Where Clean Energy Providers Source

Saving the Planet Means Playing Video Games During the Day

Can you imagine a world where you’re doing everyone a favor by playing your video games during the day? Well, that’s not quite what you need to do to make a difference, but if your home is powered, in part, by clean energy, that’s a start! Clean energy has all of the strength and the perks of energy from the electric grid, with a fraction of the detriment to the environment. Choosing to integrate green energy into your home’s energy source, or by switching completely, you’re choosing to continue to have a high-powered life while reducing your carbon footprint. Where, though, does this power come from? Clean energy providers

Solar

Solar energy is energy that comes from the sun. Capturing this energy, though, was a challenge. At the end of the 19th century, the first prototype of a solar panel was created in a European laboratory. It was noted that an organic material could capture sunlight, and reacted by producing electricity as a waste product. Years later, the first commercially useful solar panels were invented, and those same solar panels are still fully-functional to this day. At the time they were created, it was estimated that the solar panels would last for about twenty years, but they have lasted twice as long, and they have lasted without losing any of their effectiveness. Clean energy providers will usually buy the solar energy from a solar farm, and then use a network of transformers to get it to homes in the region.

Wind

The same wind that blows through your hair and makes trees dance has been used as a source of clean energy since the dawn of man. Small ships and boats took people from point A to point B, and made it easy for people to trade and travel. Later, when people built windmills, wind was used to grind wheat, and keep fires burning. Beautiful structures that could be seen for miles fed families. Today, those windmills are wind turbines, dotting landscapes in clusters called wind farms. Wind Farms are actually quite beautiful, and some particularly attractive ones are the Altamont Wind Farm in Livermore, California and the offshore wind farms all over the world. Wind turbines spin, turning an internal shaft, which then turns a generator. That generator produces power, sometimes enough to light entire neighborhoods for days at a time. Don’t be shy about using your wind energy!

Hydro

Hydroelectric power works the way that wind turbines work with the spinning generator, but instead of relying on the wind, hydroelectric power relies on the motion of water. These dams are most often situated on top of major waterfalls with extreme currents, which is perfect to provide power for miles around. Hydroelectric power was first used by the first fishermen, who took their boats out to bring fish back to their families. Later, a combination of this hydropower and wind power was used to navigate major waters, changing the face of the world with clean energy.