What is renewable energy and how does it differ from conventional fossil fuels?

The United States currently relies almost entirely upon coal, oil, and natural gas for the majority of its energy. These fuel sources are referred to as fossil fuels and are non-renewable energy sources because a finite quantity of them is available; therefore, their use has a finite or fixed life. Fossil fuel resources are likely to become non-existent or too expensive to retrieve in the quantities we presently use. In addition, they may be too costly in terms of their environmental impact. In contrast, renewable energy resources are derived from the sun's energy, are constantly being replenished, and provide many environmental, economic, and energetic advantages to society.

The primary renewable energy resources are biomass, wind, and solar energy. Others include hydropower and geothermal. Click on the highlighted links to get more info on each of these. Hydropower involves the creation of electricity from flowing water that undergoes a vertical elevation change. One advantage of hydropower is the fuel source (water) costs essentially nothing. Geothermal energy utilizes the Earth's internal heat to produce steam that can be employed to generate electricity or heat and cool buildings. Kansas has limited hydroelectric and geothermal resources

WEB SITES (for more information)
www.nrel.gov/clean_energy/
www.bioenergy.ornl.gov/bfdpmain.html
www.eia.doe.gov