Renewable energy is the best solution to stop global warming and keep the world green. Using renewable energy can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars off your electric bill. Through renewable resources it is possible to become completely independent from electric companies.

About 7% of the United States is powered by renewable resources. The five most common methods to gather electricity from nature are: Solar Power, Water Power (Hydropower), Geothermal Power, Wind Power, And Energy From Biomass. Lets take a look further into each of these.

Solar power is energy gathered directly through the sun. Solar panels are devices that can transfer the light rays into electricity. If humans where 100% efficient, and could gather all the energy from the sun that hits the earth, we would only need gather the energy for about a minute each day. That’s right, one minute’s worth of solar energy could power the entire world for a day. For your home, you can use solar panels to supply your house with electricity.

Water power is the energy from moving water. Dams are a great example of energy from water, the running water powers them. Running water constantly flows out to the ocean, where it evaporates and returns to land. This makes it renewable, because the water cycle will always continue to supply our streams and rivers with water. If you have a source of water near your house, you can use a water mill to generate electricity.

Geothermal power is energy from within the Earth. As you probably know, the Earth’s core is very hot, and consistently melt rock and heats water. You can dig deep wells and pump the hot water or steam out of it, then you can use this heat to heat your home.

Wind power is energy from the air flow that surrounds the Earth. Wind turbines, similar to propellers on an airplane, can transfer this pushing force into a spinning movement. This spinning movement can be used to power a generator and supply you with electricity. Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the Earth, basically because warm air rises and cold air falls. The states with the highest wind power are generally the border states because the ocean produces high winds.

Biomass power is energy gathered from plants and plant waste. Like solar panels, plants have the ability to gather sunlight and transfer it to energy. This process is called photosynthesis, fossil fuel is energy gathered by photosynthesis millions of years ago. Since we can’t replace fossil fuel, it is not renewable, you should use today’s plants for energy. To use biomass, you can use biofuels (fuels made from biomass) like methane and ethanol. Also, use a wood stove to heat your home instead of the normal heaters.

There is a growing trend in today’s world towards using cleaner, greener, and most importantly, renewable resources. It is no longer a question of if we run out of oil, only when. And people are already feeling the pinch every time they gas up at the pump or get the latest gas bill.

The result of this trend has been more and more home owners looking into alternative energy sources to run their household on. This is both a necessary step in our evolution as a society and a sound economic choice for home owners today. What are some of the methods that can be used to power a home today? Let’s take a look at a few of the more common choices.

1. Solar Power

Everything on the planet runs on the energy provided by our sun. The oil your car runs on is nothing more than stored solar energy, when you get right down to it. So the move to solar power just makes sense. Solar power can be used in a few different ways. It is possible to run a home directly off of your solar panels, and rely on the power company to provide electricity when the sun is down or on cloudy days. When your solar panels are operating, you feed any energy you are not using at the moment back through your meter into the power grid. This has the effect of actually making your meter run backwards during the day. Hopefully, either you will produce more during the day than you use at night, or at least break even. The second and most common method of using solar power is to simply have your solar panels charge a large bank of batteries that your house then draws power from. Again, any excess energy produced can be fed back and sold to the power company, with electricity from the grid making up any shortfalls. The third way of utilizing solar power is somewhat more complex, and is probably not currently applicable to the average home owner. Using solar power to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen, you can store solar energy in much the same way as oil does, and release it later by combustion or fuel cells. This is really only feasible right for the power companies, but has the advantage of storing up excess solar energy in a form that can be used on cloudy days, ensuring an uninterrupted flow of power.

2. Wind Power

This alternative energy source is best used in conjunction with the solar power methods described above. In stormy weather, for instance, the sun may be hidden, but the wind may be blowing hard, and vice-versa for sunny days. This can help smooth out the available alternative energy levels available, and lead to more power being sold to the power company.

3. Hydroelectric Power

Most people would probably not think of hydroelectric power as a viable source of alternative energy for their home, but if you have access to a source of running water like a creek, you can generate a surprisingly large amount of power with only a small dam. When used either in conjunction with solar and wind, or on its own, hydroelectric power can easily completely replace the power company as the source of power in a home.

Climate change or global warming is the result of a buildup of greenhouse gases (GHG), chiefly carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere exclusively from human industrial processes. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat that normally would exit into outer space. This increase in trapped heat changes the climate and alters weather patterns, which may hasten species extinction, influence the length of seasons, cause coastal flooding, and lead to more frequent and severe storms. During the 150 years of the industrial age, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent.

As more and more people are concerned about global warming and seeking to reduce their climate impact, carbon offsets, along with personal carbon reductions, provide an important solution to global warming. Carbon offsets let you pay to reduce the global GHG total instead of making radical or impossible reductions of your own. If you are running a business, you have a responsibility to keep any pollution that may result from your business activities under control. By considering health, safety and environmental issues together you can ensure that people at your premises remain healthy and your environmental impact is kept to a minimum. Calculating the carbon footprint of your organisation can be a first step to reduce the emissions it causes.Business carbon offsetting is obviously important in slowing or even reversing climate change.

The total set of GHG emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organisation, event or product is commonly called their ‘carbon footprint’. It is a measure of the impact we make individually on the earth by the choices we make regarding our lifestyles. Many activities generate carbon emissions, which contribute to accelerating global warming and climate change. Probably the biggest contributors to our footprint are our travel needs, and our electricity demands for various activities. However, all our actions have a direct or indirect impact.

With world economies booming our carbon emissions are on the rise. Every industry makes a major contribution to the carbon emissions through almost every area of the company’s activities. Some businesses, particularly those that are energy-intensive, will have requirements to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsetting is a way to counter damage done through the release of carbon emissions (CO2), from business activities. Carbon offsets enable individuals and businesses to reduce the CO2 emissions they are responsible for by offsetting, reducing or displacing the CO2 in another place, typically where it is more economical to do so. Offsetting does not undo the environmental harm caused but does cut the total amount of CO2 released. The idea behind carbon offsetting is that you then do something to remove the equivalent amount of carbon from the atmosphere so making whatever it was that you did “carbon neutral” – as if it had never happened in the first place. This is usually achieved by paying a company a fee based on the amount of carbon dioxide you have released or caused to be released. For every tonne of CO2 emitted, an equivalent tonne is supposedly removed elsewhere with the help of special projects. These projects provide anything from energy efficient light bulbs or cookers to wind farms.