Introduction To The Green Energy

The most used energy resources nowadays are the oil, coal and natural gas. These resources, however, are limited and sooner or later they will be depleted, not to mention their catastrophic effect on the environment. Due to the enormous demand and their constantly reducing levels, their price is going up from day to day. The humanity is facing one of the biggest crises ever both in environmental, economical and even survival aspect. In order to avoid the dark future that is in front of us, we have to start thinking about renewable, cheap and eco-friendly energy resources.

Many of the available green energy resources come from the sun in one or other form. The pure or direct solar energy is one of the most popular methods for harvesting renewable energy. Solar panels are used to catch the sunlight and transform it into electricity either for heating or electrical power. Solar plants are built everywhere on the planet and their capacity is increased constantly to meet the demand of the households as well as the industry.

The sun is also an indirect source of energy as it is responsible for the existence of winds. Their energy is captured by wind turbines, which can reach up to 100 meters height, in order to catch the strongest winds and respectively produce more energy. The sun and the winds, on the other hand, contribute to the water cycle on the planet. As we all know the water evaporates from the oceans and other water basins transforms into clouds and then again falls in the form of rains and snows back to the Earths surface. Thus, rivers are supplied with constant flow of water, which is captured by hydro plants and turned into electricity.

One unexpected source of green energy is actually green. Be speaking of plants and the organic matter that they consist of. This biomass is used for various purposes starting from the production of electricity, going through chemicals and ending in the production of transportation bio fuels such as the Bioethanol or also known as E85.

One of the most commonly met substances on the Earth the hydrogen is also a source of energy. It can be found almost everywhere from water to organic sources. In order to be used as an energy resource, however, it has to be in its pure form, which is not met on our planet and has to be obtained by other means, such as chemical reactions and others. It holds and enormous amount of energy, that is why it was first used for the creation of the most powerful weapon known to humanity the hydrogen bomb. Nowadays it is used in thermonuclear plants, and more specifically its isotopes.

Another renewable energy source, which is gaining popularity, is the Geothermal energy, which can be captured from geysers. It is estimated that if we capture all energy coming from them, the whole Earth will have electricity for a year ahead.