Rideau Park United Church

Environmental Action

Renewable Energy

The term “Renewable Energy” refers to several energy sources that produce usable energy without depleting resources. Canada is blessed with abundant renewable energy sources.

The future of renewable energy is becoming more and more promising with the numerous environmental benefits it offers. And with recent advances in technology, it is also becoming less costly to implement Renewable energy systems convert the energy found in sunlight, wind, falling water and other sources into a form we can use, such as heat or electricity.

Renewable energy was used exclusively as man’s energy source until coal was first used in the 13th century, oil in the end of the 19th century and uranium in the middle of the 20th century.

Using renewable sources of energy promotes sustainable living and is virtually pollution free. Renewable sources of energy are economically feasible in small scale applications in remote locations (off the grid homes) or in large scale applications in areas where the resource is abundant and can be harnessed by giant conversion systems such as the large hydro projects or wind farms.

Wind Energy: Wind energy is among the fastest growing renewable energy technologies in the world. Installations have increased by approximately 32% a year globally over the last five years and wind energy has proven to be a clean, abundant and completely renewable source of power. It is economical to produce and very reliable. In fact, there is the potential in Canada for wind energy to meet a full 20% of all our electricity needs. Wind energy systems capture the kinetic energy in surface winds and convert it into electrical energy in the form of electricity.

Solar Energy: Every hour, the sun showers the earth with more energy than the world’s entire population consumes in a whole year. There is enough solar energy in Canada to deliver an average of 2500 kWh of energy per year. Solar is the fastest growing energy technology in Canada. It is estimated that passive solar already supplies over 15% of the average home owner’s heating needs in Canada. Solar electric or photovoltaic technology uses the sun’s energy to make electricity. Learning from the word itself, the prefix “photo” means “produced by light,” and the suffix “voltaic” refers to “electricity produced by a chemical reaction.” PV technology produces electricity directly from the electrons freed by the interaction of sunlight with certain semiconductor materials, such as silicon, in the PV module. The electrons are collected to form direct current (DC) electricity.

Water Energy: Two thousand years ago, the Greeks learned to harness the power of running water to turn the massive wheels that rotated the shafts of their wheat flour grinders. And in the hydro power heyday of the 18th century, thousands of towns and cities worldwide were located around small hydro power sites. Today, small hydro power projects offer emissions-free power solutions for many homeowners and communities across the country. Small-scale hydro power systems are those that generate between .01 to 30 MW of electricity. Hydro power systems that generate up to 100 kilowatts (kW) of electricity are often called micro-hydro systems. Most of the systems used by home and small business owners would qualify as micro-hydro systems. In fact, a 10 kW system generally can provide enough power for a large home, a small resort, or a hobby farm. Hydro power systems use the energy in flowing water to produce electricity or mechanical energy. Although there are several ways to harness the moving water to produce energy, run-of-the-river systems, which do not require large storage reservoirs, are often used for micro-hydro, and sometimes for small-scale hydro, projects.