Renewable energy and climate change

Increased solar power installations are making a dramatic change in fossil fuel consumptions. Climate change is the prime mover of renewable energy generation. Solar panels and wind turbines are an increasingly common sight everywhere. What are the benefits of renewable energies? How do they improve our health, environment, and economy? This article describes the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass.

Less global warming with solar energy

When looking for the causes of global warming, we must analyze our own energy consumption. Human activity is polluting our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a series of harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.

In the United States, almost a third of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

What is carbon dioxide and why is it dangerous?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, but other air pollutants—such as methane—also cause global warming. Different energy sources produce different amounts of these pollutants. To make comparisons easier, we use a carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e—the amount of carbon dioxide required to produce an equivalent amount of warming.

In contrast, most renewable energy sources produce little to no global warming emissions. Even when including “lifecycle” emissions of clean energy (ie, the emissions from each stage of a technology’s life—manufacturing, installation, operation, decommissioning), the global warming emissions associated with renewable energy are minimal.

Improved public health through the solar power

The air and water pollution emitted by fossil fuel plants is linked to breathing problems, neurological damage, heart attacks, cancer, premature death, and a host of other serious problems. The pollution affects everyone: one Harvard University study estimated the life-cycle costs and public health effects of coal to be an estimated $74.6 billion every year.

Negative health impacts from pollution

The majority of these negative health impacts come from air and water pollution that clean energy technologies simply don’t produce. Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no associated air pollution emissions. Geothermal and biomass systems emit some air pollutants, though total air emissions are generally much lower than those of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. In addition, wind and solar energy require virtually no water to operate and thus do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other water needs. Fossil fuels can have a significant impact on water resources: both coal mining and natural gas drilling can pollute sources of drinking water, and all thermal power plants, including those powered by coal, gas, and oil, withdraw and consume water for cooling.

Powerful winds, sunny skies, abundant plant matter, heat from the earth, and fast-moving water can each provide a vast supply of energy. A small fraction of US electricity currently comes from these sources, but that could change: studies have repeatedly shown that renewable energy can provide a sizable share of future electricity needs, even after accounting for potential constraints.

There has never been a better time to install a solar energy system! Considering the financial incentives and rebates available these days, it is more convenient than ever before to invest in solar. You can do your part to slow down climate change and provide an outstanding example to your neighbors so they will be motivated to install solar themselves!

For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.

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