i) The growing consumption of energy has resulted in the country becoming increasingly dependent on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.(ii) Rising prices of oil and gas and their potential shortages have raised uncertainties about the security of energy supply in future, which has serious repercussions on the growth of the national economy.(iii) Increasing use of fossil fuels also causes serious environmental problems.Hence, there is a primary need to use renewable energy sources like solar, wind, tidal, biomas and energy from waste material. They are called non-conventional sources of energy.Non-Conventional Source #1. Solar Energy:

Utilisation of solar energy is of great importance to India, since it lies in a tropical climate region of the world where sunlight is abundant for a major part of the year. Solar energy has the greatest potential of all the sources of renewable energy and if only a small amount of this form of energy could be used, it will be one of the most important supplies of energy specially when other sources in the country have depleted. Sun is regarded as an inexhaustible source of useful energy.

Non-Conventional Source #2. Wind Energy:

Winds arise primarily from temperature difference of the earth’s surface resulting from unequal exposure to (or absorption of) solar radiation. Air heated by contact with a warmer surface tends to rise, and cooler air from a less heated surface flows in, to take this place; the resulting air flow constituted wind. Wind energy is thus a form of solar energy. Like direct solar energy, wind energy is also highly variable.Non-Conventional Source #3. Ocean Energy:

Solar radiation is absorbed by the seas and oceans, which causes, like the wind, ocean currents and moderate temperature gradients from the water surface downward, especially in tropical waters. The oceans and seas constitute about 70 per cent of the earth’s surface area; hence, they represent a large storage reservoir of the solar input.