and liquid biofuels, and from municipal solid waste incineration.”
IEA/OECD/Eurostat definition from Energy Manual (note that it rather dealing
with energy form and not with energy source): “One can find numerous
definitions of renewables in technical literature, including the following one:
renewable energy is energy that is derived from natural processes that are
replenished constantly. Although this definition leads to some issues, dealing
for instance with the time horizon for the replenishment, it will be used as the
reference in this chapter. There are various forms of renewable energy,
deriving directly or indirectly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within
the earth. They include energy generated from solar, wind, biomass,
geothermal, hydropower and ocean resources, solid biomass, biogas and
liquid biofuels.”
EU Commission: “Renewable energy sources are defined as renewable non-
fossil energy sources: wind, solar, geothermal, wave, tidal, hydropower,
biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogases.”
Few countries, including Finland and Sweden
(
http://www.sgu.se/sgu/eng/samhalle/energi-klimat/fornybar-energi_info_e.html), and
some organizations like USGS
(
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/peat/) label peat as “a slowly
renewable biofuel” and a renewable source of energy.
WEC is suggesting to keep peat out of both groups
http://www.worldenergy.org/publications/survey_of_energy_resources_2007/p
eat/704.asp
And gives that problematic definition: “New and Renewable Energy Sources: energy
sources including solar energy, geothermal energy, wind power, hydropower, ocean energy
(thermal gradient, wave power and tidal power), biomass, draught animal power, fuelwood,
peat, oil shale and tar sands.”
In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen proposed that uranium is effectively
inexhaustible, and could therefore be considered a renewable source of
energy. He claims that fast breeder reactors, fueled by naturally-replenished
uranium extracted from seawater, could supply energy at least as long as the
sun's expected remaining lifespan of five billion years and following common
definition of renewable resource that is not limited only to the energy it is
renewable because it is “practically inexhaustible” (see for example
BusinessDictionary.com)
http://sustainablenuclear.org/PADs/pad11983cohen.pdf
There are number of attempts to exclude large scale hydropower projects