From Guest Blogger Alicia: Five Reasons Why You Should Be Using Renewable Energy

All sources of renewable energy, including wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass, provide not only substantial benefits for our climate and environment, but for our economy and health as well. A recent study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that is we start making smart investments now; the US could be getting 80% of its energy from renewable resources by 2050. Below are some of the reasons of why we want that to happen, as well as some comparisons between the impacts of fossil fuels and renewable energy.

Improved General Health

Producing electricity from renewable energy rather than fossil fuels and carbon emitting sources can not only help the environment but also provide health benefits for everyone. The emissions of coal and natural gas into the air has been linked to breathing problems such as asthma, neurological damage, cancer, and heart attacks to just name a few. Using renewable energy is clean for the environment and has been shown to reduce healthcare costs compared to the health impacts of fossil fuels which amount to $361-886 billion in GDP.

Progression in Environmental Quality

Although it should come as no surprise, using renewable energy is great for the environment. There is little to no global warming emissions that come from renewable energy. Compared to electricity, which produces 1/3 of these emissions, and coal-fired power plants that produce around 25% of total emissions, wind energy emits .02-.04 pounds and solar .07-.2 pounds of carbon dioxide. Also, wind and solar energy require almost no water to operate and do not pollute water resources or waste supply unlike coal mining and natural gas drilling.

Stable/Decreasing Prices

While renewable energy used to be extremely expensive when it was first established, the price of their technologies and installation have been declining steadily over the past few years, and are also going to continue dropping. Already since 2011, the prices for solar panels have dropped by 60% and the cost of generating electricity from wind has dropped by 20%. Although renewable upfront investments can be somewhat expensive, they operate at low costs and for most tech, the fuel is free. As a result, the prices are relatively stable over time compared to the constant flux and dramatic swings of fossil fuel prices.

Production of Jobs

Already supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across the United States, renewable energy is a more labor intensive job, such as installing solar panels, than fossil fuel technologies which are usually mechanized. For each unit of electricity generated from renewable sources, the more jobs that are created and are needed. It has been projected that if this country is up to using a 25% renewable energy standard, then it will result in around 200,000 new jobs in 2025. That’s three times as many jobs created for producing an equivalent amount of electricity between renewable energy and fossil fuels.

More Reliable Energy Source

With wind and solar energies being spread out over large geographical areas, it makes them less prone to large scale failure so severe weather in one location won’t cut off power to an entire region of the US. Even some systems of wind turbines and solar panels are made so that even if some of the equipment in the system is damaged, the rest can usually operate. When electricity plants and distribution systems that are ran by fossil fuels are damaged, it can leave regions and millions of people without power until fixed. And when some renewable energy might be limited, such as hydroelectric during droughts, wind and solar do not require water to generate electricity, thus reducing the risks associated with a shortage of water.