Renewable energy is a big topic these days as we drain our natural resources and deplete the planet of its life sustaining reserves. Imagine what would happen if we actually "ran out of power". People can't stand it when they lose power for a few hours/days, what about when week/month long blackouts are rolling through, fuel for cars costs a standard weeks wage making things like distribution of food and simple logistics difficult.

Obviously we need to find better solutions and people like Elon Musk and his unveiling of his new electric trucks are leading the way in this field, but how energy efficient is it to produce things like this? which form of sustainable energy is actually viable. I've touched on solar before and how it is currently fairly even with the amount of energy it produces compared to the cost expenditure and energy required to create and maintain a system. That is on a domestic level, Solar farms can be quite viable sources of energy, especially in Australia where we have many open barren areas that get almost constant sunlight. Main issues being these are often far from the cities that require them.

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Wind Power

Wind power is one of the best forms of renewable energy. It can be an expensive startup but maintenance costs are very low. It costs nothing to run however construction and transport can be difficult due to the immense size of the "windmills" and the fact they are often located far from cities. There is also the danger they pose to birds, specifically endangered species however migratory patterns can be studied and majority of incidents avoided if placed correctly.

Wind turbines can be either on land or at sea where they float, obviously the most common is on land but one of the issues faced is ideal spaces to actually put the wind farms. There are many factors that can affect the efficiency including average wind-speed, type of generator, air flow ( the turbines work most efficiently when a smooth direct flow of air is occurring as opposed to swirling in different directions) and location.

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Greenhouse gases and other pollutants are produced during the manufacture, transport and installation of wind turbines, but once they have operated for a year or so, they will have compensated for this. Overall, wind turbines help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere and are a fairly viable source of energy.

Hydroelectricity

Hydroelectricity is another common type of renewable and also widely regarded as the most efficient. Converting up to 90% of the available power into electricity it is more efficient than even coal based power supplies by a decent margin.
Hydroelectric power makes up around 10% of all electricity usage in the United States with only Canada producing more.

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As viable as hydroelectric is there is a limited number of places left that would be appropriate. hydroelectricity has been around for quite a while and is in use in most spots its able to so growth for this sector will be limited.
In the U.S., hydropower is produced for an average of 0.85 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh). This is about 50% the cost of nuclear, 40% the cost of fossil fuel, and 25% the cost of using natural gas.
It produces 0 greenhouse gases or emissions and leaves behind no waste.

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Nuclear Power

A hot topic when it comes to energy resources, an obviously dangerous choice if you look at incidents like Chernobyl or more recently Fukushima, who's damage is still not fully known since millions of litres of contaminated water was leaked.
Proponents of nuclear energy contend that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions and increases energy security by decreasing dependence on foreign oil, it does however have high maintenance costs, a lot of resistance and inherent danger.

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Nuclear energy facilities are able to produce electricity with low cost and stable prices using enriched uranium for fuel. One uranium fuel pellet, (about the size of the tip of a pencil eraser)produces the same energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 149 gallons of oil.
One of the biggest issues nuclear energy faces is that it needs to periodically go offline for maintenance and refuelling, this makes a consistent supply to large areas difficult, however if different types of energy are used in combination it could easily see the end of the need for coal/oil/gas.

In the end we need to move onto some form of renewable and with consistent growth in the sector as a whole things look good, however certain world leaders and their total ignorance of fact and science as well as a lack of funding and backlash from coal/oil/gas supporters is still holding us back from our full potential.
With so many things at play and so many viable options we really need to stop our reliance on natural resources. I don't just mean countries and corporations, individuals like you and me can all play our part in reducing our wastage of natural resources.

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Resources

http://www.stelr.org.au/wind-energy/

http://www.esgi.net/2015/05/08/know-efficiency-of-nuclear-power-energy-staffing-jobs/

http://www.wvic.com/Content/Facts_About_Hydropower.cfm

https://graduatedegrees.online.njit.edu/resources/msee/msee-infographics/the-most-efficient-form-of-renewable-energy/