Solar energy

Nearly all the energy we have on Earth comes from the sun. This energy travels through space by radiation. The sun is about 150 million kilometres away from one planet, but light travels so fast that it takes a little more than eight minutes to reach us. Some of the sun's radiant energy warms the land, the atmosphere and the oceans. This makes Earth warm enough for life to exist. Some of the energy is reflected (bounced) off the Earth and goes back into space.

Biomass

Some energy is 'trapped' by green plants in a process called photosynthesis, which means 'building with light'.

These plants have stores of chemical energy. Animals, including humans, get their energy by eating plants and other animals. All the living creatures on Earth represent what is called 'biomass'('bio' Means 'life'). Biomass, therefore, represents a very big store of chemical energy.

All agricultural produce is 'biomass'. Cameroon has a good potential for agricultural production of biomass. Countries should avoid using natural forests and other natural vegetation as biomass. They should rather plan to increase its agricultural production of biomass. This may include growing many sorts of vegetables and hlit as well as raising cattle and other animals. The problem with raising animals, however, is that they need to eat large amounts of vegetation.

A very important point about using biomass is sustainability,

The word 'sustainability' means the ability to keep a Process going 'indefinitely' (in other words, without coming to an end). All the processes on which life depends -such as food production and other forms of energy Production-need to be sustainable. Unfortunately, humans are increasing in numbers so fast that we are not able to

Produce food and energy at a sustainable rate. This problem will become increasingly important in the years ahead, as numbers grow even further