In terms of renewable energy generation, there are so many ways that this can work that it won’t be possible to go through all of them in detail. The focus is therefore going to be on the kind of renewable energy systems that you can use on your own property.

Renewable Resources

Before getting on to how renewable energy is generated, we’ll just briefly touch on what renewable energy actually is. That’s something most people already know, so not much time will be spent on it. Simply put, renewable resources are the processes that occur naturally and from which we can extract energy without diminishing the amount of energy that they have.

There are a number of different renewable resources, which come from many of the natural processes on the planet. For example wind brings us wind power, the sun brings us solar energy and moving water allows us to produce hydro power. We’ll be concentrating on geothermal energy (energy from the latent heat in the ground) and solar energy.

Solar Power

One of the most popular forms of renewable energy generation is by way of solar energy. That’s because all you have to do is install solar panels on your roof, so most people have the capability to make use of it. There are two very different kinds of solar panels though, ones that create electricity and ones that supply you with hot water.

If you want to power your home with renewable energy then you’ll want PV solar panels. They’re made out of a semiconductor called silicon, the reason being that when light hits silicon, electrons move within the structure. Only a couple more steps are therefore necessary in order to create flowing electrons, which is precisely what electricity is.

This is a very popular form of renewable energy in the UK at the moment because the feed in tariff was introduced recently. This is a government scheme which pays you for all of the energy that you produce in this way. You still get to use it though, so you make savings on your energy bills as well.

If you would rather get hot water from your solar energy system though that is possible with solar thermal panels. It doesn’t have to be a hot day for them to work, so they will be able to provide you with hot water all year round. As well as making savings on your energy bills, a government incentive called the renewable heat incentive is soon going to come in to apply to them as well soon.

In terms of how the renewable heat incentive will work, it’s going to be the same as the feed in tariff works. Meaning that each unit of electricity that you produce you will be paid for. It’s not just solar thermal systems it will apply to, you’ll also be able to use it with ground source heat pumps.

Geothermal Energy

There is a level of heat underground which is pretty constant, and this is called geothermal energy. There are two main ways it can be used. Most commonly to heat homes with a ground source heat pump, but electricity can also be produced with this form of energy.

The way that this form of renewable energy generation can be used to generate electricity is very similar to the way that fossil fuels create electricity. Water is heated, this creates steam, and this steam makes turbines spin. It is the spinning turbines which create electricity. The only difference is the way that the water is heated, whether by burning fossil fuels or from geothermal energy.

The way that geothermal energy can be very useful though is when it is utilised in a ground source heat pump, which can provide your home with hot water. You just need to have pipes installed underground, and refrigerants in these will extract the heat and bring it to your home.

Ryan Baker writes more information on solar power at renewable energy Generation. Find out the amount of money you can save, as well as how it all works. You can in addition get a free solarinstallation quote.