WHAT IS CLEAN ENERGY?

Clean energy is energy generated from renewable resources without making the natural environment dirty. Clean energy is generated without the release of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The production of clean energy does not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide when emitted into the atmosphere it traps heat from the sun and that causes temperature increase in the lower atmosphere, and then ultimately, the infamous climate change. Dictionary.com defines clean energy as: “energy, as electricity or nuclear power, that does not pollute the atmosphere when used, as opposed to coal and oil that do”. Renewable resources are resources that can be replenished, by human calculations. Clean energy is interchanged with terms like renewable energy and green energy. Sources of clean energy are geothermal, wind, water and solar (sun).

Currently what is driving our civilization is energy mostly derived from fossil fuel. The fossil fuels are oil, coal and gas. We use energy from these resources to run our industries. We use energy from these resources to warm ourselves when it is cold. We use energy from these resources to light our homes at night. We use energy from these resources to do many other things. However, the unbridled use of these resources by mankind is causing problems for them. The two main problems are number one, these resources are depletable, and they are indeed being depleted, and number two they are creating problems in the atmosphere as indicated in the foregoing paragraph. The unbridled use of fossil fuel by man, many experts believe, started with the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century.   If you keep an eye on the environmental landscape, which you should do, you should be familiar with terminologies like greenhouse gas, anthropogenic greenhouse gas, greenhouse effect and climate change. Those are not pleasant terminologies because they are associated with happenings that are threatening habitation on our shared home, Earth.

The use of fossil fuel to generate energy emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs etc. Among the greenhouse gases are the anthropogenic greenhouse gases. They are called anthropogenic greenhouse gases because they are generated by human activities, like the burning of coal to get energy. The big guy, so to speak, among the anthropogenic greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide. When emitted into the atmosphere it traps heat from the sun and that warms the lower atmosphere, and it is difficult to remove from the atmosphere. Though there are other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is present as the largest component. This results in freak weather conditions on Earth, the only home you and I have. These days newspapers are full of news on heat waves, flash floods, droughts, species extinctions and so on. Maybe it has not occurred to you to connect what we humans do here on Earth with the extreme weather conditions. It was said that 2014 was the hottest year, but 2015 has been recorded as even hotter, within a short span of one year! We cannot relocate to Mars, or Jupiter, or Saturn, for that matter any other planet. We simply are not fitted to live elsewhere, at least not yet.

In view of the aforementioned trends on Earth, man has been pushed to find a way out before perhaps the Earth collapses. Thought trending among environmentalists and politicians is a replacement of “dirty” energy with clean energy. By dirty energy I mean the processing of fossil fuel to generated energy, with byproducts of greenhouse gases. Iceland and Norway derive all their electricity from clean energy.

I have touched on clean energy in the first paragraph. Now I want work on the resources that generate it resource by resource, with relative comprehension. The International Energy Agency 2014 Energy Outlook calculates growth of renewable energy supply from 1700 gigawatts in 2014 to 4550 gigawatts in 2040.

SOLAR

Solar is that which relates to the sun. The sun has always been the source of energy to the Earth. Almost all energy used by humans is generated from the sun. But now earthlings need to use it like we are using fossil fuel to generate energy. As already hinted it is renewable and does not pollute the natural environment. So there will be more than enough to tap from the sun to run our civilization sustainably, and to keep a clean and balanced natural environment. In Accra, Ghana what is now noticeable on the streets (some major roads) are solar panels on street lamp posts and traffic light posts. Traffic lights and street lights are being generated from energy harnessed from the sun.

WIND

Wind is moving air. It is clean because when harnessed to produce energy it does not give emissions like fossil fuel does. Large wind turbines are used to draw energy from the wind. The Dutch has for a long time used windmill to draw energy from the wind. Today, modern wind turbines are commonly used to get energy from the wind by the Dutch. The use of wind energy is growing at the rate of 30% annually, with installed capacity of 282,482 megawatts as at 2012.

WATER

Ghana gets a large portion of its electricity from water, the Akosombo dam, and recently the Bui dam. The water is gathered in a dam channeled into tubes with water turbines turning the water to generate electricity. Water like the sun and wind does not generate greenhouse gases when energy is being tapped from it. Rain, waves and tides are also sources of clean energy.

GEOTHERMAL

Geothermal is a kind of clean energy (heat) derived from the Earth. On a large scale geothermal reservoirs could be used to drive generators and to produce electricity. On a lesser scale it could be used in warming homes.

Let me end this way: man has ridden on the back fossil fuel, more so from the industrial revolution, many believe, to accomplish tremendous development in human history. But, at what cost have they achieved the development?  My answer is it has been done at the cost of losing that very development it has taken us so much to achieve. I am putting it that way because the use of fossil fuel to get such accomplishment has resulted in climate change which is threatening the suitability of the natural environment as habitation for life forms.  As a corrective measure man is turning to clean energy in an attempt to create a sustainable clean and balanced natural environment.

It behooves each and every one of us to get on board.