Renewable energy presents great challenges and opportunities for electricity generation. 1 Around 60% of renewable electricity worldwide comes from hydropower, which has been widely used since the invention of the electric grid, but today wind and solar power are growing fastest. In 2020, renewable energy sources made up over 28% of the world’s electricity, and that number is rising every year. However, most renewable energy is used to make electricity.
biofuels) or heating and cooling for buildings (e.g. Some types of renewable energy can provide fuel for transportation (e.g. Nuclear reactors use uranium, and if we run out of uranium, we can never get it back. Nuclear energy is carbon-free: a nuclear power plant does not emit any CO 2, or any other greenhouse gases. The total impact on CO 2 in the atmosphere depends on how sustainably the bioenergy is produced. Growing plants absorbs CO 2 burning plants releases CO 2. But they are not necessarily carbon-free. But not all renewable energy is carbon-free, and not all carbon-free energy is renewable.īiofuels and bioenergy are renewable: we can regrow plants that we burn for fuel. Because of this, and because renewables like wind and solar power are so popular in climate activism, the terms “renewable energy” and “carbon-free energy” are sometimes confused. Most kinds of renewable energy are also “carbon-free”: they do not emit CO 2 or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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