Renewable energy vs non renewable energy...

good question, and I appreciate your concerns, here are some possible things to consider. Most water generating is done by building a dam on a river, diverting the flow of the river into a lake, and then using the water of the lake to turn a generator. It is a very efficient means of producing electricity. However, when was the last time you heard of a large dam being built on a river? That's right, the enviro-greenies have stopped every proposed dam project in the last 20 years, and the liberal courts have supported that situation, so go talk to the Sierra Club if you want more hydro-electric power produced.

You mention the sun, and of course it is the primary provider of energy on this planet, however, the technology to produce electricity directly from the sun while real, is not particularly efficient. consider this, for a medium sized airport in Nevada, where the ratio of sunny skies is the best in the world for solar production, they would need almost 700 acres of photo-voltaic cells to power their needs, with the associated lead-acid batteries to store the power for the night time operations.

Wind energy conversion to electricity is real, and is well documented, however, most people do not want them in their neighborhood-why? They are an eyesore, and they are noisy. And, what a surprise, the liberal greenie's don't like their possible adverse effects on plants and animals....

By biomass, I assume, you are considering either converting the biomass to alcohol, or burning the biomass to produce heat to produce electricity...I am not too clear on this one, so please explain your intent more...

Here is the problem: the world has plenty of fossil fuel, in oil stocks, shale oil, coal and natural gas. The problem is that it is not distributed fairly within the world as a whole. In the US and Canada, we are blessed with a large supply of coal... It can and should be utilized to the full capability of the material. In addition, nuclear power generation is safe, cheap and virtually endless in availability...The Enviro-greenie-liberals do not want it used because they want to stop all human development, they believe there are too many people and we need to do away with large numbers of them in order to preserve the earth. That is their religion, and that is their agenda, to oppose any use of natural resources that will aid the human race in survival...just my opinion, read and study the problems yourself, do not take my word for it, continue to ask questions and seek the truth yourself-good luck.

Here is what I'm doing.

1- reduce the amount of electricity I use in my house, this is easier than you may think. I set my thermostat at 80 in the summer, I open the windows when it's cooler outside, I use fans instead of a/c. I reduce standby energy by unplugging all chargers when not in use, plugging tv, vcr, stereo and game system into a power strip with a swithc, I turn the power strip off when tv isn't on, this saves a lot of energy. I switched bulbs to CFL's, and changed some of my light fixtures to models that used fewer bulbs.

2- my city has a green energy program, they commit to buying energy from a clean renewable source in the amount that all the participants use, It cost me about $10 more per month.

3- I just installed solar panels on my roof. Not everyone can make this large of a financial commitment, but those that can should.

4- I've owned a Prius for 6 years, we now own 2 hybrids. I still limit my driving as much as possible. We are avid cyclists and my husband commutes to work often on his bike.

I believe it will take a personal commitment to change the nations way of thinking, we can all reduce the amount of electricity and gas we use. The evidence is simple we are using more energy per person than we ever have.

Surprisingly though some forms of renewable energy can be very costly there is one that is not.

You can often purchase a used generator that is designed for use with gasoline at an auction, and often it is very cheap. You can also obtain mass amounts of compost from your local yard waste disposal yard, and they normally give it for free. A huge sheet of plastic is used to cover the huge pile of compost, and a hose is connected to the top of the plastic for methane collection. You will need to convert the natural gas generator to run on methane (a natural gas conversion), and in a few days (maybe weeks) you can connect the generator to the hose, and start it up, and there you go. Methane gas is the biggest pollution sources there is. When burned though, it is not nearly as harmful. This gas would have been released into the atmosphere wherever the compost would have went if you wouldn't have taken them, so you are reducing the greenhouse gas being released into the atmosphere, plus the end result is a big pile of dirt which can then be placed in areas where fertilizer is needed.

Total cost to build this basic system is ~1000-~2000 us dollars, and the savings on your electric bill can pay for it in 1-3 years. It wont provide all your power needs, but it will provide for some, or a lot of them.

You need to stop wasting money on 'renewable' sources (which simply can't replace fossil fuels without massive improvements in energy storage that we can't depend on happening) and spend the money on nuclear power which actually can replace fossil fuels with clean energy without destroying the environment (stealing sunlight and wind from nature on a large scale is not any reasonable person's idea of eco-friendly).

I believe that science has the answer to whether we should be using non-renewable energy at all. If we have to constantly fork out dollar upon dollar for non-renewable energy, who is profiting? Everyone knows the manufacturers of this nonrenewable energy source is money hand over fist.

The way to get the change that you desire ,is to support the people and the technologies that are at the forefront of the movement. It's such a no-brainer! Build a wind-gen,and the wind blows for FREE! Build a nuke plant, and the fuel,containment,and disposal become very expensive. Oil is a rapidly dwindling poisonous substance. It has turned out to be a very bad fuel for such worldwide mass use. All the energy used today came from the sun,or other stars. Even the geo thermal energy of the Earth would not be possible,if the Earth had not been created out of matter expelled from long dead, exploded stars. So ,you're right! We need to move into the future of the 21st century,by leaving behind the use of nuclear,and fossil fuels!

There is nothing stopping you from buying a wind mill or solar panels or any other means you would like to use to make yourself independent of non-renewable sources. But be prepared to find out that it will cost more than you think and you will not get to the break even point for quite a while.

The most important thing....being smart in the design process is a very good place to start.

No single element can solve all problems. All components must be well engineered and integrated.

I think that humans will use fossil fuels as long as possible, because they are cheaper then the others.

just do it