Until the last century, the demand for energy was met through the combustion of hydrocarbons and minerals, resulting in release of high amount of dangerous substances for both environment and human being. The only alternative seemed to be made up by hydroelectric plants.
As time went by, and with the deteriorating health of the Planet, governments have tried to use clean energies already present in nature, such as wind and sun. These steps led to the creation of wind turbines and solar panels, also called photovoltaic. Although solutions have proven to be of little use, either because of significant environmental effects, or about the high cost of implementation, the way of sun is the one that has been pursued in depth and, momentarily, is the most reliable green solution. The continuous increase in consumption and the parallel advance in price of energy, the climate mutations and the inexorable depletion of fossil resources have made it increasingly urgent appeal to the kind of sustainable solutions. This argues in favour of PV which is a good investment performance and low risk. Also, thanks to governments and the European incentives, it has been possible, for many farms in the territory to install solar panels, replacing the traditional crops.
Other strategies to follow clean energy paths are geometry resources, the exploitation of tidal and biomass.
Biometric means the heat energy present in the subsurface of the Earth. Through proper distribution systems, it could be amplified and channeled from areas where there are bubbles of magma cooling slowly, until the public spaces.
The sea, at least theoretically, offers five distinct possibilities of drawing power: currents, waves, the tidal levels, the tidal currents and the temperature gradient between surface and seabed.
Nowadays, the only active system in this respect is located in France, and experiments are underway to use the energy potential of waves in the United Kingdom, Norway and Japan; whereas, the temperature gradient has been analyzed only in the United States. The European Union has recently concluded a study that identifies about 100 sites used in the production of electricity from marine currents. In Italy, the most promising site has been identified in the Straits of Messina.
Biomass is the term used to describe all the organic materials (vegetable or animal) that has not undergone any process of fossilization. They are considered to be renewable energies, as the CO2 emitted to produce energy is not an increase in carbon dioxide put into the environment, but is the same as previously absorbed by the plants to grow and the one that returns in the atmosphere, when the vegetable dies, through the degradation of organic matter.
The use of biomass, in fact, accelerates the return of CO2 in the atmosphere, making it newly available to plants. The energy recovery from organic materials contributes to the production of thermal energy, and with medium or large size establishments, it might even produce electricity, helping to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and also respecting the commitments entered into by the Kyoto Protocol.
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