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Elements of Renewable Energy
(slrpnk.net)
Renewable Energy has many parts, and some of them can do jobs that others cannot do. It is important to work together to bring the best renewable Energy to the world that we can hope to achieve.
This diagram represents a short overview over different elements of a renewable energy network, and what the different parts can do, and what not.
For example, Hydropower can be both an energy source (flowing water through a turbine) but also a means of energy storage (by keeping the water behind the dam). Renewable Biomass can be stored well, but can also be turned into a renewable source of energy. Batteries can store energy well, but cannot produce energy.
Thoughts, comments, likes :-)
Wood is a material that's made from carbon that has been extracted from the atmosphere using an organic process.
You can make buildings and furniture out of wood and you're sequestering carbon while having a nice place to live and some nice furniture.
You can also burn the wood for heat energy. This releases the carbon into the atmosphere, but the tree that got cut down makes space for a new tree to grow. When that new tree grows it pulls out the carbon that was added by burning the wood. So it's carbon neutral.
Renewable doesn't mean it's instantly replaced. It means there's a well understood process to replace it. It's not popular among those that hate the lumber industry, but it's one of the more environmentally friendly options considering global warming. Consider how trees used for building means using carbon extracted from the air for building things. Even burning wood is carbon neutral, so it's better than most heating options.
Sure, that's all nice. However at what scale is that sustainable? Also burning wood yields all sorts of fine particles, not just CO2, which are not good for humans. Plus we are reducing forests at global level. Can you imagine the forest area for providing power to a whole city?
Wood wouldn't be a good option for powering a city, obviously. Neither is coal though.
Global warming isn't going to be solved by a single solution. Wood makes sense for building materials and for heating in rural areas. It's not going to be good for producing electricity, but fortunately there's other technology for that.
Yes, however the article lists it as a power source (of course it's great for building if possible) hence I'm looking at that aspect only. It's more suitable for heating, however, again, at scale it would be problematic (at that's not even a big one) plus emissions are not healthy. If you ignore emissions and use it for heating of few areas here and there (like it is a trend with pellets), taking into account growth rate, it could be a renewable I suppose.