Government incentives and responsible citizens’ initiatives are all contriving to find alternatives to conventional fuel and energy sources; in other words to find green energy sources.
There is ongoing research and development for identifying and viably using alternative energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, geo thermal energy, and bio-fuels of various types.
Benefits of Green Energy Sources
We really have to choice but to find green energy sources if we want to continue to progress and live the lives that we enjoy today!
1. They are non-polluting: Unlike traditional sources of electricity that use coal and hence create pollution, green energy sources do no create wasteful byproducts and environmental pollution. This can help address concerns of climate change as well.
2. They are renewable: This is to say that those energy sources are not depleting as you use them. As we will eventually exhaust the world’s oil reserves we cannot conceivably exhaust solar energy, for instance.
3. They are sustainable: They can be maintained and continued to remain viable for a longer period and for continual use. For this, the technology has to be affordable and user friendly as well.
4. They address several other concerns: These energy sources address several other concerns of ours – the rising oil prices have led us to seek viable alternatives for what we use to propel our automobiles. Concerns about peak oil (the point when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached and decline of this resource starts) are also addressed by using renewable and sustainable sources of energy.
Major Sources of Green Energy
We are still only scratching the surface of what sources of energy are possible to harness and use. Here are some of the major sources of green energy:
1. Solar Energy: This harnesses the energy of the sun and converts it into practical uses to be used in the same way as we use electricity.
2. Wind Energy: Windmills have been in existence literally for ages and we are only now perceiving, what a really great idea they are. Large corporations are increasingly trying to harness this cheap and clean form of energy by installing windmills.
3. Thermal Energy: Similarly the very great energy of the earth itself; that comes to the surface in the form of geysers and hot water springs is something else that we are now figuring out how to tap into, for our energy needs. Places like Iceland, where thermal energy is abundant have a lot of ongoing R&D into best way to utilize this form of clean energy.
4. Tide Water Energy: The possibility of using tide water to generate power is only now being considered as a viable energy resource, though we are yet to formulate a workable method of actually harnessing and using this tremendous natural force.
5. Other Sources: Other non-polluting and renewable sources of energy such as traditional biomass and hydroelectricity are already in place and constitute a significant proportion of the world’s energy needs and these are also green sources of energy.