Definitions

• Renewable and nonrenewable resources can be differentiated succinctly through their commonly held definitions. Renewable energy resources are those that provide energy through a cyclical process and can never be completely depleted. Nonrenewable energy resources are those that only have so much abundance in nature and cannot be replenished.
  
  

Effects

• Renewable energy resources are aimed at creating energy through an environmentally friendly method. The resources themselves are meant to be non-pollutant, but the structures used to create the energy may or may not negatively affect the area around them. Inversely, nonrenewable energy resources are removed from the ground as solids, liquids or gases, and they are largely pollutant in nature, particularly fossil fuel resources.
  
  

Examples of Nonrenewable Resources

• Nonrenewable resources, or those that can become depleted once the supply has been completely used up, come in many forms. One common form is as fossil fuels, which are formed from since-buried leftovers of plants and animals from years past. Examples of fossil fuels include coal, natural gas, petroleum and propane. One nonrenewable source that is not classified as a fossil fuel is uranium, which is used in the creation of nuclear energy.
  
  

Examples of Renewable Resources

• Renewable energy resources, or those that can be re-created and replenished infinitely, are developed continuously across the globe. Examples of such resources include the harnessing of wind, water, geothermal, biomass and solar power. Structures used to achieve these units of energy include wind turbines, dams, geothermal heat pumps and solar panels. Biomass power is utilized through the production of useful plants, such as wood product from trees and methane from decaying organisms.