Energy exists in everything, whether it is a person, animal, or object.
It comes from two different sources: renewable and non-renewable energy.
Both of these types of energy have their good and bad points.
Below you can see what these are for each type.
Renewable Energy.
Renewable energy is energy that comes from sources that replenish and will be around forever.
This includes sun, wind, rain, and bodies of water, like the ocean.
These sources can power our homes in the same way that the wind can power a kite.
You can run a kite forever so long as the wind keeps blowing, and it has no harmful effect on the planet.
Advantages of Renewable Energy.
Renewable energy is good for the planet because it does not use up resources.
This also makes renewable energy cheaper to use, because it is freely available.
Furthermore, it allows America to produce all our own energy ourselves instead of buying fuels such as oil from other countries.
Disadvantages of Renewable Energy.
However, specific types of renewable power sources also have disadvantages.
For example, solar energy only adds power to panels during the day.
The rest of the time, solar power plants have to use stored power.
Hydro power also has a drawback.
Setting up dams to use the water flow disrupts nature.
Non-Renewable Energy.
Natural resources like coal, oil, and natural gas are not considered renewable.
This is because it takes many thousands of years for the Earth to produce them, and once they are burned they cannot be reused.
Advantages of Non-renewable energy.
While it may not seem so at first, non-renewable supplies of power also have pros and cons.
On the positive side, these resources are still widely available in the world, especially coal.
This is why America uses so much coal power--we have a lot of it.
Along with coal, there is natural gas, nuclear power, and oil.
Oil is called a fossil fuel because it is made of the fossil remains of animals whose bodies have been underground.
Oil is a very convenient resource and can be turned into many types of fuel, such as gas, jet fuel, and heating oil.
Nuclear power and natural gas are good for the planet because they create very few harmful gases.
Compared to oil and coal, these two types of energy are very clean.
Disadvantages of Non-renewable energy.
The biggest problem with non-renewable power are that they will run out one day.
Also, they create much more air and water pollution with gas emissions.
Finally, burning these fossil fuels increases the problem of global warming.