Green Energy
What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy comes from sources that are constantly and naturally renewed, such as wind power and solar energy. Renewable energy is also often called sustainable energy.
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What is clean energy? And what are the differences between green energy, clean energy, and renewable energy?
Renewables do not emit greenhouse gases in energy generation processes, making them the cleanest, most viable solution to prevent environmental degradation.
There are clear crossovers between clean energy, green energy, and renewable energy.
Here’s an easy way to differentiate between them:
- Clean energy = clean air
- Green energy = sources from nature
- Renewable energy = recyclable sources
What is Net Zero?
Net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.
What are the Benefits of Renewable Energy?
- Non pollutant – emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air.
- Independence – as a country we won’t need to rely on fossil fuel power that comes from overseas countries that control the pricing.
- Cheaper – Renewable energy is the cheapest power option in most parts of the world today. The cost of electricity from solar power fell by 85 percent between 2010 and 2020. Costs of onshore and offshore wind energy fell by 56 percent and 48 percent respectively.
- Healthier – According to the World Health Organization, about 99% of people in the world breathe air that exceeds air quality limits and threatens their health. Switching to clean sources of energy, such as wind and solar, thus helps address not only climate change but also air pollution and health.
- Job opportunities – Every dollar of investment in renewables creates three times more jobs than in the fossil fuel industry.
What is Green energy?
Green energy is produced from renewable sources and is intended to be environmentally friendly. It produces less carbon emissions than coal and oil.
Types of Green energy:
Solar Energy captured using panels which convert sunshine into usable energy. As with wind turbines, solar panels can be installed across huge expanses of land to create solar farms. They can also be fitted to the roof of individual properties.
Wind turbines are used to power generators that feed electricity into the National Grid. Wind farms are created from the installation of turbines across acres of rural land and off the coast.
Tidal Energy produced by the rise and fall of the tide is captured by a barrage positioned across the mouth of a river or a bay.
Hydroelectric. A dam or barrier is used to create a reservoir of water. The controlled flow of the water drives a turbine which creates electricity that can be stored, if necessary, until needed. It is one of the most reliable renewable energy sources as it is not dependent on the wind or sunshine.
Geothermal. This technology captures natural heat from within the earth and uses it to generate power.
Bioenergy. Processes such as anaerobic digestion break down animal or food waste to produce green gas, while other organic matter can be burned to generate electricity.
The rise in Green energy Tariffs
As concerns around climate change, pollution and diminishing fossil fuel reserves continue to grow, ‘green’ or renewable energy tariffs have become increasingly popular with consumers.
On the back of this rise in demand, many more energy suppliers now offer green tariffs. In fact, research from Forbes shows that 61% of tariffs on the market in August 2021 were green compared to 43% the same time last year.
Suppliers that offer Green energy
You can now ask for Green/ renewable energy from the following suppliers:
- British Gas – British Gas get 75% of their electricity from environmentally friendly sources – the national average for suppliers is just 40%. Their green tariff matches 100% of the electricity you buy with renewable sources. For all the electricity you use, they feed the same amount back into the National Grid from sustainable sources.
- SSE – SSE have a portfolio of around 4GW of onshore wind, offshore wind, and hydro. They are aiming to treble their renewable energy output from 2019 levels to 30TWh by 2030.
- ON Next – All E.ON Next customers’ homes and businesses get 100% renewable electricity, at no extra cost. E.ON’s renewable generation assets, supply agreements with independent UK wind generators and the purchase of renewable electricity certificates.
- EDF – Currently, EDF have dozens of operational wind farms, including offshore as well as Solar PV and battery storage projects across the UK and Ireland.
- Scottish Power – A Scottish Power green energy tariff means that all the energy a customer buys is matched by purchases of renewable energy. All the renewable energy they sell through their green energy tariffs is sourced from windfarm generation and backed by green energy certificates known as Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs).
- Drax – Drax operates a generation portfolio of sustainable biomass, hydro-electric and pumped hydro storage assets across four sites in England and Scotland. It is the UK’s largest source of renewable electricity.
How green is your supplier?
Several suppliers offer green energy tariffs, but some suppliers are ‘greener’ than others when it comes to how much they support renewable energy.
Choosing a green tariff doesn’t automatically mean you are choosing a supplier that owns solar and wind farms, for example. But it may have deals to buy power from renewable generators.
Energy firms are required by law to publish details of their ‘fuel mix’ – in other words, what percentage of the electricity they generate comes from renewable sources and what percentage comes from other sources such as coal, gas and nuclear power. This must be updated at least once a year. You should be able to find this information on the supplier’s website or on your energy bill.
Some suppliers also make donations to green community projects or support initiatives such as tree planting or carbon offsetting.
How can you support Green Energy?
Choosing a green energy tariff is not the only way you can help support green energy. You may want to consider investing in energy efficient solutions like Solar PV and LED lighting. With the ever on going increase of energy prices and their uncapped nature, energy efficient solutions are fast becoming a go to for businesses to self-generate energy, lower carbon emissions, and meet Net Zero goals set by the Government.
Future proof operations with Energy efficiency
Investing in energy efficient solutions will allow you to generate a proportion of your current energy demand yourself through green energy. Therefore, allowing you to save purchasing this percentage of brown energy from the national grid at ever rising uncapped prices. Get in touch with one of our energy efficient specialists today.
What is causing climate change?
Scientists believe that climate change is being triggered by higher levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Their name derives from the greenhouse effect they create by warming the Earth’s surface and the air above it. This is caused by gases that trap energy from the sun. The most common greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane.
How can we stop climate change?
The excess of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is triggering harmful global warming, so reducing the amount of these gases should help to tackle climate change. This can be done in two ways:
- lower the emissions we are sending into the atmosphere, from activities such as industrial processes, power generation, transport, and intensive agriculture
- remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, for example by capturing carbon created during industrial processes before it’s released or planting more trees.