A Guide to Green Energy

Although it has taken significantly longer than most people would have liked, it finally appears that most of the civilized world now realizes the importance of green energy. When you say green energy to most people, they assume you are talking about wind power and solar power, and while those are two of the most prominent types of green energy, there are others on the radar, as well, such as geothermal power, power from water and biomass power. Your home may already be getting some of its power from one of these sources, but if not, there are things you can do to reserve your seat on the green energy bandwagon.

Wind Energy
Solar Energy
Geothermal Energy
Other Types of Green Energy

Wind Energy

It seems that wind farms are cropping up all over the world, but depending on the country you live in, you may have trouble getting electricity generated from wind power or selling back any extra power you create from your own wind turbines.

Currently, Europe is light years ahead of the United States when it comes to harnessing the power of wind and allowing people to build their own wind farms and then sell back the power to the grid.

If you live in a city, there are rooftop wind turbines you can purchase now for as little as $200. As technology improves, the sky is truly the limit for what wind power can do, even in urban environments.

Solar Energy

For generations now, solar power has been a pipe dream for people all around the world, but now that super concentrated solar cells are finally available, homes all over the world, especially in traditionally sunny places like Australia, California and Spain, are beginning to generate their own energy. According to recent numbers released in the United States, a solar panel array mounted on your home will go for anywhere between $50,000 to $80,000 with more complex arrays costing more. It won't be too long before people can actually make an initial investment of a large array on a piece of land and then sell back the energy to the power company for a profit. The advances made in recent years in photo cells have been amazing and this is definitely one hot technology for the future.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy doesn't get nearly the attention that solar and wind do, but it is a clean, renewable form of energy that uses the heat generated by the earth to create electricity. In places where there is a lot of volcanic and geothermal activity, such as geysers and hot springs, geothermal energy is a major source of clean energy.

Iceland is the worldwide leader in geothermal energy and studies have shown that most countries that sit on the Ring Of Fire are more than capable of generating geothermal energy. The problem with geothermal is that individuals can't really generate their own power. However, exploration is still ongoing in this field and you can expect more and more of the world's power to come from underground as time goes on.

Other Types of Green Energy

The final two types of renewable, green energy are water power and biomass energy.

It is safe to say that the very first kind of clean, renewable energy ever used by humankind was water power. We have all been building hydroelectric dams for decades and we're just beginning to figure out how to harness the awesome power of the tides.

Biomass energy, on the other hand, is one form of power that most people haven't heard of. If you live within a few dozen miles of a landfill, you may be using biomass energy right now and not even realizing it. Collecting the gases that come from landfills and then using that gas to power entire cities is already going on in parts of the world. Along with this form of power collection, ethanol, biodiesel, solid waste burning, and wood burning all come under the umbrella of biomass fuel. Obviously, some forms of biomass are preferred to others, but they are all renewable forms of energy that will play a larger and larger role in our lives as fossil fuels are slowly phased out.