Renewable Energy Sources For Your Home
Energy has always been vital to human development. Its use must be done without causing excessive pollution.
Green energy does not pollute the environment and is renewable in nature. It includes solar power, wind energy and hydropower.
It can also include biofuels such as biomass – wood waste, sawdust and combustible organic agricultural waste. It can also be geothermal, which uses the hot water and steam stored in the Earth’s crust to create electricity.
Renewable Energy Sources
Choosing renewable energy sources for your home can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the sustainability of your house and potentially lower your electricity costs. However, it’s important to understand what makes a source renewable before you decide on one.
Renewable energy sources are those that can be replenished within a human timeframe, such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water and geothermal heat. These are used to create electricity, biofuels (like ethanol and biodiesel) for transportation and other products like heating and cooling.
Using renewables helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which are responsible for global warming, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are finite resources that take millions of years to form. When burned, they produce large amounts of carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants. Choosing renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, helps to reduce those carbon emissions. Renewables also can be cheaper than fossil fuels, and may qualify for an investment tax credit that lowers installation costs and shortens payback periods.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that enters the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and from deforestation. This gas can linger in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Carbon dioxide emissions are a major cause of global warming. The carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen from about 365 parts per million in 2002 to over 420 ppm today. Other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, also contribute to climate change.
Electric power plants produce the largest share of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. On average, coal-burning facilities emit 1,020 kilograms (2,249 pounds) of CO2 for every megawatt hour of electricity generated. Oil and natural gas emit less than half this amount.
The transport sector, which includes aviation and green energy maritime, produces 19 percent of CO2 emissions. To decrease this amount, mass transit options need to be expanded and vehicle performance needs to be improved. Research is also underway to transform carbon dioxide into fuels and building materials, such as algae biofuels and green hydrogen.
Electricity
The electricity you use in your home or business is drawn from a combination of green energy sources and traditional fossil fuels. Green energy sources can be used to create electric power that does not produce any carbon dioxide during the generating process.
Solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources can be used to create green electricity. These sources are renewable and replenish themselves naturally, unlike the finite resource of fossil fuels.
These renewable energy sources can be centralized or distributed. Centralized renewables connect to the grid through high-voltage transmission lines, while distributed renewables, like rooftop solar, are located on a customer’s property and connected to the lower voltage distribution network.
The electricity that distributed renewables generate is credited to the consumer’s account, but it can also be sold back to the grid as part of a green energy program. Depending on how a customer uses their home, they can even install enough solar panels to power their entire house. This explainer explores how this works and what implications a high penetration of renewables could have on the modern grid.
Biofuels
Biofuels are renewable energy sources that can be used to make diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel. They can also golf cart be used to generate electricity and heat.
Biodiesel and ethanol are two of the most common forms of biofuels, which are made from plant materials that can be grown in place of fossil fuels. Biofuels can reduce the need to import crude oil from other countries and are considered a greener alternative.
However, the production of biofuels requires land that could be used to grow food crops or for other purposes. This can have negative environmental and financial implications. For example, using corn to create ethanol results in a significant increase in world food prices.
The production of biofuels can also use fertilizers and other pollutants that can cause environmental damage. In addition, the transportation of biofuels can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. To limit these impacts, researchers are developing second-generation biofuels that produce more energy per field and use nonfood feedstocks such as waste products or lignocellulose. In addition, microalgae demonstrate promise as a source of biofuel due to their high oil-yielding ability.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is the energy that exists in thermal springs and other geological phenomena such as lava flows and volcanic eruptions. It can be used for power plants to create electricity and also to direct the heat into buildings for heating or cooling, for example. Geothermal energy is a form of renewable energy that is very environmentally friendly and doesn’t produce any emissions or pollution.
Geothermal power plants use wells drilled 1 or 2 miles below the Earth’s surface to pump very hot water up through it under high pressure. When the water reaches the surface, it’s allowed to drop in temperature and some of it turns into steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. The remainder of the water or the condensed steam is returned back into the reservoir, making this a very sustainable source of energy.
Another way to generate geothermal energy is to utilize binary cycle technology, which uses a chemical (like tetrafluoroethane, or the organic compound that makes up the foam in a car’s seat) instead of water to cool down the high-temperature water that feeds turbines. This technology allows for a greater capacity to ramp up and down as demand changes.
