Why Use Clean Electricity?

In these days when people are becoming more and more concerned about the state of the environment, sustainability, climate change and carbon emission, people are also becoming interested in clean electricity.  Clean electricity is electricity that is produced without using non-renewable resources (i.e. it’s sustainable) and that does not pollute the atmosphere or the environment, which includes not emitting excessive amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gases.

Comparing Clean & Dirty Electricity Generation

When discussing and defining clean electricity, it’s often useful to start by defining the opposite, dirty electricity. The following means of generation are not examples of clean electricity:

• coal fired steam generators,
• gas-fired steam generators (unless the gas in question is methane or landfill gas),
• nuclear power stations.

However, the following are examples of clean electricity:

• solar energy,
• wind energy,
• hydro energy (including tidal),
• geothermal energy,
• gas-fired steam generators that burn methane or landfill gas.

Some of these forms of electricity are better than other when it comes to being clean.  Out of these examples of clean electricity, the cleanest forms of electricity generation would be wind energy, hydro energy and solar energy, and the least clean would be gas-fired steam generators that use landfill gas and/or methane.  These gas-fired generators certainly use a renewable resource – it seems highly unlikely that the human race will stop producing sewage and other waste – but it does release some gases to the atmosphere while burning.  Wind generators, by contrast, do not burn anything and do not consume anything, so it is a completely clean form of electricity.

Clean & Green Energy Usage

Hydro electricity, tidal electricity, gas-fired generators and wind energy are clean electricity production methods used by large-scale producers (main grid providers).  This is especially the case for hydro and tidal electricity, as these require a lot of infrastructure in the form of dams, control gates and the like. 

Solar energy and wind energy are clean electricity generation methods used on a small scale by people who want to live “off the grid” and be their own electricity providers.  People may choose to live off the grid for a number of reasons:

• cutting costs - once you have paid for the installation of a wind or solar generator, the ongoing costs are minimal, as opposed to monthly power bills paid to a provider
• environmental concern - if the main grid does not rely on clean electricity, people with a green outlook on life may choose to create their own clean electricity.
• independence - some people like to be self-sufficient and independent rather than rely on “the system”
• mobility - mobile homes, houseboats and the like are often on the move, so mainstream electricity providers cannot cater for them.

We Demand Clean Electricity

It’s clear that there is consumer demand for clean electricity providers. One such campaign has been run by “we” to promote the use of clean energy and deliver it to America within 10 years. Check out their Youtube video below: