Day 20: Renewable Energy

When I say renewable energy, what do you think of? Wind power and solar power are the first that come to my mind, but there is also low-impact hydro (as opposed to high impact large facilities), and 100% green natural gas. They are green because they are naturally replenished.



The way we currently mainly generate electricity is very harmful for the environment. Extracting energy from coal, oil or gas creates lots of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas linked to climate changes. And that's only the beginning, there are a lot of other problems with this way of generating electricity.

Wind power is the cleanest energy source, generating no air pollution.

Green Energy is a growing market. 12.7% of the U.S.'s energy came from renewable resources in 2011. The more you demand for it, the more they will invest in constructing new plants, windfields, etc.

Want to support green renewable energy? BullFrog is a Canadian company that promotes green energy. Basically, when you sign up with them, they put as much green energy into the system as you consume. So essentially you are using green energy. There's also Just Energy that is across North America.

The U.S. Depertment of Energy's website can help you determine how you can get green energy where you live.

Of course you can also simply lower your electricity and heating consumption. We'll cover that in the next post.

But I also wanted to give you some feasible green energy solutions you can do yourself at home. Again, I'm no expert, so I won't go into very much details, I don't want to give you false information. I just want to show that there are options out there!

Solar energy seems to be the most common and practical renewable energy used for ones home, though.

How about installing some solar panels on your roof, or car port? The energy created from this can be used for electricity, lighting, heating and cooling. Yes, it's a big investment, and needs a lot of research, so this option might be for the more hardcore eco-friendly people. But you never know until you look into it.

Solar Energy at Home is a great website to get you started, or to get you thinking about implementing this for your home!

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Similarly, you can have a solar water heater. They are black tubes where the water passes and the sun heats it up.


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Then there's the solar oven, or solar cooker. There are 3 types you can choose from, all of which concentrate sun rays on the pot or box oven to heat up food. Thought they were pretty cool, but then you can't cook on a cloudy day :( So it's not sustainable to use.


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Would solar energy be something you would consider for your home? Why or why not?! I'd really like to have solar panels when we get our own home someday!

P.S. I know I'm behind, and I have no excuse, other than I really wasn't motivated this weekend... sorry :( Will be catching up this week hopefully.

Catch up with the series:





I party at these parties.