Very Short Question and Answers - Non-Conventional Energy Resources

Non-conventional energy resources, also called renewable energy, are sources of energy that are continuously replenished by nature and cause little or no pollution. Examples include solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, and biogas energy.

They reduce dependence on fossil fuels, lower greenhouse gas emissions, provide energy security, support rural development, improve health by reducing indoor pollution, create jobs, and contribute to climate action and affordable clean energy.

Solar PV panels use silicon cells that generate electric current when sunlight hits them, converting solar energy directly into electricity.

Solar energy is used through solar photovoltaic panels to produce electricity and through solar thermal systems to produce heat for water heating or steam.

Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, Charanka Solar Park in Gujarat, and Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Wind energy is clean, has low operating costs, is reliable in windy regions, and suitable for coasts and highlands.

Wind turns the blades of the turbine, which rotates the rotor connected to a generator; the generator then produces electricity.

Muppandal wind farm in Tamil Nadu and the wind farms in Kutch, Gujarat.

A dam called a barrage is built across a tidal estuary, and when tides flow in and out, water passes through turbines in the barrage to generate electricity.

Advantages: predictable and renewable, with a long infrastructure life. Limitations: site-specific, high initial cost, potential impacts on marine ecology and fisheries.

Potential sites include the Gulf of Kutch and the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat, the Pamban channel, and some east coast estuaries.

Geothermal energy is heat from inside the Earth used to generate steam for electricity or for direct heating like greenhouses and spas.

Puga in Ladakh, Tattapani in Chhattisgarh, and Bakreshwar in West Bengal.

Biogas is produced when bacteria digest organic matter like animal dung and kitchen waste inside a closed digester without oxygen, producing methane-rich gas.

Cooking fuel, lighting, and electricity generation.

It reduces open burning of waste, lowers indoor air pollution, produces organic fertilizer (slurry), helps manage waste, and is renewable.

The main challenge is intermittency since solar and wind energy depend on weather conditions. Solutions include combining storage batteries, hybrid systems, and smart grids.

Renewables like solar pumps, biogas, and microgrids provide energy access in remote villages, improving irrigation, cottage industries, quality of life, and income opportunities.

Solar missions with rooftop solar incentives, promotion of wind farms in coastal states, national schemes for biogas plants, and encouragement of bagasse cogeneration in sugar mills.

Because sunlight is plentiful, freely available, and using solar energy produces no air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions.