preview

Solar Panels, Hydropower, And Wind Turbines

Decent Essays

DISCUSSION

How Biomass Works
Solar panels, hydropower, and wind turbines are all well-known renewable resources. However, one of the most prevalent sources for energy is often overlooked. Biomass is a renewable and sustainable energy resource that uses organic materials to generate electricity. ("Biomass Power Association.") Biomass energy is made from any form of previously-living material. This includes any animal material or product, all vegetation, and even human waste. Scrap lumber, forest debris, crops, manure, and even industrial wastes can all be utilized and turned into renewable energy through biomass. Often leftover materials from factories such as paper mills are used to help sustain the renewable resource. However, this process tends to be inefficient and unreliable (Mary, Booth), so frequently biomass energy is instead produced by cutting down forests or converting crops such as sugar or corn into combustible fuels. Biomass is considered a renewable resource because organic material and waste will always exist. Whether this is through forests, crops, or animals, as long as humans inhabit the earth there will be waste to utilize. [figure 2]
Although biomass is sometimes considered inefficient in comparison to other fuels, biomass fuels have two strengths when compared to widely-used fossil fuels. The first reason is the time difference there is between fossil fuels and biomass. One example would be coal. In nature coal requires close to 400 million

Get Access