What is Green Energy?
Green energy refers to any type of energy that is generated from natural resources like sunlight, wind or water. It most frequently is able to come from renewable energy resources, but there are slight variations between renewable and green energy which we will define further below.
The most important thing to note about these energy resources, is that they do not harm the environment by emitting pollutants into the atmosphere like greenhouse or carbon dioxide gases.
How does Green Energy work?
As an energy resource, typically, green energy comes from available renewable energy technologies which include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, biomass and hydro energy. Each technology works in different ways to harness energy from renewable resources, whether it be by taking energy made from the sun with solar panels, or taking energy created by the wind with wind turbines or the flowing water using a hydropower system.
What does Green Energy mean?
When a resource is classified as green energy, it cannot cause pollution to the environment similar to how fossil fuels can create pollution. This also means that in the renewable energy realm, the source/resources do not have to be green.
A prime example is the generation of power by burning organic material sourced from sustainably managed forests. Although it may be renewable, it does produce CO2 emissions, therefore it is not green energy.
Generally, green energy sources come from natural resources that are provided by mother nature and are generally replenish naturally, whereas fossil fuel sources like natural gas or coal take millions of years to resource. Green energy sources usually do not necessitate mining or drilling processes that cause serious destruction to eco-systems.Sources
The main sources are wind energy, solar power and hydro power (including tides, which is a form of ocean energy). Generally, a home can produce solar and wind power on a smaller scale, otherwise, you can be an end-user on a larger, industrial scale as well.
Types Of Green Energy
The six most common types below are:
1. Solar Power
This common renewable energy source is typically produced using photovoltaic cells that capture sunlight and harvest energy to produce electricity. Solar power is widely being used to heat buildings along with hot water, cooking and lighting.
The costs of solar power have become so low for residential use that it is now being used in garden lighting, and on a bigger scale, to power whole neighborhoods.
2. Wind Power
Wind power is mostly generated at higher altitudes and offshore sites, using the earth’s flow of air to push turbines that create electricity.
3. Hydropower
Also knows as hydroelectric power, this form of green energy uses flow or movement of water in rivers, streams, dams, etc. to create electricity. Water can flow through pipes in a home, or it can come off of evaporation, rainfall, or in oceans from tides (links to ocean energy).
The greenness of the next three green energies depends on how they are produced…
4. Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy – or thermal energy located just below the earth’s surface – is a green energy source when done carefully. While geothermal energy requires drilling and may create an environmental concern in that context, it offers massive potential when harnessed.
For thousands of years, people took advantage of this geothermal energy for reheating in hot springs; this thermal energy is the same energy that will provide steam for turbines and electricity generation.
The amount of energy below the US surface alone could produce 10 times the amount of electricity as coal does today.
Some countries, like Iceland, have little trouble accessing geothermal energy, and while there is still some geospatial issues that make it easy to access, and to be completely ‘green’, attention must be paid to the environmental impact associated with drilling.
5. Biomass
Similarly, biomass needs to be carefully developed if it is truly going to be considered ‘green energy’. Biomass energy plants use combustible organic agricultural waste, sawdust, and wood waste to develop energy.
The combustion of these fuels still releases greenhouse gas emissions, but still a better choice than petroleum-based fuels with greenhouse gas emissions many times more than biomass emissions.
6. Biofuels
Rather than burn biomass as just described, these compounds can be processed into fuels i.e. ethanol and biodiesel. In103, biofuels accounted of 2.7% of the world’s transportation fuel; it is projected biofuels can meet 25% of global demand for transportation fuels.
Why Green Energy Is Important
Green energy is important to the environment because it avoids the damaging effects of fossil fuels by switching to cleaner forms of energy. Green energy sources are derived from our natural resources, are often renewable, and are a cleaner way of generating energy with often little to no greenhouse gas emissions and usually plentiful.
Green energy emits less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels even when analyzing the greenhouse gases throughout the full life cycle of a green energy source and consistently emits fewer air pollutants. This is not only good for the planet, but also better for humans and animals that share the air.
Green energy can positively affect energy price stability because green energy sources are frequently locally produced, therefore the energy price is much less susceptible to disruptions because of geopolitical crises, price swings, and disruptions in the supply chain.
In addition to economic benefits, green energy results in tremendous economic opportunities from the thousands of jobs created building the facilities and the fact that these jobs typically benefit workers in the community in which they live!
In renewable energy, there are 11 million jobs worldwide and that number is expected to increase as there are efforts being made to meet targets such as net zero.
Additionally, because energy can be sourced locally, energy systems have greater flexibility, and will not be as prone to centralized sources that can be disrupted by climate change and are less resilient to weather disruptions.
Green energy represents a low cost solution for energy needs for much of the world.This will only get better as prices continue to drop bringing green energy more accessible particularly in the developing world.
Examples of Green Energy
There are a number of current live examples of green energy in the range of energy production processes as well as thermal heating for buildings, off-highway and transport. More and more industries are investigating these green solutions so here are a few examples.
1. Heating and Cooling in Buildings
Green energy solutions are being employed across the spectrum of buildings, from large office blocks to peoples homes. Green heating and cooling examples include solar water heaters, biomass fuelled boilers, geothermal direct heat and cooling through renewable energy ie heat pumps, etc.
2. Industrial Processes
Renewable heat for industrial processes can be powered by biomass or renewable electricity. Hydrogen is also now a large source of renewable energy in the cement, iron, steel and chemical industries.
3. Transport
Sustainable biofuels and renewable electricity continue to grow in transportation in various industry sectors. Automotive is a clear example to electrify the displacement of fossil fuels, here aerospace and construction are also researching in cleantech electrification.
Can It Replace Fossil Fuels?
Green energy can contrast fossil fuels in the future, although it may need to be diverse production from various means to achieve the displacement. Geothermal is a fantastic energy source where this resource can be deployed easily, while wind power and solar power may be more suited in other geographic.
But if we combine several green energy sources to fulfil the demand and if we keep developing and making the sources, there is no reason we can’t phase out fossil fuels.
This will take many years before we see the transition, but the transition is absolutely essential if we want to mitigate climate change impacts, reap environmental benefits, and transition to a sustainable future.
Can it be Economically Viable?
In order to consider economic viability, we also need to compare to fossil fuels. The reality is the fossil fuel energy prices will only become more expensive. The fossil fuel reserves that have been easily accessible have already been utilized and they will continue to dwindle.
On the other hand, with green energy prices are coming down, renewable energy sources prices are decreasing. And to add to this once you consider green energy, not only solar, the ability to readily develop local energy solutions like solar farms, better known to be comparatively ‘cheap’.
Interest, funding, developing and testing renewable energy sources, furthermore, have all been lowering and pushing the prices down without straying from our learning and past advances.
Green energy sources can not only become economically viable but they can become the most advantageous
Which One is More Efficient?
Efficiency of green energy sources is contingent on the location again, and if you have the right parameters, frequent or strong engagement of sunlight every day, it is fairly easy to come up with a quick efficient option.
In order to really compare different energy types we have to look at the whole life cycle of the energy source, which includes the amount of energy used to manufacture the green energy source, calculating how much energy can be converted into electricity and any environmental clearing that must be done to create the energy source solution.
Obviously, environmental destruction would prevent a source from being ‘green’, but when we look at all of these things it gives an understanding of what is called a ‘Levelised Energy Cost’ (LEC).
At the moment wind farms, are considered the most efficient source of green energy and that I because it requires less refining and processing than making say solar panels. Improvements in composites technology and testing have been demonstrated to improve the life and therefore the LEC of wind turbines, but similar is being done for solar panels in terms of development.
Another benefit of the green energy solutions is they don’t really need much additional energy ahfter they have been built, which is because they use a generally renewable source of energy like wind.
In fact when quantifying usable energy, coal has a total return of 29 percent from its energy value, compared to wind power, where the return value is 1164 percent of the energy pf the initial energy input.Renewable energy sources are currently ranked in terms of efficiency (though this is subject to change as advancements are made):
- Wind Power
- Geothermal
- Hydroelectricity
- Nuclear
- Solar Power
How Can This Help?
Green energy is an excellent benefit for the environment because it comes from natural resources like water, sunlight, and wind. The energy that comes from these sources is replenished continuously, whereas the energy that is produced using fossil fuels is unsustainable oil which has been emitting carbon and polluting the environment for 100 years.
To be able to produce energy using a zero-carbon based energy source, is a large step towards being more eco-friendly. We can use green energy to meet all of our power, industrial and transportation energy needs, which will significantly reduce the impact on the environmental levels.
Green Energy vs Clean Energy vs Renewable Energy – What is the Difference?
As mentioned previously, green, clean and renewable energy can be different, though this is often confused as people tend to use these terms interchangeably, however, while a resource can be, for example, all three of these things, it may also be, renewable but not necessarily green or clean (this is the case with some types of biomass energy for example).
Green energy is any energy that comes from nature (such as the sun) and clean energy doesn’t pollute the air, whereas renewable energy sources are those sources that are constantly replenished (water, wind energy or solar energy).
Renewable energy is often thought of as being the same, but there are still some discussions about this. For example, can a hydroelectric dam that has diverted waterways to produce energy and has the potential to harm the local environment really be defined as green?
However, wind energy is renewable, green, and clean when there has been a consideration of all the environmental factors associated with the production of the wind turbine.
Conclusion
Green energy seems to be part of the world’s future and the world’s future will beneift from this cleaner energy solutions compared with a number of existing alternatives. Green energy continues to be a large contributor to job creation and looks to be a viable economic solution, particularly when further developments are undertaken.
The reality is that fossil fuels must become a thing of the past, because fossil fuels do not offer a sustainable energy solution to our energy needs. By collectively looking at the development of a number of green energy solutions, we can create a totally sustainable future for our energy supply, whilst maintaining the planet we all call home.