Green energy is a term for energy that comes from renewable sources. The terms ‘green energy’ and ‘renewable energy’ are often used interchangeably, but there is one essential (and sometimes confusing) difference between them. While most green energy sources are also renewable, not all renewable energy sources are considered entirely green.
Green energy is often referred to as clean, sustainable, or renewable energy. The energy sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, etc. can be called as green energy. The production of green energy doesn’t release toxic greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, meaning it causes little or no environmental impact.
Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. A renewable energy source may not be considered ‘green’ if, for example, power generation that burns organic material from sustainable forests may be renewable, but it is not necessarily green, due to the carbon dioxide produced by the burning process itself.
Green energy sources are usually naturally replenished, as opposed to fossil fuel sources like natural gas or coal, which can take millions of years to develop. Green sources also often avoid mining or drilling operations that can be damaging to eco-systems.
Most common forms of such energy are as follows,
Solar Power is energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy. Solar energy is the cleanest and the most abundant renewal energy source available. Solar technologies can harness this energy for a variety of uses, including generating electricity, providing light or a comfortable interior environment, and heating water for domestic, commercial, or industrial use.
Wind power harvests the primary energy flow of the atmosphere generated from the uneven heating of the Earth’s surface by the Sun. Therefore, wind power is an indirect way to harness solar energy. Wind power is converted to electrical energy by wind turbines.
Hydropower also known as hydroelectric power, this type of green energy uses the flow of water in rivers, streams, dams or elsewhere to produce electricity. Hydropower can even work on a small scale using the flow of water through pipes in the home or can come from evaporation, rainfall or the tides in the oceans.
Geothermal energy is type of green power uses thermal energy that has been stored just under the earth’s crust. While this resource requires drilling to access, thereby calling the environmental impact into question, it is a huge resource once tapped into. Geothermal energy has been used for bathing in hot springs for thousands of years and this same resource can be used for steam to turn turbines and generate electricity.
Biomass energy, sometimes known as ‘bio energy’, is the energy that is derived from organic matter of plants and animals. Biomass in the form of dead plants, trees, grass, leaves, crops, manure, garbage, animal waste can be a great source of alternative fuels that can be used to replace fossil fuels. Plants make use of a process called photosynthesis that converts energy from the sun into chemical energy.
This energy gets transferred to animals when they eat plants. When plants and animal waste are burned, the carbon dioxide and waste stored inside them are released back into the atmosphere.
Biofuels energy gets transferred to animals when they eat plants. When plants and animal waste are burned, the carbon dioxide and waste stored inside them are released back into the atmosphere.
Green energy is important for the environment as it replaces the negative effects of fossil fuels with more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Green energy can also lead to stable energy prices as these sources are often produced locally and are not as affected by geopolitical crisis, price spikes or supply chain disruptions. The economic benefits also include job creation in building the facilities that often serve the communities where the workers are employed.
Due to the local nature of energy production through sources like solar and wind power, the energy infrastructure is more flexible and less dependent on centralised sources that can lead to disruption as well as being less resilient to weather related climate change.
These facts suggest that green energy is the future, which can make it a long-term investment option.
