Non Conventional Sources of Energy : Basics, Advantages, Disadvantages and Challenges

From past few years we are continuously listening one term i.e. Renewable energy resources. Those who are related to Energy production and energy consumption field know what It means.

Non Conventional Resources: Meaning

Non conventional resources are those energy resources which can be used again and again. It means renewable resources are those which can be reused without much efforts and energy can be received at much lower cost. Such resources never ended. Hydro Energy, Solar Energy, Geo-thermal Energy, Tidal Energy, Bio-Energy are a few of renewable resources.

Non Conventional Resources: Advantages

There are a lot of advantages of non-conventional energy resources. A few of them are:

• No Fuel Cost: Renewable energy resources provide energy continuously at negligible fuel cost and hence these are cheap source of energy which makes them favorable over other sources of energy.
• Pollution Free and Eco-Friendly: These Non Conventional Energy Resources are pollution free and hence are Eco-friendly. This is one of the best thing to be considered in this age of global warming.
• Simple Design: Renewable energy sources have simple plant design and hence easy to operate and no specialized workforce is requires in these plants.
• Lower maintenance cost : Being simple in design the maintenance cost of these plants is very less and these plants can thus produce electricity at much lower cost than other plants.
• Available at load center : These plants can be installed remotely and at locations completely off grid. Hence better choice for single plant use.

Non Conventional Resources: Challenges

These renewable sources also have a few disadvantages. Few of them are:

• High Initial cost: Although running cost and maintenance cost of these plants is very low but installation cost for these plants is very high which is major disadvantage to these plants.
• Low energy density: Low energy density is another problem these plants have. Energy per unit area is small in these plants which makes them big in size and hence large area is requires to install them.
• Seasonal: These sources are seasonal in nature like Solar energy is not available in rainy and winter days. Hydro energy is not available in dry days.