Cleanteach Education Column for African students
Hello My Fellow Students,
Welcome to Cleantech Education Column. This column is intended to educate African students on renewable energy and it opportunities for Africa.
Today’s edition will introduce you to the following topics:
¨ What is renewable energy?
¨ Why renewable energy is called clean energy?
¨ What are the types of renewable energy ?
¨ What makes renewable energy best option for Africa?
Let start by defining the terms to the basic understanding of the ordinary person.
Renewable energy is the electricity that is generated using easily available, naturally occurring fuel sources such as biomass (waste), solar, wind, tidal, wave, and hydroelectric power, that is not derived from fossil or nuclear fuel. Example of biomass sources are shown in the picture below.
Why is renewable energy called clean energy?
Renewable energy is called clean energy or green energy because of how environmentally friendly it is. The reason is that, renewable energy does not produce toxins that are harmful to the environment or pollute the environment in the same manner as non-renewable energy such as fossil fuel. Because of the environmentally friendly nature of renewable energy, the world today is encouraging every country to add renewable energy into their national energy mix to provide electricity or heat to homes , restaurants, and other businesses in order to operate or function in an environmentally friendly manner
What are the types of Renewable Energy?
The most commonly used types of renewable energy today are wind power, solar power, and hydroelectric power and biomass energy. Wind energy is the process of converting wind to generate mechanical power or electricity. This electricity is generated by blades turning turbines which run a generator. Though not a reliable resource for every household and business, it is a viable option, depending on your location. To make wind energy easily assessible,reliable and affordable to developing nations, the recent innovation in wind energy technology is the Windbelt. The inventor of Windbelt is a 26 year old Shawn Frayne .The motive behind his invention is to provide cheap small scale wind energy to small villages in developing countries. Shawn saw the plight of developing countries and recognized that instead of kerosene lamps, white light-emitting diode (LEDs) powered by a very
What makes renewable energy best option for Africa?
What makes renewable energy the best option for Africa is that, the charcoal, firewood and oil used in Africa today pollute the environment.In my opinion this might also be a factor of our shorter life expectancy . Burning of charcoal and firewood emit greenhouses gases into the atmosphere. This gases cause changes in climate which affect agricultural yield and our health . But Agriculture is one important commodity in Africa. This means that low yield can leads to poverty.
In conclusion Africa has a potential for renewable energy and what is left for policy makers is to create the enabling environment and the right policies to attract developed partners. An individual too has a significant role to play. One of such role is for the individuals to learn how to manage their house hold waste. When this is done and good government policies exist, Africa can realize it energy dream and achieve it Millennium Development Goal.
Credit: Atoms for Peace Energy Conference