What is a good introduction paragraph type thing for a research paper regarding renewable energy options for America? With a good attention getter. The three I chose for body paragraphs are Wind power, Geothermal energy, and solar power. 100 level

2020 has undoubtedly been a year of firsts. But did you know that it also marked a year of unprecedented successes in the clean energy industry? For the first time, renewable energy generation not only outpaced coal-fired energy production but also firmly placed itself as the cheapest, at-scale, proven energy option available. What makes an energy source renewable and why are they so popular?

There are two key factors that make energy renewable. First, it is generated from natural resources that readily replenish. Second, renewable energy also creates few to no greenhouse gas emissions. Many people think of renewable energy as something new. In reality, the power available through natural resources is something humanity has relied on since learning how to cook on a wood fire, sail to new places through the power of wind, or power the first factories with water wheels. 

In its 2019 Wind Powers America Report, the American Wind Energy Association identifies wind as America's top renewable, no-emissions energy source. Wind energy provides 7% percent of all U.S. electricity with nearly 60,000 large-scale wind turbines operating across 41 states and two territories, check out the wind map of the U.S. to see where electricity is generated near you. Wind energy includes electricity generated from onshore sites (such as 350-MW Frontier II in Oklahoma and 182-MW Maryneal in Texas), massive offshore towers, and smaller turbines located on and between commercial properties. In 2020, the Energy Information Administration predicts that wind will become the No. 1 generation source, comprising 44% of all new electric generating capacity. It's not surprising that wind generation ranks as No. 1 considering humanity's use of wind as energy dates back as far as the first sailing ships, sometime between 3000 to 1500 B.C. Operating for over 1,000 years, the windmills of Nashtifan, Iran, are among the oldest in the world, and have withstood winds of up to 74 miles an hour. Whether used as power for transportation or converted into mechanical energy for pumping water, grinding grain, or powering steam engines, wind energy is clean, abundant, and available around the world. 

Geothermal energy (the heat from Earth) is number 4 on our list of top commercial renewable energy sources. Hot water exists naturally at varying temperatures and depths below the Earth's surface. Very deep wells of a mile or more can be drilled into these underground reservoirs to tap and bring the steam to the surface for use in a variety of applications, including electricity generation, heating and cooling, and other direct uses. In the U.S., most geothermal reservoirs are located in the western states. The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, a geothermal field in Northern California that also uses reclaimed wastewater as an added water source. The first geothermal power plant located in Tuscany, Italy, began operating in 1904. It generated a mere 10 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power five lightbulbs. A major advantage of geothermal power is that it requires no fuel, making it immune to fluctuations in fuel cost. However, capital costs, primarily the cost of drilling, tend to be high. There is also a high financial risk associated with locating viable geothermal resources. The future of geothermal may be in its byproducts - specifically, the valuable mineral lithium. Lithium is a critical component of large-scale battery technologies used in battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles. To create new sources for the sought-after mineral, the state of California is financing a lithium extraction project to create a profitable, emissions-free byproduct from existing geothermal energy generation.

The sun is another natural source of energy, emitting enough energy each second to satisfy the global energy demand for over two hours. So it's not surprising that solar energy generation, such as solar PV, is one of the fastest-growing commercial renewable energy resources. Solar generation works anywhere the sun shines with eight U.S. states already generating over 5% of their electricity from solar. California leads the way at around 19% and in North Carolina, where Duke Energy Renewables is headquartered, 6% of the energy is sourced through solar. The U.S. solar market is expected to hit 3 million installations in 2021 and 4 million installations in 2023. Tapping the sun for power has an ancient history, dating back as far as 7 B.C. when humans first used it to light fires. The first silicon PV and solar cells capable of converting enough of the sun's energy into power to run everyday electrical equipment were developed in 1954 by Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson in Bell Labs. The world's longest operating solar plant, Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS), began generating commercial-scale solar in the 1980s from the Mojave Desert. Today, solar generation ranges from ultra-lightweight and portable solar chargers suitable for backpacking to large-scale solar operations like Amazon's largest solar rooftop in Colorado, and from solar at universities and schools to utility-scale projects like the 200-MW Holstein Solar project in Texas. Researchers estimate that with all of the advancements in solar technologies, we could achieve 700% energy production improvement by 2050 (or sooner).

Even in uncertain times, the demand for clean energy continues to grow. The truly great news is that over the past decade, renewable energy innovation has stepped out of the "alternative energy" category and into the mainstream by being very affordable, increasingly reliable, and generally available to a wide audience.
 

Step-by-step explanation

You should include questions in the first part of your paragraph so you could answer them on the body, I also included the means of the energy sources you've chosen so I hope this may help you, Thank you and good luck!