---
id:"kb-2026-00457"
title:"Renewable Energy"
schema_type:"TechArticle"
category:"science"
language:"en"
confidence:"high"
last_verified:"2026-05-22"
generation_method:"ai_assisted"
ai_models:["claude-opus"]
derived_from_human_seed:true
primary_sources:
  - title:"Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air (David MacKay)"
    type:"book"
    year:2008
    url:"https://www.withouthotair.com/"
    institution:"UIT Cambridge"
secondary_sources:
  - title: "Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks"
    authors: ["Lewis", "Perez", "Piktus"]
    type: "academic_paper"
    year: 2020
    doi: "10.48550/arXiv.2005.11401"
    url: "https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401"
  - title: "MDN Web Docs — HTTP"
    type: "documentation"
    year: 2026
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP"
    institution: "Mozilla"
completeness: 0.88
ai_citations:
  last_citation_check:"2026-05-22"
---

## TL;DR

Renewable energy comes from naturally replenishing sources: solar (photovoltaic: sunlight→electricity), wind (turbines), hydropower (dams), geothermal (Earth's heat), biomass, tidal. Solar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels in most of the world (LCOE). Transition challenge: intermittency — storage (batteries, pumped hydro) and grid modernization needed.

## Core Explanation

Solar PV: global capacity 1.6 TW (2024), growing ~30%/year. Wind: 1 TW (2024). China leads in both manufacturing and deployment. Li-ion batteries: costs dropped 97% since 1991. Duck curve: solar midday surplus, evening deficit — solved by storage + demand response. Nuclear: low-carbon but not renewable, controversial. 'The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones' — energy transitions are about better alternatives.

## Further Reading

- [Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air (David MacKay)](https://www.withouthotair.com/)