Renewable Energy Options for Utilities and Consumers

With all the buzz about renewable energy in the news and around the water cooler, you may be wondering just what constitutes ‘green energy.’ Although some energy companies tout their clean-burning coal factories as green, that is not what most of the general public has in mind. Beyond the basic wind and solar power, you will find that green energy can also be created through water, biomass and geothermal systems.

Hydroelectricity



With a long history of use in the Unites States and abroad, hydroelectricity is one of the older forms of renewable energy. A dam is built to direct water through turbines. The water pressure turns the turbines and creates electricity.


While water is a free natural resource, building dams can be cost-prohibitive for smaller utilities. In addition, there is the added complication of needing to be located near a river to harness hydroelectricity.


Although a renewable resource, the use of hydroelectricity in recent years has lost some of its green credibility. Environmentalists point to disrupted ecosystems and the effects on the watershed as a result of damming a river. While hydroelectricity may still be a smart choice in some areas, dams are being dismantled and removed in other regions.


Biomass

The term biomass refers to a number of different energy producing techniques that rely on organic material. The ‘old school’ way of using biomass was burning logs to heat homes.
Nowadays, energy specialists are tapping into otherwise unused resources. For example, one of the latest trends in biomass energy is to tap into the methane gas produced by manure at large farming operations. Other energy operations may harness methane energy from landfills or convert corn to ethanol.

Biomass is a renewable resource because…face it…there will always be more garbage, more manure and more trees. However, some forms of biomass are considered more green than others. For example, wood burning is generally not practical for large scale energy needs since it would require vast amounts of deforestation to obtain the necessary amount of wood.

Geothermal

Another emerging form of renewable energy is geothermal systems. This energy comes from tapping into the heat creating by the Earth’s core. Some geothermal systems are considered direct use and rely on hot springs or reservoirs near the surface. For consumers, direct use allows them to heat their home with hot water transferred from underground.


For utility companies, geothermal power plants often require drilling pipes miles underground. To create electricity using geothermal energy, super hot water or steam is removed from deep below the surface and sent to a power plant. California leads the nation with more than 30 geothermal power plants.



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Maryalene LaPonsie is an accomplished writer who has extensive experience reporting on education, career advancement and workforce development topics. She specializes in sales and marketing consultation as well as general copywriting services.