What Is Green Energy?
Flip on the news, browse social media, or take a stroll through your city center, and you’ll surely see green energy mentioned more than a few times.
This is the big buzzword of the 21st century, but it’s more than buzz – green energy is already a huge industry with a bright economic future, not to mention it’s better for the health of the planet and people worldwide. Green energy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions considerably, with immediate effect.
But while everyone thinks they know the meaning of green energy, giving a complete definition is not so simple. There are so many components to the umbrella of green energy, ranging from technology to economics, public policy, and everyday actions by real people. Additionally, there are many different types of green energy.
Let’s explore the many aspects of green energy one by one and get the big-picture vision of what green energy means. We’ll also touch on the future of crypto and how green energy ties into mining, blockchain resources, and a more efficient financial system for everyone.
Green Energy Basics
Let’s say you’re brand new to the idea of green energy – where to begin? Here are the basics you should know about before we get into types of green energy and real-world examples.
General Definition
In the simplest terms, green energy refers to renewable energy sources and production processes that use non-finite (renewables) resources.
This runs contrary to traditional forms of energy like natural gas (biodiesel, methane, and ethanol), coal, biomass (wood, agricultural waste, and biofuels), and other resources that are “burned” when utilized and cannot replenish at a sustainable rate.
The concept of green energy can get tricky when we start using comparable terms like “clean energy,” "renewable resource," "green power," and “renewable energy” interchangeably. Still, there are some distinctions here to keep in mind.
Clean energy is a form of energy that does not pollute the environment by releasing toxic chemicals, carbon dioxide emissions, or other pollutants.
Renewable energy comes from sources that are 100% sustainable, meaning they replenish naturally and exist abundantly in nature. These are called renewable energy resources.
You may also hear terms like “sustainable energy,” “efficient energy,” and other descriptions that ultimately amount to the same idea.
Why Green Energy Is Important
If you’ve been paying attention to the cost of energy and the impact of climate change on a global scale, you can quickly figure out why green energy is such an important concept right now.
Not only do fossil fuels and other “unclean” energy sources disperse pollutants like greenhouse gases into the air, but they are also finite resources by definition. This means that as global demand increases with population and industrialization, those resources will become more scarce and difficult to obtain.
As we’ve seen throughout history, problems like these can spark conflict and problems on a societal scale.
Knowing this, we should view green energy as a practical solution for the power grid and as a preventive measure for problems that may wait on the horizon if we continue down the road of non-renewable energy use forever.
How Green Energy Works
When you flip on a light switch in your home or power up the electric stove, you don’t know for sure whether your energy is coming from a renewable source or somewhere else.
That’s because your regional electric grid combines a wide variety of different power sources to distribute throughout the area. Information about the electricity “mix” in your region is available online, so you can see first-hand how green energy is – or isn’t – being used.
On a practical level, green energy projects are about implementing and maintaining technology and infrastructure rather than extracting resources from a single area before moving on to the next site.
While oil rigs or coal mining operations may move around several times over a decade, green energy assets are built to last and require less direct daily involvement to achieve their yields.
The engineering and science behind green energy are extremely complex and still developing.
But just by knowing the basics, we can see the key differences that set it apart from traditional types of energy and why it’s so important.
Types of Green Energy
Let’s get into a few types of green energy that are increasingly in popularity around the world.
Solar Power
You’ve seen plenty of solar panels by now, arranged by the dozens in fields or fixed to rooftops in your city or town. The concept of harnessing solar energy is simple – energy from the sun, or sunlight, is converted directly into usable electricity for your home with photovoltaic (PV) panels.
Solar power is a hugely popular form of green energy, and the industry has grown well into the billions of dollars annually.
The efficiency of solar power is still not up to par for many electric grids to rely on it more heavily. Adoption is still lagging in some areas of the world without sufficient sun exposure. However, this may change with the development of offshore wind farms.
Wind Power
With wind flowing non-stop in certain areas of the globe, it only makes sense to take advantage of this natural, renewable form of green energy.
Wind turbines may be somewhat expensive to implement (not to mention their blades are huge and off-putting), but once in place, they are a highly efficient source of power, given the continued flow of wind in the area.
The wind turbines’ rotor is connected to a generator, and through a series of gears and shafts, wind energy is captured and transmitted directly to the grid, regardless of wind speeds.
Land-based wind, offshore wind, and even distributed wind (individual turbine setups for homes and private land) are all a possibility to make the most of wind power.
Hydroelectric Power
The water flow on our planet is an incredible, infinite source of kinetic energy, whether it’s a raging river, towering waterfalls, or the tides of the largest oceans.
The cornerstone of this energy type is the hydroelectric power plant, a facility containing mechanisms that harness energy with turbines as water flows.
While the technical function of hydroelectric is similar to wind power as we described, hydropower is more widely used around the world due to its adaptability and lower cost of implementation. We produce hydroelectric power using dams and their reservoirs.
Geothermal Power
Thermal energy is abundant beneath the earth’s crust, processes that have been occurring for billions of years since the planet’s formation.
While humans have been bathing in hot springs since Paleolithic times, we’re now harnessing the geothermal energy generated by the earth’s natural heat to power our electric grids and even mine Bitcoin, as they’ve done in El Salvador.
Common Green Energy Questions
Here are a handful of commonly asked questions on the subject of green energy.
Is Green Energy Economical?
A myth about green energy is that it’s always more economical than fossil fuels. This isn’t necessarily the case 100% of the time because strategy and engineering are major factors in the efficiency of any energy plan.
However, on the whole, green energy is more economical than fossil fuels, especially when we consider the scarcity of these traditional resources on a longer time horizon.
Can Green Energy Replace Fossil Fuels?
It may be decades before green energy replaces fossil fuels entirely, if at all. Still, leaders of industry such as the World Economic Forum are eager to move things in this direction to limit the impact of climate change, reduce carbon emissions, and make energy more accessible worldwide.
How Can Green Energy Power Crypto?
The biggest factors in the profitability of crypto mining are power costs and energy consumption, making green energy an appealing resource for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other miners worldwide.
Carbon neutral Bitcoin mining may be an ambitious goal, but innovative companies are already blazing the trail with infrastructure, partnerships, renewable energy projects, and the Crypto Climate Accord.
Sources:
Renewable Energy Benefits | EPA