Green Electricity – Renewable Resources That Produce Green Electricity

Choosing the right green electricity plan and provider is important. Fortunately, a great deal of information is available to help you determine which provider is best for your home and your goals.

Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy sources are replenishable and do not pollute the environment during their generation. They also provide more reliable and resilient energy supplies.

Hydropower

Hydropower takes advantage of our planet’s abundant water resources to produce clean electricity. It’s one of the most reliable and longest-standing renewable energy sources. The kinetic energy of flowing water is captured by turbines and generators to create electricity, which is then delivered to homes and businesses through the power grid. Since the water is not consumed or reduced during the process, it is considered a renewable resource.

Depending on where the facility is located, hydropower can be used to generate electricity from ocean waves, tidal flows, river flow or impounded reservoirs. In the United States, a majority of our hydropower is produced by dams that use the natural movement of rivers or lakes to produce electricity. Dams create large pools of water green electricity above the structure, and then one or more pipes give that water a path to surge downhill. The rushing water spins the turbines and generators that produce the electricity.

NHA recognizes that the future of hydropower is closely tied to maintaining healthy ecosystems and fish species. This is why over the last few decades, we’ve worked to demonstrate that hydropower and fish can coexist. We’ve done this by complying with environmental laws and deploying voluntary equipment to help ensure that we don’t harm the fish population.

NHA has a long history of working with government agencies and conservation groups to help protect fish and wildlife habitat around hydropower facilities. These efforts have helped us earn a reputation for being good neighbors and partners to communities around our hydropower plants.

Biomass

Biomass is a renewable source of energy that generates electricity by burning organic matter such as wood, crop waste or garbage. Unlike coal, biomass fuels do not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during combustion. In addition to reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, biomass is a valuable tool for land management and forest fire prevention.

Biofuels are a source of renewable energy that can be used directly to produce heat and power or converted to transportation fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. The conversion of biomass to biofuel occurs by the use of thermochemical processes such as gasification, pyrolysis and transesterification.

The production of biomass for fuel creates jobs and stimulates rural economies. However, if not implemented responsibly, biomass can lead to environmental degradation and negative economic impacts. For example, clearing forests for biomass harvesting reduces biodiversity and accelerates soil erosion. The heavy machinery used for logging can also diminish soil fertility and hasten water runoff.

Biomass plants that operate as combined heat and power (CHP) systems are the most efficient, using around 80 percent of their potential energy. CHP systems can supply both heat and electrical power to a building or to the electricity grid. It is important to work closely with the equipment manufacturer and vendor in designing a system to ensure proper equipment sizing and optimum operation. It is also helpful to estimate the building’s peak and annual load requirements to help with fuel handling and storage equipment sizing.

Geothermal

The Earth’s heat is a constant resource, and there are many opportunities to use it for heating and electricity. Iceland, for example, has long been a geothermal pioneer and generates 25% of its energy from five geothermal power plants. Unlike wind and solar, which are intermittent sources of energy, geothermal provides round-the-clock baseload electricity.

Geothermal is derived from hot steam or water, which can be used for direct heating or to power a turbine that generates electricity. The steam can be extracted from hot rocks below the surface or from thermally-active areas such as active or dormant volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. Some geothermal power plants extract dry steam directly from the ground; others, called flash and binary plant designs, operate by combining hot high pressure, low temperature underground water with secondary, higher boiling point fluid, which then drives a turbine.

The resulting steam can also be used to create hot water for home or commercial heating. In fact, a system like this is already in widespread use at Ball State University in Indiana where it replaced an old coal-fired boiler system and saves $2 million a year in utility costs. Geothermal can also be used to supply centralized district heating in some communities. The upfront cost can be expensive, but the potential savings on energy bills and tax incentives may help offset initial investment.

Solar

Solar energy is the most widely available renewable resource and is a key component of our efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. It is a clean, cost effective and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels such as coal and oil. There are many technologies that harness solar energy to produce green electricity – from photovoltaic systems to solar hot water and thermal.

The most common way to generate electricity from the sun is by using photovoltaic (PV) technology. Solar PV panels convert the sun’s rays into usable electricity, which can be used to power your appliances and heat your home. Solar energy can also be used to charge electric vehicles or for community energy schemes.

Another source of renewable electricity is concentrated solar power (CSP), which uses lenses and mirrors to concentrate High voltage 10Kw LiFePO4 battery sunlight into a small area, heating a fluid that can then generate electricity or drive a process. There are a number of CSP plants in operation worldwide, including the 50 MWe Tamarugal plant in Chile which operated between 1982 and 1989, and the 27.5 MWe Nyngan PV plant in Australia which was completed in 2022 at a cost of A$440 million.

The growth of solar electricity is driven by ambitious government targets and policy support, particularly feed-in tariffs that guarantee a guaranteed price for renewables. In addition, many states offer solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs), which can be sold to electricity suppliers to meet their state’s renewable energy requirements.