Top Ten Cost-Effective Renewable Energy Systems

Renewable Energy? Fifty years ago nobody would have known what it meant. Renewable energy jobs? Well, when was the last time you threw a coke can in the trash? We are no longer a throwaway society. Renewable energy is the watchword--Sources for renewable energy are being discovered and exploited. Perhaps the next time a renewable energies exposition comes to your town you'd like to check it out, or perhaps your child's school will have a renewable energies fair; it's never too soon (or too late) to help your children learn about the world they will be inheriting. Hopefully, it might be a little bit cleaner and a little less ignorant about renewable energies--a meeting of the minds, as it were.

At a renewable energies conference, attendees were asked what was the most cost-effective among the renewable energy resources one could buy; solar thermal was their answer. A renewable energy consultant was asked the same question and replied solar heating; so two nearly identical answers can't be all that bad! After all, ask five people to write out their own personal statement on renewable energy and you'll get five different answers.

The NREL, or National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a facility of the Department of Energy for research and development, and deployment for renewable energy and energy efficiency would probably agree with the two taxpayers that solar thermal and solar heating were the two top ten answers, for indeed that is what professionals at leading renewable energies conventions had to say. At a renewable energies exhibition you might find some other valuable answers and information on solar PV, portable solar systems, and solar panels for remote electricity. One extremely interesting exhibition at a winter renewable energies expo was a small solar array that was capable of absorbing solar during the day and running Christmas lights at night. I hope my neighbor, who favors giant extravaganzas for her holiday decoration doesn't hear about them!

It doesn't take a renewable energy consult to tell me I'm running out of space and time.

The other most cost-effective renewable energy systems, according to the renewable energies conventions: Solar PV system; suitable for camping or remote location, geothermal systems, backup power systems, wind energy systems, and Micro Hydro systems.

It will be interesting to see how the list might morph at a future renewable energies expo. As technologies change and evolve, and as world events happen, we shall see what develops.