interest rates. Pilot programs like EWEB's customer opt in Green Power Program [6] show that customers would be willing to pay a little more for a renewable energy source like geothermal. But as a result of government assisted research and industry experience, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25% over the past two decades.[7] In 2001, geothermal energy cost between two and ten cents per kwh.[8]

Wind is a clean source of renewable energy that produces no air or water pollution.

Wind is the movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. In fact, wind exists because the sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth. As hot air rises, cooler air moves in to fill the void. As long as the sun shines, the wind will blow. And as long as the wind blows, people will harness it to power their lives.

The wind spins the blades, which turn a shaft connected to a generator that produces electricity. Other turbines work the same way, but the turbine is on a vertical axis and the blades look like a giant egg beater.

While geothermal energy itself is renewable, geothermal sites are not necessarily. An overworked site, or one with an excessively large energy plant, can quickly be depleted.

"Biofuels" are transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel that are made from biomass materials.

Ethanol and biodiesel are usually more expensive than the fossil fuels that they replace, but they are also cleaner-burning fuels, producing fewer air pollutants.

What Is Ethanol? Ethanol is an alcohol fuel made from the sugars found in grains, such as:

Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available, and the U.S. has some of the richest solar resources in the world.