Renewable energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric provides multiple benefits for the global climate, health, and economy. More countries are joining the green energy initiative, in an attempt to contribute to a friendlier and healthier planet. In the following section, we highlight 4 key benefits of cultivating green energy.
1. Minimized Global Warming Emissions
Global warming is a modern problem of our times. Leading scientists have warned that if we don’t alter the current trend, the planet could be in peril within the next 100 years. Global warming leads to continued melting of polar ice reserves, raising ocean levels and affecting the global climate situation in multiple ways. Green energy is the way to go in order to curb global warming emissions. Increasing the production of environmentally friendly energy would allow us to avoid carbon-intensive energy sources and thus reduce global warming emissions.
2. Improved Quality of Environment and Public Health
Electricity generated from renewable energy, as opposed to fossil fuels, offers distinctive public health benefits. Coal and natural gas plants contribute to massive air and water pollution, which is by extrapolation linked to neurological damage, breathing problems, heart attacks, and even cancer. Solar, wind and hydroelectric sources generate electricity that has no associated air pollution emissions. Biomass and geothermal forms of renewable energy still emit some air pollutants, but these are totally lower compared to natural gas and coal-based plants.
3. Inexhaustible Energy Supply
Throughout the United States and many other countries, strong winds, sunny skies, heat from the hearth and plan residues provide a vast and progressively replenished supply for energy. These multiple sources of renewable energy have the potential to provide all the electricity in the world. As of today, renewable energy makes just a small fraction of the total potential electricity output in the US and worldwide. But many studies have demonstrated that this environmentally friendly form of energy can be promptly deployed to provide a huge share of future energy needs, even after accounting for possible constraints.
4. Economic Benefits
Compared to energy technologies based on fossil fuels that are typically mechanized and thus capital intensive, renewable energy is rather labor intensive. Thus, more jobs are created when green energy projects are initiated. In the US, green energy already supports thousands of jobs. For instance, the wind energy industry directly employed 75, 000 people in 2011. There are over 500 factories manufacturing wind turbine parts in the United States, and this number is ever increasing. Other forms of renewable energy employ even more people. The solar energy industry employed over 100,000 full-time employees in 2011. Increasing the production of renewable energy has the potential to create many more jobs, and positively contribute to economic growth.
In addition to these benefits, clean energy also contributes to stable energy prices and a more resilient energy system. And this is just a tip of the iceberg. Definitely, both governments, state and county bodies have more reasons than ever to adopt green energy.