High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Soft energy technologies may be seen as appropriate renewable technologies. Soft energy technologies are not simply renewable energy technologies, as there are many renewable energy technologies which are not regarded as "soft". More specifically, soft energy technologies have five defining characteristics. They rely on renewable energy resources, are diverse and designed for maximum effectiveness in particular circumstances, are flexible and relatively simple to understand, are matched to end-use needs in terms of scale, and are matched to end-use needs in terms of quality. An energy technology must satisfy all five of these criteria to be soft.