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Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is classified as any form of energy that can be used indefinitely. The currently recognized forms of renewable energy include solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and tidal power. All of these forms of power are derived, whether directly or indirectly, from the sun, earth, and moon.

The correlation between the sun and renewable energy is fairly strong. For instance, all of the fossil fuel deposits in the world, producing the maximum amount of energy possible equates to only 20 days of sunshine. The sun powers the winds, heats the earth, and its gravity is one of the major factors in the tides. The major difference between the sun and other forms of power, such as fossil fuels is that while fossil fuels could run out with use in just a few centuries, nothing we do with the sun’s energy can speed up or slow down the demise of the sun.

The sun is not infinite, in a few hundred billion years, it will extinguish. But by that point, humanity will have bigger concerns than whether or not our gadgets are being powered. Renewable energy is about making sure that we don’t use the earth up. There are certain resources that exist in finite supply, and if we use them up, we’ll be the poorer for it.

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