Solar energy is a green energy source because it is a renewable and it does not cause any harm to the environment. This is achieved by converting the sun’s rays into electricity with the help of solar cells.

There are three basic approaches how we can use this form of green energy source namely passive, active and by using photovoltaic cells.

When we refer to passive solar energy, nothing is converted. What happens is the building’s design helps avoid heat loss and gets the most out of day lighting.

Such a technique can also be used in homes because studies have shown that this can reduce the heating requirements by as much as 80% with minimal cost. This means you don’t have to turn on the air condition or heater that often and if everyone does that, we don’t consume that much electricity which we get from non-renewable resources.

The second approach which is active solar energy is the first way of converting sunlight into heat. You should know that there are certain limits to this one and all it can do is make sure you have hot water.

The third approach is the big scale version and it can power an office or an entire home. This is done with the help of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. The smallest ones around can be seen in calculators and watches with large ones planted over huge acres of land.

The only limitation to this green energy source is the fact that it can only generate power when the weather is good and the sun is out. Should it rain, then nothing is collected and converted. When this happens, the auxiliary system is turned on until the weather improves.

Despite that, scientists and students themselves have made solar powered cars. NASA or the National Aeronautical Space Administration has sent satellites into space that are powered by solar panels. A fully functional airport can function on its own thanks to solar power even if it is situated in the middle of the frozen desert.

So people can see the awesome power of solar energy, did you know a kilowatt of solar energy can produce 5.5 hours of electricity per day. If you have more solar cells in place, naturally you will be able to produce enough power to last several days.

Solar energy is just one form of green energy source around. Through the years, we have learned to tap other resources and these examples include wind power, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity and biogas. These are all safe and by using these more often, we don’t need to depend on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.

To make this happen, we have to persuade our law makers to promote the use of such resources. Although you hear speeches left and right about their concern for the environment, it is all talk and not that much action. It is something that has to change.

Two countries that have increased solar usage happen to be Germany and Japan. Spain, France, Italy and South Korea are next in the list and where is the United States? Well, one thing is for certain and that it is not in the top 10 despite the fact that it is an industrialized nation.

Solar Energy Is A Form Of Green Energy Source is a post from: Sustainable Development

Is biomass a green energy source? According to experts, yes it is. In fact, it is one of the three main areas of bioenergy.

But what is bioenergy? Well, it is a process by which organic material such as animal waste, plants and wood are used to generate electricity, produce heat and also aid in the production of biofuels.

In the case of biomass, hot air or water is generated to produce electricity. This is done through direct combustion and is considered the simplest and most common method of generating energy from biomass.

Aside from generating electricity, biomass can be used for hot air production so you can keep a place warm. For this to work, biomass has to be combusted in a furnace where it heats either water or air. Speaking of water, this enables you to have warm water so you can take a shower. In short, biomass in itself can also be used in a small scale as a heating system.

Since you can generate electricity and heat, some people have been able to combine the two which is known as combined heat and power or CHP. Something that many consider to be good as you use one energy source for two purposes.

If you are able to compare the amount of electricity generated between biomass and let’s say solar energy, you will notice that biomass produces more because the energy in plants is already captured and stored.

You don’t have to collect it first which is what happens with solar or even wind energy since this is manufactured technology. It is readily available unlike the other two which is totally dependent on the weather.

Another is the fact that you can even use organic waste to product electricity. No other green energy source can do that and by using this extensively, any government can save money because you don’t have to spend money to dispose of the waste and you will no longer depend on foreign oil that much to power your plants.

The downside to biomass is that because you have to burn waste and other organic materials to product power, you add to the pollution which is already in the atmosphere. But this can be offset of course by planting more crops which we know helps reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

You will also have to shell out a lot of money initially for the costs of labor, the transport of these fuels and how these should be stored.

Biomass uses renewable natural resources which is why it is considered a green energy source. This means that we have an endless supply of it around just like the power of the sun or the wind which flows from the ocean. The challenge is to find suitable land that has a sufficient water supply so these will be able to grow.

This means that in areas where water is not that abundant, you cannot rely on biomass technology to generate power. When that happens, you use other means and one good example given the right geographical location is wave energy which is the process of generating power from the water.

There is a way to generate power without causing harm to the environment. We have the technology and the green energy sources. We just need to muster the willingness to make it happen.

Is Biomass A Green Energy Source? is a post from: Sustainable Development

For more than a century, we rely on oil to fuel our cars. But did you know that the world’s oil is close to drying up because it is a nonrenewable resource? Well that may not happen tomorrow or next year but we are getting closer because of the demand in the world market. Why wait for that day when we can rely on a green energy source like water to power our cars.

Water can power a car? If you think that’s impossible, well it is already here but this is not yet being made on a commercial scale.

The German automobile BMW has produced the world’s first ever hydrogen powered car. While only 100 of these units were produced, you can already imagine if more of these vehicles are on the road.

The initial model namely the BMW Hydrogen 7 uses the body of the 760i model. Once you pop the hood, you will notice that the engine is different since it uses gas and hydrogen.

This just means we have not yet totally abandoned are dependence on gas. Given more time and money, the current 4.7 miles per gallon it can travel using water alone could hit double digits in the future.

The biggest challenge to using water as a green energy source as opposed to oil in vehicles is the engine. While there are cars around like the Prius which runs on electricity and gas thanks to fuel cell technology, the hydrogen combustion is less than 10 years old so you could say we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

To prevent the water from evaporating, this has to be stored in a large, 30-gallon, bi-layered and highly insulated tank so this does not evaporate into compressed gas. Another safety mechanism is the valves which are designed to open should the pressure within the tank exceed 5 bars.

With the success of the BMW H7, the company came out with a new car that is also partly powered by water known as the H2R. While we cannot yet put our garden hose into the fuselage to fill it up, this vehicle uses liquid nitrogen as a fuel.

Tests on this vehicle have shown it can achieve 285hp and reach a top cruising speed of 185.5 miles per hour. It can also accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour under 6 seconds.

But why use water? It is because hydrogen combustion is clean so it does not emit harmful gases into the atmosphere unlike cars that run on petrol or diesel that emit carbon monoxide. Studies have shown that it also weighs less than hydrocarbon-based fuels and burns faster than conventional gasoline.

So when can you expect to buy a car that uses water as a green energy source? Hopefully in the next 10 to 20 years. It is really up to the automakers because all we can do is wait until a better and clear car hits the dealership.

Right now, the best option we have are electric cars. Since its introduction in 1999, more people are using it because they don’t want to spend anymore for gasoline that could hit an all time high of more than $110 per barrel.

If water as a green energy source can be used to power a car, why don’t we do the same for solar power which has been around much longer?

Can You Use A Water To Power A Car? is a post from: Sustainable Development

Biofuels are also a green energy source. It has been around for a very long time and lately, people are beginning to take notice.

Liquid biofuel which is the one used in cars is a natural and renewable domestic fuel that can only be used for diesel engines. This can be made from vegetable oils mostly soy and corn. The nice thing about it is that it contains no petroleum, is nontoxic and biodegradable.

By fueling up with biofuel, you decrease the pollutants in the air because it does not emit anything. Right now, it is the only fuel approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), passed every Heath-Effects Test of the Clean Air Act and meets the requirements of the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

One example of this is biodiesel which is made from alcohol like methanol and a chemical process that separates glycerine and methyl esters (biodiesel) from fats or vegetable oils. Aside from methanol, some countries have also experimented with corn and sugarcane to create their own version of biofuel.

Glycerine is a common products and this is used in making toothpaste and soap. Since it is quite new, the process of converting it is quite expensive and right now, this is still much more expensive per gallon compared to petroleum.

But if you look at what you pay for it, the returns are huge because you get to do your share to preserve a cleaner environment, an improvement in air quality and a reduction of cancer-causing agents.

A cheaper and primitive way to make bio-diesel is by collecting cooking oil and then processing it. This may not good your car’s engine so be careful if you decide to use it.

If you are skeptic about biodiesels, studies have shown that its performance on the road is just as good as petroleum in terms of power to efficiency, hauling and climbing. You can use this in its pure form or blend with petroleum fuel. The most common mix in the market is 20/80 and is referred to as “B20.” This means that 20% is biodiesel and the remainder is 80%. Another version is the E85 which is fuel composed of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

The best part about using biodiesel is that you only have to make a few changes in your engine to be able to use it. Aside from making the car run, it also helps clean the engine. If you are concerned that this will void the warranty of your vehicle should there be a problem, don’t worry because it doesn’t. In the US, B20 is the most common one available but there are only a few gas stations that carry it.

When car’s first rolled out in the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford planned to make these vehicles especially the Model T’s run using ethanol. Tests have even shown that these may also run using peanut oil.

This never materialized because huge oil deposits were discovered and diesel was cheap. It was only when our demand for oil increased in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and in the early part of this year that people began to realize that to reduce our demand for foreign oil that we should try using biodiesels and other forms of alternative energy.

Is it too late? Not yet because there is still time to use biofuels and others as green energy sources.

Biofuels Are A Green Energy Source is a post from: Sustainable Development

Today, we are now aware of the effects of global warming. Fortunately, it’s not too late and we can still change which is why many are pushing for green energy sources.

The advantage of using green energy sources is that it is clean so it does not emit anything harmful into the air which has an impact on the environment. It is also renewable which means we will never run out of it unlike oil which is expected to dry up in a decade or so.

Although green energy facilities are expensive to build, it requires less maintenance so you don’t have to shell out a lot of money to operate it.

It can also bring economic benefits to certain areas even boost tourism.

While these sound good, there are some who say that there are advantages to using such technology.

While green energy sources can produce electricity, how much it can generate is not consistent. This is because we have no control of the weather so if a certain area relies on solar energy and there is a weather disturbance, it will not be able to convert sunlight into electricity.

Building these facilities also requires a lot of land so we may have to cut on farmland which is what many are concerned about if more wind turbines are to be put up.

Another disadvantage is the fact that some of the green energy sources cannot be installed in certain areas of the planet. For instance, wave energy can only be utilized if the waves coming from the ocean reach at least 16 feet. The use geothermal energy can only be done in geologically unstable parts of the planet.

But if you look at such arguments, places that cannot use one form of green energy source can be substituted for another. If wind turbines need more space, they can be installed near the coast instead of putting these on land. A study shows that you can generate more electricity while these are in the ocean.

While the weather is something we cannot control, it is not everyday that there is a weather disturbance so this too shall pass. If solar energy is being used and the sun is covered, the emergency generators will be activated and use up the energy that was stored.

The point is that there are ways around the arguments put by certain individuals which discourage the use of green energy sources. In fact, research is ongoing to try and harness other means to generate the power we need.

A very good example of this is called ocean thermal energy. Power is generated by harnessing the different temperatures in the water. It is currently being used on a small scale both in Japan and Hawaii.

In the US, only 7% of green energy sources are used nationally. This was much higher 11 years ago and if we don’t have to worry about the cost of oil or even reduce our dependency on it, we have to invest more in this clean energy.

We can get it from green energy sources such as biomass, biodiesel, geothermal, solar, water and the wind. These are things we have all around us and all it takes is for someone to harness it instead of relying on traditional non-renewable means to produce energy.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Green Energy Sources is a post from: Sustainable Development

Green power funding comes from a variety of places, but a good portion comes from grants. The states Department of Environmental Protection offer grants to develop technologies to produce renewable energy, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric. Renewable energy technology grants help to generate the green energy movement by paying for the turbines that generate electricity.

Green power funding pays for many of the large wind turbines. Farm land is often used to generate electricity. The presence of windmills or wind turbines wont harm crops, nor will they bother livestock. The land can support many turbines. Green power funding is also paying for cow power; the cow waste is used to generate electricity. A farm in Rutland, Vermont received $666,000 from the Central Vermont Public Service Renewable Development Fund, which helped to offset the cost of building a farm-based power station. Grants and other forms of green power funding will help the participating states develop thousands of megawatt-hours of sustainable energy each month.

Green power funding is similar throughout the world. In the United Kingdom green power funding comes from the European Union and government grants. Because of global warming, power companies are willing and eager to offer electricity powered from the wind and other sources. People who purchase green power from a power company must pay extra for it. Power made from the wind doesn’t cost anything to make, and there are no harmful gas emissions associated with wind power.

Though the electricity developed from the wind is cheap to make, the turbines that generate the electricity are not cheap. Green power funding pays for part of cost, but not all of it. Some green power funding comes from the interested investors, and the wind farmer must also invest money into creating an alternative source of energy. Whether the farmer has wind turbines or turbines generated by cow power, these machines cost a fortune to build. Most people interested in going into the green power business have to have some kind of green power funding to help them achieve their goals of providing sustainable energy to make a living.

When you go green and purchase power developed from renewable energy, the premium that you pay per month helps to promote more green power funding to help other people build alternative power plants on their land. Several states mandate that a certain percentage of power offered by the power companies must come from renewable sources. Much of the world is decreasing their dependence on fossil fuel to generate electricity, and now much of the United States is doing the same thing. People interested in protecting the environment don’t mind paying a few extra dollars a month on their power bills, when that money is used to promote more green power funding.

Help Promote Green Power Funding is a post from: Sustainable Development

The Green Power Healthy Mincer is a small sturdy manual grinder. This valuable kitchen tool grinds, minces, and makes pasta from scratch. The Green Power Healthy Mincer has a suction base that can be securely affixed to your table or counter top. This innovative piece of machinery has sharp and durable stainless steel blades that are ideal for tenderizing touch cuts of meat. You will find you cannot do without this appliance.

The Green Power Healthy Mincer will save you a significant amount of money on your grocery bill. Consider buying store-bought noodles, spaghetti, linguini, rigatoni, hamburger, stew beef, and canned vegetables a thing of the past. You can now make your own hamburger and sausage. You can make every kind of pasta that you can think of. You can process your own chopped nuts, fruits and vegetables to eat now, freeze or dry for future consumption. The Green Power Healthy Mincer chops or grinds pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, almonds, and much more to use in healthy recipes. There is no comparison between fresh healthy food that you prepare yourself from scratch, than buying highly processed foods on the grocers shelves.

The Green Power Healthy Mincer is easy to take apart and clean. When you are finished using the unit, unlock the lock-knob in a counter clockwise direction. Wash and dry all the parts. Once you purchase and use the Green Power Healthy Mincer you wont want to use anything else.

Buying fresh whole foods and processing them with the Green Power Healthy Mincer is so much healthier than buying processed products that have been sitting on a store shelf forever. You can be assured that everything you are putting into your body is 100 percent natural and that there are no preservatives in them.

The Green Power Healthy Mincer can be purchased for less than $30 at this easy to use website: http://cdn.discountjuicers.com/order.html. The website is secure; just follow the directions to pay with your credit card. This link may not work for AOL users. There are directions on the website to order offline.

Introducing the Green Power Healthy Mincer is a post from: Sustainable Development

The Green Power Juicer is a heavy duty juicer that uses centrifuge to separate juice from the pulp of fruits and vegetables. It has long been held that juices are good for us. When we are sick the doctor tells us to drink plenty of juices. The Green Power Juicer extracts more juice with vitamins and minerals than any other juicer on the market.

We should eat several servings of fruits and vegetables each day, but many of us are have busy lives and we cannot take the time to eat right, so drinking our fruits and vegetables is the next best option. The Green Power Juicer is easy to use and automatically ejects the pulp that you can use as a great fiber source in many of your recipes. There is no sense wasting the pulp of the fruits and vegetables. Save them, freeze them for later use. You can use the pulp of vegetables in your favorite home made soup. The pulp of fruits can be used in energy shakes, gelatin desserts, and in many other recipes that calls for fruit.

The juicer has a twin gear press which presses out high volumes of juice from all forms of fruits and vegetables, including the green leafy vegetables. Green juices, such as those in green leafy vegetables and wheat grass contain lots of vitamins and minerals essential to our health, but conventional juicers either don’t extract a significant amount of juice or don’t hold up as long as the Green Power Juicer. Some people may be a little leery of drinking juices made of dark green vegetables, for fear they will taste bad, but the Green Power Juicer produces juices with a fresh rich taste. Besides tasting good, the dark juices will provide you with healthy amounts of copper, calcium, iron and many other minerals, and all of the essential vitamins.

Once you try the Green Power Juicer you will never want to go back to drinking canned or frozen fruit and vegetable juices. The commercially produced juices contain additives that may not be healthy for us to ingest on a regular basis. Using the Green Power Juicer you can make juice popsicles; your children will love them. You can make large quantities of fruit and vegetable juices and freeze them for later consumption. You can freeze juices in resealable containers such as Tupperware. Plastic glasses with lids are a great way to store these juices in the freezer. If you are in a hurry for work, take a container out of the freezer and take it with you to work. Your juice will be thawed and ready to drink by the time you take your break.

The Green Power Juicer is a quiet running machine due to its running at low RPMs. The juicer is easy to take apart and put together and easy to clean. All you need to do is rinse the parts off under running water. The Green Power Juicer comes with a 5 year warranty on the unit itself, and the motor and gears have a warranty of 2 years.

The Advantages of the Green Power Juicer is a post from: Sustainable Development

The Green Power miter saws are some of the most versatile compound miter saws on the market. The saw has a 1800 watt double insulated motor that can turn the saw blade at 4500 RPMs. The double insulation of the motor prevents the user from getting an electrical shock.

No do-it-yourselfer, or home builder should be without the Green Power miter saws. The Green Power miter saws are easy to pivot to make angular cuts. It doesn’t matter if you are working on simple projects or installing crown molding; the Green Power miter saws make the perfect cuts, and makes you look like an expert. It can be a bit difficult to cut crown molding and get it right, but the Green Power miter saws make it look easy.

Cut like an expert, even if it is your very first time; the laser guide will show you the path in which you need to cut. Make your cuts with precision, because the Green Power miter saws are ergonomically designed for easy handling; start your cut with just a touch a finger on the trigger. The 10 inch carbide blade is mounted on a radial arm that allows for 90-degree cross cutting.

The Green Power miter saws are designed to cut wood, but it can also cut some types of metal and plastic. The blade can swing to the right or left, which is; the blade can also tilt to almost any angle on one side or the other, which is helpful when you need to make different angled cuts on the same piece of wood. When deciding on a Green Power miter saws, the size of the blade is relevant to the size of boards you want to cut.

The Green Power miter saws have electric brakes; the blade stops quickly when the saw is powered off. The flow of electricity in Green Power miter saws reverses, causing an abrupt stop within a second or two.

The saw is rugged and not heavy at all because it is constructed of heavy duty aluminum. The novice do-it-yourselfer can start on easy projects and work up to the more complicated ones, such as the crown molding. The saw is easy to use and haves 9 positive miter stops for making cut stops on the right or left. The stops are handy when you need to know where to stop cutting the change the angle of the blade. You can purchase the Green Power miter saws online at Buysumthincool.com, Overstock.com, and Thegeneralstore.com. Prices range from $156.99 to $299.99. For more information about where the saws are sold enter the name Green Power miter saws into your search engine.

Do-It-Yourself with Green Power Miter Saws is a post from: Sustainable Development

Have you made the green power switch? Since the early 1990s utility companies have been offering consumers a choice in the kind of energy to power their homes and businesses. At least 20 percent of the utility companies in the USA offer a program to allow consumers t make the green power switch, which amounts to about 600 power companies. Consumers from about 12 states around the nation can buy a portion of their utilities from renewable sources.

Many power companies in Tennessee, for example provide electricity from renewable sources, such as solar, hydropower, wind and landfill gases. You can purchase blocks of renewable energy in the amount of 150 Kilowatts, and each block of power will save you about $6 on your monthly power bill. Many people are purchasing or leasing wind turbines from green power distributors. You can produce power to sell back to the power companies that are involved with the renewable energy programs to power the surrounding communities.

If you have an opportunity to make the green power switch, will you switch? In the United States more than 50 percent of its electrical power is generated from coal, and about 20 percent is generated by nuclear means, and 16 percent is produced by natural gas, and less than 10 percent is generated from hydropower, and less than 5 percent comes from renewable energy. Other countries around the world, like Australia, and many European countries are making the green power switch on a much larger scale than we are.

Some consumers make the green power switch to electricity produced by biogas. Biogas is another form of renewable energy that helps to curb the emission of greenhouse gases. Truckloads of cattle waste is sent to a processing center where electrical energy is produced and sold to participating power companies. When you make the green power switch you are saving tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the environment.

Biogas is used to make electrical power by fueling the combustion turbine that drives the electrical generator. By making the green power switch to a renewable form of energy, such as solar, wind, or biogas, a good portion of your electrical power is derived for the sole purpose to decrease pollution and preserve the environment for the next generation.

The less we depend on fossil fuel for electrical energy the less power has to be produced in that manner, and future generations will have a cleaner environment in which to live. If we make the green power switch now we may not notice a big difference in our lifetime, because fossil fuels have been used for many generations on a large scale. The cumulative effect of fossil fuels on global warming may take a few generations, but it will make a big difference to the generations that follow us.

Making the Green Power Switch is a post from: Sustainable Development