Why is green energy important?

A quick reminder for you, the main arguments why green energy is so important:

1. Currently the western world is very dependent on oil and gas. Increasingly we have to import this from unstable and/or totalitarian countries like Nigeria, Libya, Iran, Venezuela and Russia. Our own oil+gas supplies are depleting fast. Most fields in the USA, Norway, Netherlands and UK are already long over their production peak and they are declining fast. Most gas in western Europe used to be from Norway and the Netherlands but in 20 years from now it will all be from Russia. This is bad for the western economy and political position so we simply need to consume less gas.
2. The greenhouse effect. I tend to believe scientists who claim that humans are creating a rise in temperature and sealevels because of burning fossil fuels. It is a fact that temperature has been rising sharply for the past 50 years and this is probably (though not certainly) linked to emission of carbondioxide. More windmills and less coal plants is the solution. (or nuclear plants??)
3. Air pollution is bad for our health so more electric cars - especially in big cities where it is proven that air quality is pretty bad mainly because of cars - can give a great contribution to clean air in cities.
4. Depletion of oil reserves. After the 'peak oil' production of oil will drop but demand will still remain the same or even rise, creating high oil prices and potentially civil unrest and shortages of electricity and gas. To prevent this chaos we need to convert to wind/solar/nuclear in time.

pic: solar plant in spain

How can I save on energy?

Tips:

1. Easy one: turn the lights off in rooms when you're not there
2. Turn your lights + pc monitor off when you go to the bathroom
3. Use public transport instead of car
4. Use bicycle or walk instead of public transport
5. Eat less meat.
6. Use energy saving light bulbs
7. Buy a LED-monitor and LED-television.
8. Clear the ice from your freezer.
9. Drink water instead of coke. Is healthier too.
10. Remove all electronic devices from their power sockets when you go away for a few days.

ALL THESE TIPS save money as well. Who said being good for the environment is expensive?

Energy grid

If green energy is implemented on a very large scale, like a one third or more of all energy in the world, then an intelligent system of providing energy is required. This is because in some periods the wind is much stronger or sunshine is more intense than in other periods. If there is an excess of wind energy, the electricity needs to be stored somewhere. This can be done by temporarily stopping hydro plants, so the water level in the lake next to the dam rises, and once the wind lies down again the hydro plant can be turned on to provide the needed energy. This is already being done in Denmark (lot of wind mills) and Sweden (lot of hydro energy).

The countries surrounding the North Sea (UK, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany) are planning to line up their power grids so they can easier exchange their excess wind, hydro or solar energy. The EU has a goal to make 20% of all energy renewable, so building the North sea full of windmills, installing more solar panels and building this international power grid is essential in reaching this goal.

Electric cars

Usually I wouldn't blog about cars, because cars=pollution, right? Well that depends on the fuel. If a car runs on electricity, the co2-emissions are a lot lower than when a car is fueled by ordinary petrol. Though this depends heavily on how the electricity is generated. In some countries, more than half of all electricity is renewable (Norway, Austria). But in the Netherlands for instance, about 85% is fossil fuel (and a little nuclear). Still an electric car is better even if all electricity would be generated by fossil fuels. Especially when you drive the car in a city: this reduces air pollution in the streets, and they make less noise.

Oh and some electric cars look very good too, check this out:

This Tesla Model S is a good example of the progress that's being made in electric cars. The cost of this car is only half of its predecessor, the Tesla Roaster (price down from $90,000 to $50,000), while its capabilities are the same.

Electric cars seem to be have a quicker start than hydrogen cars. Also biofuel seems to become less popular recently, probably because of cases in Brazil where rainforest was destroyed in order for soya to be grown. It is unclear though what the main source of fuel of cars will be in 50 years from now. Biofuel, electricity, hydrogen, or still petrol?

Some statistics

Hi guys, back to inform you more about green energy.

Let's look at how we're progressing in implementing more green energy. Got most of this from wiki ;)

Which countries use the most solar power in Europe? Germany is on the lead here, mainly because of their guaranteed feed-in tariff, which is a government rule forcing energy companies to buy solar energy at normal electricity rates (the cost this is generally paid by consumers of electricity). Number of Watts per capita in 2009:

1. Germany - 120
2. Spain - 76
3. Luxembourg - 52
4. Czech Rep - 44
5. Belgium - 34
6. Italy - 17
All others are below 10 watts per capita, with low numbers in for instance the UK with 0.5 watts (no surprise there, little sunshine in England and Scotland, they had better focus on wind energy) and Sweden and Denmark with 0.8 watts.

Having not much to do, I made a piechart of wind power generated in Europe in 2010:

A country with most notably low wind power is Russia. They need to sell their gas and oil to Europe and probably don't like the rise of green energy (the more gas we use, the more money they make). In about 25 years from now, most gas and oil fields in Europe (mainly in UK, Norway and Netherlands) will be empty and we will need to import it all from Russia. Before that happens we really need to build way more windmills and solar panels than we do now (about 85% of all energy in the EU comes from fossil fuels) otherwise hundreds of billions of our euros will disappear into mr Putins and mr Ahmadinejad's wallets.

Tidal power

Now a form of energy that is less known: generating electricity through tidal waves.
The moon exerts huge energy on the oceans. But we don't really use it on a significant scale to tap this energy. It is a form of hydro power. See this vid:

We should  invest more in research into this type of energy. There are plenty of places in the world where this can be done and it can be a welcome source of energy in the 'green mix': a combination of renewable energy sources, like wind, solar, hydro and other sources.

Wind power

Interesting video on wind energy:

I'll keep you updated soon with more on green energy!