Is renewable energy just a political term for an old problem?
Renewable Energy really means Reelection.Energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed they are related by the E=MC2 equation. The term renewable energy is closely related to the concept of green energy. Energy can be transformed into mass and mass into energy but it can't be destroyed or created. Renewable energy has no meaning.
What is presented as Renewable Energy?
Lets examine the Wikipedia definition: Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).
Sunlight
So by this definition Renewable Energy is naturally replenished. Of course this is really dependent on the time scales. Lets take sunlight:
Based on the above graph we find that the Sun is about 4.5 Billion year old as of today and will expand to engulf the earth at about 12 Billion years in age. There is a limited although very large amount of energy available from the sun. So for the next 5 Billion year that large by limited amount of energy counts as renewable.
Wind
Wind is the thermodynamic transfer of heat from the equator to the poles. Wind is a conversion of sunlight into motion. There is a finite amount of energy but until the sunlight stop there will be a limited amount of energy that counts as renewable.
Rain
Rain is cause by the absorbtion of sunlight by water conversion to a gases and condensation of that gases into the atmosphere. The rain falls releasing that energy. Like wind, rain has a limited amount of energy and count as renewable energy.
Tides
Tides are the result of gravity on the fluid mass around our plant. The energy in the tides is that mechanical energy of the rotating solar system as it condensed from a large gas cloud. The large tides on earth are related to the moon, which is keep our earth axis at more or less the same tilt. There is an energy transfer from the Earth as it slows down, those leap seconds, and the Moon which is slowly moving away from the earth. This is a limited amount of energy that is classified as renewable.
Geothermal
Geothermal Energy is either heat left over from the condensation of the earth or radioactive decay of heavy elements that where in the original gas cloud that formed the solar system. This is a limited amount of energy that is classed as renewable.
BUT! Not being fossil is Renewable!
Why? Atmospheric CO2 also matters a lot
The reason the timescale matters is that coal was formed when the planet has a large amount of CO2 in the atmosphere perhaps 20% today the concentration is 0.04%
And Risk to the Global Climate matters
Increasing CO2 is very likely to result in an average temperature increase of our planet. Renewable Energy is about using energy that will not release CO2.
Renewable Energy is based on the concept that CO2 release should be limited.
This is a policy or political choice we must make.
Oh that's really Old Politics = New Term
During the first earth day I was in 7th grade and sat in the auditorium while a the high school science teacher handled questions on the environment. The teacher answered a question about electric cars by saying essentially you turn a large number of tail pipes into one large one at the electric plant. While pollution could be controlled better in one place we are still releasing the same amount of CO2 into that atmosphere. My conclusion was that electric cars would be marginally better.
In the decades since that time I have heard a series of warnings from the environmental groups many of them very alarmist. Most of those alarms did not come with a good explanation of the science. Some of them were bad science.
Politicians could not really solve the old problem so they need to call it my a new name to gain votes again. Renewable Energy = Renewable Votes = Reelection!
