Using Renewable Power Sources in the UK: Wind and Solar Energy
Over the past ten years, the UK has increased the use of renewable power sources, as the non-renewable source is steeply decreasing and will soon finish. Energy is “the power from something such as electricity that can do work, such as providing light”. Renewable energy is the energy collected from nature that can be used again without harming our environment, such as wind, solar, and hydropower. The UK government should invest more in wind energy as it is heavily available in most UK cities. In this essay, the difference between solar and wind energy will be discussed.
Wind energy is the “electrical energy obtained from harnessing the wind with windmills or wind turbines.” The wind is formed when the sun warms the surface of some regions and leaves out the others. This causes the cold air to move inversely to the hot air which will rise up. Wind energy is transferred when the wind hits the rotor blade to move it, which is attached to a generator that sends the energy through the power cable to the transformer.
Solar energy is the power obtained by harnessing the energy of the sun’s rays. Solar panels can generate more energy in direct sunlight, yet it can generate energy by getting sunlight rays on a cloudy day. It can also save up energy during the night times. Solar energy can be transferred by solar panels absorbing sunlight, it is then transferred to the “AC/DC Inverter”, The energy then is used around the property.
The UK had been using wind energy more than solar energy (readings by the BBC were taken from 2013 when the wind companies started with approximately 4900 megawatts). This is a huge number compared with solar companies which were on 500 megawatts only. Furthermore, both solar and wind companies rise steadily until 2017, which also had a significant difference between solar and wind companies. The increase of solar companies was steady at every year, except between the years 2016 and 2017, there was only a small increase which was not clearly observed.
To begin with, wind energy is better to be invested in the UK as it is heavily available in most cities. Firstly, the wind is always available in most of the United Kingdom’s cities, and it is the cheapest renewable energy as it can produce energy for a megawatt-hour for only £63 (BBC, 2019). Secondly, the wind is a clean source of energy. It doesn’t use any type of chemicals to work, it also produces a huge amount of electricity without harming the environment in any way. It can be clearly seen that wind energy is better to be invested in the United Kingdom because of its availability in most cities.
On the other hand, solar energy is a good source of renewable energy, but not in the United Kingdom. Solar panels may not need a sunny day to work at their best, but they do need the sunray. However, at night times solar panels do not work. Furthermore, the sun will never burn out, it will forever emit energy that helps the planet. Nevertheless, in most of the cities, it is cloudy and solar panels would not get enough energy to supply the power needed. These points are evidence that my opinion is correct.
In conclusion, the United Kingdom should invest in wind energy because it is heavily available in most of the United Kingdom cities. The graphs evidence my opinion as it clearly shows that wind is always available in the cities, also the average sun hours is not enough to supply power on normal days.
