Today, most of the world is currently dependent on various fossil fuel sources, such as coal, gas, or oil. These resources are finite in nature, and the process of unearthing and using them is very damaging to the environment as a whole. Renewable energy is energy taken from sources that don’t run out, such as the sun, the wind, and the sea. Though we are still at the beginning of our journey into using renewable energy, we have already made huge strides in harnessing it.
We have moved forward in harnessing renewable energy by using feedback actuators, or linear actuators, in our setups. In particular, solar panels have benefitted from this, as they have been able to pick up much more energy than they could before. Linear actuators have made solar panels much more moveable, so they can follow the sun as it moves, to pick up every last bit of sunlight that they can.
Solar Panels
Solar panels are perhaps the most easily-recognizable form of renewable energy for most people since they are now quite common in people’s houses. Solar panels are designed to pick up and store the sun’s heat and light and use it for various energy purposes in homes and businesses. As a result, more and more homes have solar panels incorporated into their roofs to give them the best chance of catching the sun.
Solar panels are most likely to have linear actuators since they rely most heavily on a linear motion to do their job properly. Having linear actuators means that solar panels can smoothly follow the sun as it moves along its path, allowing them to collect more energy than they otherwise would have.
Wind Farms
Wind farms are the best way to collect wind power, and more and more people are finding that either they live near a wind farm or erect a miniature turbine of their own to use for their own property.
Wind turbines work on essentially the same principle as windmills do; they have huge propeller-like tops pushed around by the wind as it blows. When this happens, the energy produced by the turbines turning is sent down the shaft of the turbine to be stored as electricity until it is needed.
Wave Power
There are several different ways of capturing and storing wave power, including dams and booms—these work by acting as a barrier that creates energy from the ebb and flow of tides. A dam works by keeping all the water in a tight space, allowing for the water’s movement to be controlled to a far greater extent than would otherwise be possible. Being kept in a confined space makes the water more powerful, which results in more energy to be collected.
Booms do not use water confinement to gather electricity but instead rely on their normal activities to gather electricity. Booms lie on top of the water, normally quite near the shore, and as the waves go under them, they can gather up energy from them and send it inland to be stored as electricity.