is hydroelectric, solar, wind or geothermal the best energy source?

Hydro is the best, it can be throttled based on demand, it is available 24 hours a day.

Geothermal is good but not available in many places and maitence can be a pain.

Wind and solar are not good as commercial, they have to be backed up by gas turbines so need double the infrastructure. It is good when they run and produce power but need the backup there when there is an electric demand but no wind/sun.

Ground source is the best for the home, get 4-5 units of energy for every 1 unit of electrical energy to heat and cool your home.

Solar is also good for the home, need the most electricity in the summer when it is hot and sunny and it is also when the solar panels shine. But not so good in the winter.

Once, when we were filling our electric needs it was clear that if you could not back up a river you were building a coal fired power plant. Then you either brought in a railroad or barges with coal. You hardly had to look up from your drawing board to check the environment. We still tend to build our houses the same way.

Now, It really depends upon the environment, the size of the project and available resources. If you don't have lots of water, sun, wind or land then the sources associated with those options will not even be practical. On the other hand if you have a high head of water behind a dam, lots and lots of sun, a sure high velocity wind or volcanically active area your choices may be much clearer.

When you are considering an entire country some of these sources may be better suited for some areas and others in different places. Under our current political environment hydro would be an easier sell than any of the others if available because it has a history. Other options would first have to be explained and reviewed as a concept.

Eventually Solar, wind, and geothermal may be available anywhere as we advance technology to more efficiently capture ambient light, use the highest wind currents in the atmosphere (floating wind generators on tethers), and use dry well geothermal in almost any location. At any one time, some technologies may have cost advantages over others. Some of this will be due to subsidies and beginning to add otherwise externalities into the real costs of producing power.

Solar or wind produce the greatest amount of electricity while being the least invasive. hydroelectric often requires damning a river that can destroy local ecology. Geothermal pipes certain materials through the ground that can be deadly poisons. Wind can be recovered off almost any place on earth and besides solar offers the greatest energy source with little mining or manufacture. Solar requires more industrial builds to capture the power and cannot be collected all over the earth as it can be only collected closer to the equator. Canadians for instance could not collect solar energy. This limitation makes the collection of solar a worse energy source, but the availability of solar makes it the more abundant source of energy plus again it's even less invasive then current wind technologies as it's parts are generally passive collectors versus active collectors like dams or windmills. In my opinion that makes wind and solar tied.

Geothermal is interesting for heating.

Solar and Wind combined are interesting for stand-alone installations (home, business)

Hydroelectric is best for plants, with solar i'd say. Wind is too "visually disturbing".

My 2 cents : go solar, incentives are pretty good.

Definitely depends on the situation. For home usage, solar and wind are the best because of the price if you use DIY energy guides, there are articles on it here:

http://www.livegreencheap.com/solar-panels/build-y...

For an overview on the different alternatives for green energy and how you can save a lot of money an even eliminate your electricity bill, check this out:

http://www.livegreencheap.com/green-energy/green-h...

Solar thermal heating has the highest pay back and utilizes the sun the most effectively. Solar thermal heating can be used to do both domestic hot water and home heating. In 5 years solar thermal will be able to do home cooling as well. That's about 50% or more of your utility cost.

for me the best source of renewable energy is hydroelectric because our world is composed of 70% water if I' m not mistaken and practicing the process of hydroelectric gave lots of advantage because first it can gave u an energy second it can minimize the chance of flooded the village and it's helpful in irrigation^^ hope you like it^^

IT depends on where you live in the world and what kind of environment you live in. Different renewable energy production is better in some circumstances and less costly while in other circumstance it is more costly and worse.

If so i don't know why. it would be if there would not be such a large demand. power consumption is to large for just those alone. things we use take too much and need a redesign.