What is Renewable Energy?

Renewable energy is an energy that is produced from natural processes and continuously replenished. Few examples of renewable energy are sunlight, water, wind, tides, geothermal heat, and biomass. The energy that is provided by renewable energy resources is used in 5 important areas such as air and water cooling/heating, electricity generation, the rural sector, and transportation.


According to a report in 2016 by REN21, the global energy consumption by the use of renewable energy resources contributed to 19.2% in 2014 and 23.7% in 2015. Many countries have started to invest in these renewable energy resources as these resources will help in maintaining sustainable development. The amount of investment in 2015 was about 286 billion dollars and major sectors were biofuel, solar power, wind, and hydroelectricity.

The existence of renewable energy resources is spread over to a wide geographical area in comparison to the conventional energy resources which are often concentrated to a limited number of countries like the oil and gas are mostly concentrated in the Middle East countries. The use of renewable energy resources in energy generation is resulting in less pollution and has a significant effect on economic benefits and energy security.