The great advantages of solar

Increased solar power installations are making a significant 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 alternative energy sources? How do they improve our fitness, environment, and economy? This article describes the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass.

Global warming is reduced with solar energy

When looking for the causes of global warming, we must investigate our own energy consumption. Human activity is polluting our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming discharges. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a range 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 discharges come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

What is carbon dioxide and why is it dangerous?

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

In contrast, most renewable energy sources generate 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 linked with renewable energy are minimal.

Solar improves public health

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

Negative health consequences from pollution

The majority of these negative health influences come from air and water pollution that clean energy technologies don’t produce. Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no air pollution emissions. Geothermal and biomass systems emit some air pollutants, though total air emissions are usually much lower than those of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. In addition, wind and solar energy need virtually no water to operate and thus do not contaminate water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other water needs. Fossil fuels can have a meaningful 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 produce a vast supply of energy. A small portion 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.

Explore the exciting world of solar energy! Solar energy is one of the best investments a home or business owner can make. Imagine producing your own electricity, free from the confines of the electric grid. When others have power outages, you can keep steaming right along.

There has never been a better time to install a solar energy system

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