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What Is
Green Power?
Green power is electricity generated using renewable resources that generally have a lighter environmental impact than other energy resources. Renewable energy resources (the sun, wind, water, heat within the earth, and organic plant and waste material that naturally rejuvenate) don't disappear forever when they are used to generate electricity because they are easily replenished by nature. The terms most frequently used for these renewable energy sources are solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass energy. A growing number of electric power providers offer their customers an opportunity to buy green power. It usually costs a little bit more than electricity from fossil and nuclear sources of fuel. Why Does It Cost More? It costs more for two reasons. First, the environmental and human health costs of conventional power generation (such as acid rain and air pollution) are not fully reflected in electricity's market price. That makes the conventional generation seem cheaper than it really is. And the value of clean energy is therefore not recognized by our pricing system. In the case of wind energy, for example, virtually all of the pollution and waste resulting from fossil and nuclear generation is eliminated. The second reason is that although most renewable resources are free, the technologies used to convert the wind or the sun to electricity, for example, are not. Because renewable energy technologies are younger, and the industries are much smaller than traditional energy industries, they have not had the opportunity to enjoy the economies of scale and prolonged learning curve that benefit today's more established technologies. But times are changing. The cost of wind energy, for example, has dropped 80% since 1980 and the decline continues as the wind energy industry matures. |
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American Wind Energy
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