Question: Personally I think water based power and wind is better in the UK as we lack much sunshine :-) as well as it provides a much more reliable source of energy. Do you agree what do you think, is water or sunshine a better energy source? (for England, in Africa it would definitely be better putting up solar panels) Also what do you think about the use of Uranium for Nuclear power, is it good?

Olivia Ashton answered on 15 Nov 2016:

This is a tough question.

It depends on what type of technology you are using and where. For example, hydro electricity, from dams, requires a large volume of water and a man made dam, where as tidal or wave requires things to be sunk in the sea and connected to generators on the shore. If these go in the ideal places, then they can generate quite a lot of energy but need a lot of maintenance and predictable movement of the water.

Equally with solar, if you don’t have a strong enough roof, or enough land to cover with them, you might not be able to cover your electrical needs.

I think a combination of both is best, for most countries including the UK. We shouldn’t view one as being the only option, with renewables it is likely that we are going to need a variety of technologies to work together to meet our energy demands.