Green Energy: What is it and How Does it Work?

As people in this country are becoming more environmentally conscious, the term “green” is getting applied to more and more things as a marketing gimmick. The same is true for the term green energy. If you are someone who is concerned with the environment, and would like to better understand what green energy means, then this article is for you.

Green energy is a very generic term that means that it is energy produced in an environmentally conscious manner. While the term “environmentally conscious” manner is subjective, it essentially means that the way of producing green energy is less harmful to the environment than the current mass production involving fossil fuels. Green energy means better for the environment, it does not mean that it is perfect.

Green energy can help the environment by meeting the demand for electricity caused by the general public in a way that burns less fossil fuel, and therefore emits less pollution into the air. By producing as much energy as possible through one of these green, or alternative, forms of energy production, we decrease the pollution that is emitted into the atmosphere.

Currently, we use green energy in a number of ways. Many utility companies are installing wind farms and solar farms. Wind farms are installations of hundreds, even thousands, of windmills. As the windmills turn, they generate electricity which is added to the grid. Solar fields are large arrays of photo voltaic cells that produce electricity when sun light strikes their surface. Depending on the location of the utility company, they may be in a position to take advantage of hydroelectric generation, or using water to create electricity. There are other forms of green energy, such as tidal power and geothermal ground coupling, but the three forms mentioned above are the ones that are being used on a commercial scale.

If you are interested in installing some sort of green energy production method in your home, there are several pertinent forms of legislation that you should be aware of. Federal and state laws may provide you with incentives to add solar panels or wind mill to your property. Research the laws in your area to find out if you might qualify for these legislative incentives.

Currently, the drawbacks of green energy remain in the cost and scale. We can not produce enough energy through green methods to meet our demand. Also, though green energy may be cost efficient in the long run, in the short run it requires large cash expenditures. You may end up ahead in the long run, but you still need to invest money up front.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of what green energy is and how it is currently being used to help the environment. If you would like to learn more about green energy, the best place for you to start is at the web site of your local utility company. There you can learn what is being done in your area to further the cause of green energy.