Petroleum Engineering

Sustainable & Renewable Energy

Rising prices, increasing air pollution and scarcity of fuels have forced scientists to look for alternative fuel sources. All energy sources which can be naturally replenished are renewable energy sources. Most of the times these two terms are used interchangeably. There is some sort of common belief that all renewable energy sources are sustainable and there is no difference between the two terms. However, this is not true. Renewable energy includes all those sources that do not cause any harm to the environment and have minimal impact on the surrounding environment. Sustainable is much more a wider term and includes all type of energy sources. Sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, wave, tidal and hydrogen are renewable as well as sustainable since they have minimum impact on the environment whereas Nuclear energy is not considered as renewable but it is sustainable as it pollutes the environment. This is the only reason that it is said that all renewable energy sources are sustainable but all sustainable energy sources are not renewable.