Best Renewable Energy

What is the best renewable energy?  To even attempt such an assessment requires answering two questions initially.  First, what is encompassed by the term “renewable energy”?   Second, how does one evaluate which is “best”?  By definition, “renewable energy” refers to a specific type of energy that is collected from some renewable resources, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, biomass, and geothermal heat.  They are “renewable” in the sense that they are constantly replenishing within a relatively short time frame without human intervention. Unlike the other renewable energy sources, biomass can be converted directly into liquid fuels.   These are called biofuels and are normally used for either transportation (cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, and trains) or heating.  Examples of biofuels are ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and cellulosic ethanol, to name a few.

How does one determine which is best? Solar and wind certainly have their advantages since the sun rises and the wind blows every day.  However, these may be expensive options in areas without sufficient wind or sunlight.  Rain, ocean tides, waves, and rivers provide good hydroelectric alternatives as it is fairly unlikely that the ocean or major rivers will dry up any time, but they also tend to be expensive initially.  With respect to transportation, biomass conversion is a clear winner as feedstock crops are grown each year all over the world, and unlike petroleum, there is no significant danger of depletion of an economically extractable supply.  Determining which type of renewable energy is best is probably impossible to answer.  However, what we do know is that it will take a combination of all these to wean the world from its petroleum dependency, and put mankind on a more renewable track that is sustainable for the future.

With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid-state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag-biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one-stop-shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

Look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full-service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See a video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.