I’m doing some research and have trouble distinguishing the difference between these three types of energy sources.
So far, I have Conventional energy widely used/practical energy sources like oil, gas and coal. My assumption is that they’re the primary ‘standard’ energy sources the world currently uses for their electricity and power since the industrial revolution.
I’m having trouble with the next two energy sources..
Conventional Alternatives, I put that at energy sources that produce less environmental waste and could be used to replace conventional energy sources. An example would be biofuels being used to replace oil/gas for cars. I guess Nuclear power could go under this energy source as it could be used to replace coal in North America but places like France have 90% of their cities powered by Nuclear – would this mean it’s a conventional energy source for France and a conventional alternative to North America? I don’t know..
As for Non-conventional energy.. I put this at energy sources that produce the least amount of environmental waste but are completely unpractical to implement. My example would be hydrogen powered cars because there is no current infrastructure to support Hydrogen fuel gas stations if consumers were to buy them.
I’m just purely guessing here – please share if you disagree or agree with my definition. Also If anybody knows what category other energy sources like wind, solar, and thermal energy belong to, I’ll be super grateful.
