• Question: What is the most effective renewable energy source for the UK?

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      Asked by jordanamy to Matthew, Chia-Yu on 19 Jun 2013.
      • Photo: Chia-Yu Lin

        Chia-Yu Lin answered on 19 Jun 2013:

        According the weather in UK, solar energy is not the first choice.
        To my viewpoint, wind power and biofuels may be the most effective renewable energy sources.

      • Photo: Matt Carnie

        Matt Carnie answered on 19 Jun 2013:

        Well it’s pretty windy in the UK so we should make use of that and parts of the UK (especially here in Swansea) have huge tidal ranges so we should consider tidal energy.

        Despite it not seeming very sunny here in the UK we still get plenty of energy from the sun which we need to utilise. We receive about the same amount of energy from the Sun as parts of Germany and they have lots of solar panels there.

        Current solar energy technologies do not work well in cloudy sunlight but the types of technology I work on, easily out perform current technologies when light levels are low. You don’t have to be able to see the sun to feel its warmth right? Well you don’t have to be able to see it to harvest the energy from it.

        Biofuels from things like algae will be important but we should not be growing crops for fuel (instead of for food) when people in the world are starving.

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