Unlike Solar, Wind,
Hydro & Fossil Fuels

Some Power Plants rely on non-renewable energy sources, such as coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, petrochemicals, and other fuels in order to generate a predictable amount of power when needed by increasing or decreasing the amount of fuel input into the system according to energy demand at any given time. However, such Power Plants may also be associated with significant or unpredictable financial costs (e.g., due to fuel market price fluctuations, fuel extraction, mining costs, etc.) and environmental costs (e.g., carbon emissions, damage caused by mining operations, etc.).

Some power plants mitigate or avoid these disadvantages by instead relying on renewable energy sources, such as solar energy (e.g., solar cell systems), wind energy (e.g., wind turbine system), which are generally more abundant and can usually be harvested without causing as much damage to the environment as fuel sources. However, other technical challenges are associated with harnessing renewable energy efficiently. For example, some renewable energy systems passively collect energy at less predictable times and rates depending on the current state of their surrounding environment. For instance, power output by a solar power system (e.g., photovoltaic cells) or a wind power system at any given time will vary depending on the current weather conditions (e.g., cloudy vs. clear sky, local wind speeds, etc.) in their surrounding environment.