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Renewable energy is also distinct from sustainable energy, a more abstract concept that seeks to group energy sources based on their overall permanent impact on future generations of humans. For example, biomass is often associated with unsustainable deforestation .
Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere. A positive life-cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability. Definitions of renewable resources may also include agricultural production, as in agricultural products and to an extent water resources. [2]
Non-dispatchable renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV) power cannot be controlled by operators. [2] Other types of renewable energy that are dispatchable without separate energy storage are hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal and ocean thermal energy conversion. [3]
An energy transition is a broad shift in technologies and behaviours that are needed to replace one source of energy with another. [14]: 202–203 A prime example is the change from a pre-industrial system relying on traditional biomass, wind, water and muscle power to an industrial system characterized by pervasive mechanization, steam power and the use of coal.
[1] [2] [3] It is an essential source of renewable energy, and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power.
Renewable energy sources are essential to sustainable energy, as they generally strengthen energy security and emit far fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. [49] Renewable energy projects sometimes raise significant sustainability concerns, such as risks to biodiversity when areas of high ecological value are converted to bioenergy ...
Bioenergy is a type of renewable energy that is derived from plants and animal waste. [1] The biomass that is used as input materials consists of recently living (but now dead) organisms, mainly plants. [2] Thus, fossil fuels are not regarded as biomass under this definition.
Renewable natural gas plants based on wood can be categorized into two main categories, one being allothermal, which has the energy provided by a source outside of the gasifier. One example is the double-chambered fluidized bed gasifiers consisting of a separate combustion and gasification chambers.