Renewable Resources

Renewable resources are either resources that can naturally regenerate at a rate comparable or faster than the rate of human consumption or perpetual resources that are abundantly available in nature. Examples are solar radiation, wind, water currents and tides, and biomass resources, all of which can be used to generate energy for human consumption.

Renewable resources have long been used by humans for energy consumption. The first fires were made with renewable wood resources, and for centuries, wind has been used for milling grains and pumping water. In this respect, the contemporary calls for energy production and consumption patterns that are totally based on renewable energy resources could be regarded as a call to go back to preindustrial times. The differences with those times, however, lie ...