Renewable resource

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Renewable resource

A natural resource qualifies as a renewable resource if it is replenished by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans. Solar radiation, tides, winds and hydroelectricity are perpetual resources that are in no danger of long-term availability. Renewable resources may also mean commodities

Commodity

A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative product differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk....
such as wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
, paper

Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, and leather

Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
, if harvesting is performed in a sustainable manner.

Some natural renewable resources such as geothermal power

Geothermal power

Geothermal power is energy generated from heat stored in the earth, or the collection of absorbed heat derived from underground.Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal generator on 4 July 1904, at the Larderello dry steam field in Italy....
, fresh water, timber, and biomass

Biomass

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, refers to living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production....
must be carefully managed to avoid exceeding the environment's capacity to replenish them.

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Commodity

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
, paper

Paper

Leather

Geothermal power

Biomass

Life cycle assessment

A life cycle assessment is the investigation and valuation of the environmental impacts of a given product or service caused or necessitated by its existence....
provides a systematic means of evaluating renewability.

The term has a connotation of sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
of the natural environment

Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
. Gasoline

Gasoline

File:GasCan.jpgGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating....
, coal

Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
, natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
, diesel

Diesel

Diesel or diesel fuel in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillation of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid or gas to liquid diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted....
, and other commodities derived from fossil fuel

Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, that is, carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth?s Crust .Fossil fuel range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal....
s are non-renewable. Unlike fossil fuels, a renewable resource can have a sustainable yield

Sustainable yield

The sustainable yield of natural capital is the ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base of capital itself, i.e. the surplus required to maintain nature's services at the same or increasing level over time....
.

Renewable Energy

Solar energy is the energy derived directly from the Sun

Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
. Along with nuclear energy, it is the most abundant source of energy on Earth. The fastest growing type of alternative energy

Alternative energy

Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels....
, increasing at 50 percent a year, is the photovoltaic cell, which converts sunlight directly into electricity. The Sun yearly delivers more than 10,000 times the energy that humans currently use.

Wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2008, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 120.8 gigawatts....
is derived from uneven heating of the Earth's surface from the Sun and the warm core. Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blade

Wind turbine design

Wind turbines are designed to exploit wind energy. Fundamental aerodynamic theory shows that not all the energy of the wind at a given point can be extracted , and a practical design can only obtain around 80% of the theoretical maximum....
s into electrical current by means of an electrical generator. In windmill

Windmill

A windmill is a machine that is powered by the energy of the wind. It is designed to convert the energy of the wind into more useful forms using rotating blades or sails....
s (a much older technology) wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, like crushing grain or pumping water.

Hydropower

Hydropower

Hydropower, hydraulic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes....
is energy derived from the movement of water in rivers and oceans (or other energy differentials), can likewise be used to generate electricity using turbines, or can be used mechanically to do useful work. It is a very common resource.

Geothermal power

Geothermal power

Crust

Crust may refer to:Geology and soil science:*Crust , the outer solid layer of a planet*Continental crust*Oceanic crust*Soil crust*the dough or pastry shell of pies, pizzas, etc....
, and mantle

Mantle

A mantle is an ecclesiastical garment in the form a very full cape which extends to the floor, joined at the neck, that is worn over the outer garments....
is approximately equal to that of incoming solar energy, especially during the day.

Alcohol derived from corn

Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, sugar cane, switchgrass

Switchgrass

Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season grass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55? N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico....
, etc. is also a renewable source of energy. Similarly, oils from plants and seeds can be used as a substitute for non-renewable diesel. Methane is also considered as a renewable source of energy.

Nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nucleus via controlled nuclear reactions. The only method in use today is through nuclear fission, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay ....
, particularly a breeder reactor

Breeder reactor

File:Ebr1core.pngA breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates new fissile or Nuclear fuel material at a greater rate than it consumes such material....
, is often considered renewable.

Renewable materials

Agricultural products

Techniques in agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
which allow for minimal or controlled environmental damage qualify as sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: natural environment stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming community. These goals have been defined by a variety of List of academic disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer....
. Products (food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
s, chemicals, biofuel

Biofuel

Biofuel is defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuel derived from relatively recently dead biological material and is distinguished from fossil fuels, which are petroleum#formation....
s, etc) from this type of agriculture may be considered "sustainable" when process

Process

Process may refer to:Biology*Process , a projection or outgrowth of tissue from a larger body* Biological processScience and technnology*Process , a computer program or an instance of a program running concurrently with other programs...
ing, logistics

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources, including energy and people, between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet the requirements of consumers ....
, etc. also have sustainable characteristics.

Similarly, forest product

Forest product

A forest product is any material derived from a forest for commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or Fodder for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant commercial forest Product , is used for many Industry purposes, such as the finished structural materials used for the construction of buildings, or as a raw material, in the form of wood pulp...
s such as lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from logging through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, plywood

Plywood

Sorry, no overview for this topic
, paper

Paper

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
can qualify as a renewable material (also non-renewable) when carefully controlled usage, treatment, and release are followed. If not, it would become a non-renewable resource at that location. For example, groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil porosity spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water....
could be removed from an aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well....
at a rate greater than the sustainable

Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
recharge. Removal of water from the pore spaces may cause permanent compaction (subsidence

Subsidence

In geology, engineering, and surveying, subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is Tectonic uplift, which results in an increase in elevation....
) that cannot be renewed.

Renewable resource

Renewable Energy

Renewable materials

Agricultural products

Water

See also

Further reading