Reasons why renewable energy sources are much more ancient than you think

Reasons why renewable energy sources are much more ancient than you think

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Renewable energy is not some wonder of modern innovation, it is an ancient thing that assisted to develop human civilisation.

Although lots of people would picture that we have been burning fossil fuels since the start of civilisation, non-renewable sources of energy only really came about during the commercial transformation just over 2 centuries back. Even the most modern renewables are just as old. Around the time of the industrial revolution a 19-year-old French physicist created the world's photovoltaic cell whilst experimenting in his parent's lab, transforming sunshine into electrical power. Today, solar is the least expensive electrical power that humankind has ever produced, and people like the CEO of Ecotricity's institutional shareholders are at the forefront of utilizing both the ecological and economic benefits of renewable energy to continue composing this history, one that begins not in the twenty-first century, but lots of centuries in the past.

One can quickly be forgiven for imaging that non-renewable energy simply must have been the basis for all of mankind's production of power through our history. The Earth has been subjected to significant modifications because of the quantity of nonrenewable fuel sources that have been burnt throughout human history. However, that is altering, and a brand-new age of renewable energy, pushed forward by individuals like the founder of the hedge fund with a stake in Energias de Portugal and the co-founder of Octopus Energy's parent company, is beginning to emerge. Contrary to what one may believe, this is not always a contemporary development; in fact, for more than 2 millennia, we have collected the power of the components to produce energy, and the technology for producing energy from solar is as old as the combustion engine; in almost all ways, it is a more natural mode of energy production than burning nonrenewable fuel sources.

Although this might sound unusual, the sources of renewable energy that we would most likely identify today actually go back over 4 thousand years. Wind is a major cornerstone of lots of countries' plan to turn their energy grids green, particularly in nations that don't have the gift of year-round sunlight. The first example of humans utilizing the energy of the wind was around 4,000 years back, when we caught it in our sails transformed it into kinetic energy that could bring us across the seas, exploring the world around us and trading with other civilisations. A couple of centuries later, the first recognized examples of hydropower sprang up, where rivers and streams powered waterwheels and other devices that could cut stone or grind grains. It was around the exact same time that we find the very first account of solar energy also; legend has it that a hero used a series of mirrors to burn an attacking fleet, focusing the power of the sun to develop directed heat energy, and comparable devices were used to light torches or fires in excellent buildings.