Energy Source and Energy Saving Options
-- the REI Team (Published: 2010-11-17.Edited: 2011-01-5, 2011-02-27, 2013-02-7)
- Sources (alternative ways of providing/generating energy)
- Advanced Batteries
- Air Source Heat Pumps
- Space heating
- Domestic hot water heating
- Anaerobic Digestion
- Biofuels (fuels produced from recently living matter, including biological wastes)
- Biogas (gaseous biofuels, usually methane, often from anaerobic digestion)
- Biofuel (this term is also used to refer to liquid biofuels such as biodiesel or ethanol)
- Biomass (solid biofuels such as firewood and wood pellets)
- Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
- Flywheel (electricity) Storage
- Fuel Cells
- Geothermal Power (also called Geothermal Energy)
- Geothermal Exchange Heating & Cooling
- Hydrokinetic Power
- Micro and Mini Hydroelectric Power
- Ocean Kinetic Energy
- Tidal Energy
- Wave Energy
- Hydrogen Fuel
- Nuclear Energy
- Cold Fusion (great concept; never validated)
- Small Fission Reactors
- Ocean Kinetic Energy - See Hydrokinetic Power, above
- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
- Solar Electromagnetic (this is a “new” way of converting solar energy into electricity, and is in development)
- Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power
- Solar Thermal Electric Power – See Concentrating Solar Power
- Solar Thermal Heating
- Space
- Domestic Hot Water
- Swimming pools
- Solar Hybrid
- Solar PV + Solar Thermal Heating
- Solar PV + Concentrating Solar Power
- Combined organic and inorganic Solar PV generation
- Thermoelectricity
- Waste, Fuel Extraction from (see Anaerobic Digestion)
- Wind Power Generation
(picture: Nesjavellir Geothermal PowerPlant. Courtesy of Gretar Ívarsson) - Savings (improving energy use efficiency)
- Area Radiant Heating (under floor heating)
- Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
- Natural gas co-generator
- Natural gas fuel cells
- Cogeneration - see Combined Heat and Power, above
- Compact Fluorescent Lights
- Cool Roofs / Green Roofs (reduces solar heat generation on a roof)
- Electricity Phase Loss Reduction
- Energy Audit (doesn’t directly save, but an important step to optimizing energy savings and alternative energy benefits)
- Friction Reduction
- Heat Flow Reduction (unwanted hot weather heating or cold weather cooling of a building interior)
- Energy / Heat Recovery Ventilation (ERV / HRV)
- Insulation
- Air Sealing - preventing/reducing airflow between a building and the outdoors
- High Efficiency Furnaces
- Hybrid / Electric Vehicles
- Integrative design - designing a building to optimize its energy efficiency
- LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lighting
- Managed/Optimized Electricity Usage
- Oil-to-Gas Conversion (principally to reduce foreign dependencies)
- Passive Heating and Cooling - designing a building to naturally provide much or all internal heating and cooling
- Plug-in Electric Vehicles - see Hybrid / Electric Vehicles, above
- Smart Grid, The