Materials, Methods & Technologies, Volume 9, 2015

Abstract: Nowadays, besides the classical energy sources, as for example coal, there are also several other energetic resources that might be seen as alternatives. During last decade the global energy market was searching for new solutions possible to be used for energy production. Under the research many factors have been taken into account, but mainly the concentration was made on environment protection issues. With such base, now, we are able to confirm the efficiency of alternative energy sources, among which we can differentiate: water, wind, geothermal, solar, wastes, etc., but also there are still undertaken research for energy sources improvement regarding environmental policies, and here there are opportunities such as resources from shale gas, nuclear, volcanos, hurricanes, etc. All these energy sources contain positive and negative features, so it is important to balance them. However, not always it is possible. In this paper is made the investigation for the most popular alternative energy sources. There is a presentation of their strengths and weaknesses, and discussion the opportunities to use them with benefits. For the research it is taken the stand-point of management, as the first decisions in case of energy production come from this scientific area.