Renewable Energy Overview
The term “renewable energy” gets thrown around a lot, but it isn’t often that renewable energy is actually defined. So what exactly is renewable energy?
Renewable energy is electricity that is generated from sources that restore themselves over a relatively short period of time and that do not diminish over the years. For example, fossil fuels are not renewable energy, since they are consumed only once and do not restore themselves whatsoever; however, solar energy is renewable because its source of power–the sun–is, for our human purposes, constant.
There are several examples of renewable energy sources that are currently used today, including:
- Solar energy
- Wind
- Geothermal
- Biomass
- Biogas
- Low-impact hydroelectricity
When you think renewable energy, you might be thinking that it sounds very similar to green energy. In fact, the two terms are used almost interchangeably. The similarities between the two are true in the sense that renewable energy sources are generally better for the environment than traditional energy sources like fossil fuels because they have few or no carbon emissions.
There are several different ways to use renewable energy, including:
- Generating renewable energy and using that same energy on-site where the power is generated. For example, if you were to install a solar panel array on your roof, then you would be generating and using renewable, with the on-site location being your home.
- Purchasing green power via a renewable energy credit (REC) program through an energy provider. In this way, you can choose to have your energy come from renewable sources through your normal energy provider.
There are several benefits of renewable energy, both for the economy and the environment. As mentioned above, since renewable energy sources often don’t have greenhouse gas emissions, producing energy from these sources is great for the environment. The economy would benefit as well: the creation of jobs in manufacturing, installation, and everything else that goes into creating and cultivating the renewable energy industry has huge benefits for local and national economies. Additionally, the resulting energy savings that energy customers experience from getting cheap electricity from renewable sources benefits the economy.
That said, there are a few barriers to jumping head first into a completely new energy industry. Among these barriers is the current price competitiveness between conventional and renewable energy, as well as the hard work that would be involved in making changes to the energy industry’s infrastructure and various other legal and logistical concerns.
With Star Energy Partners, you can choose to support the renewable energy industry by purchasing one of our green energy plans. By doing so, part of the cost of your electricity will be used to purchase renewable energy with RECs, as described above. For more information about RECs, check out our blog post explaining RECs and visit our Green Energy Page to see if Star Energy Partners is the right choice for your energy needs.
You can learn more about renewable energy by visitng the Environmental Protection Agency’s website.
