The Most Efficient Types Of Renewable Energy In A Newly Designed World

Cavemen may have known something about the most efficient types of renewable energy. They used ethanol for cooking and bio-fuels in the form of food when hunting. Their methods are currently being reviewed as serious possibilities for twenty-first century applications.

The Prime Minister of Britain used to make a statement about conserving fuel by riding his bicycle to the House of Commons. It was a wise statement, but his quality of life probably changed when work pressure required him to move swiftly and safely from one point to another using cars or aeroplanes. The same goes for millions of other people across the globe who are compelled to use expensive and wasteful methods to sustain their lifestyle.

With computers and internet technology much commuting is really unnecessary and wasteful. It is possible for most jobs to be done online from home if work procedures are re-arranged. Already there are many people running large businesses from remote desert towns where they enjoy the benefits of a country lifestyle.

When William Wordsworth composed his sonnet 'Upon Westminster Bridge' he marvelled at the beauty of a modern city. It was powered almost entirely by horsepower, moving water and human energy. The situation altered rapidly thanks to industrialization and now millions move in and out of the city on a daily basis. But technology renders much of the commuting obsolete. Many people could now work from home on computers and others could live above the office with a few changes in regulation and urban design.

The fact that renewable resources are insufficient to fuel extravagant energy lifestyles does not mean that they are inefficient. Inefficiency resides in extravagance. Methane gas produced from garbage and animal waste is sufficient for cooking but not an energy extravagant lifestyle involving many domestic appliances.

Ethanol can be produced from plants such as corn, sugar cane, timber or manioc, to name only a few. It can be used to supplement petroleum, or neat in suitably adapted machines. In fact ethanol was commonly used as a supplementary fuel way back in the nineteen forties. It fell into disuse for economic reasons. Petroleum could be pumped from huge fossil fuel lakes more cheaply, and the exploding human population demanded increasing supplies of food.

Vested interests have kept innovations such as electric cars in abeyance for many years. It appears now that they are viable, and ethanol was used long ago as fuel, but people who have had big interests in the oil industry have preferred to carry on using oil. Progress towards fuel efficiency is dependant on a balance between what is available and how people prefer to use it. At present a massive education programme is in progress. It is aimed at increasing public understanding of how resources may be used more economically.

Different patterns of human behaviour would make the most efficient types of renewable energy viable. Methane gas, solar electricity and bio-fuels may play their vital part in a future world where natural resources are used less profligately as a matter of course.