The Differences Between Clean Energy, Renewable Energy, and Alternative Energy

To many people, the differences between "alternative energy," "renewable energy," and "clean energy," might not be obvious. But each term is unique and has its own individual definition. These three terms are not all exactly the same.

Alternative Energy

When we speak of alternative energy, we refer to sources of usable energy that can replace conventional energy sources (usually, without undesirable side effects). The term "alternative energy" is typically used to refer to sources of energy other than nuclear energy or fossil fuels.

Throughout the course of history, "alternative energy" has referred to different things. There was a time when nuclear energy was considered an alternative to conventional energy, and was therefore called "alternative energy." But times have changed.

These days, a form of "alternative energy" might also be renewable energy, or clean energy, or both. The terms are often interchangeable, but definitely not the same.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is any type of energy which comes from renewable natural resources, such as wind, rain, sunlight, geothermal heat, and tides. It is referred to as "renewable" because it doesn't run out. You can always get more of it.

People have begun to turn to this type of energy due to the rising oil prices, and the prospect that we might one day deplete available sources of fossil fuels, as well as due to concerns about the adverse effects that our conventional energy sources have on the environment.

Of all the different types of renewable energy, wind power is one which is growing in its use. The number of users who have some form of wind power installed has increased, with the current worldwide capacity being about 100 GW.

Clean Energy

"Clean energy" is simply any form of energy which is created with clean, harmless, and non-polluting methods.

Most renewable energy sources are also clean energy sources. But not all.

One such example is geothermal power. It may be a renewable energy source, but some geothermal energy processes can be harmful to the environment. Therefore, this is not always a clean energy. However there are also other forms of geothermal energy which are harmless and clean.

Clean energy makes the less impact on the environment than our current conventional energy sources do. It creates an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide, and its use can reduce the speed of global warming - or global pollution.

As you can see, alternative energy, renewable energy, and clean energy are very similar. But it is important to know that there are differences.

There are many actions which can be taken, to help reduce the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Some of these steps can be taken in your own home. Many clean energy solutions can can be easily installed, and some kits are quite affordable.

Carbon emissions and other forms of pollution are not only created by heavy industrial factories. They are created in the common household as well. Energy efficiency has become an important aspect of our lives.

It's important to start making changes now; if we want to save our planet for our children, for the flora and fauna of the Earth, and for the future of mankind. Clean energy, to be exact, can make a big difference.

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Will Clean Energy "Cross the Divide?"

Fossil fuels provide most of the world's energy and are the foundation of the past two centuries of economic growth. The issue of climate change poses the first serious challenge to fossil fuels' primacy.

But a great divide has existed between the mainstream technologies that make up the modern energy industry and the newer "clean" technologies that offer an alternative, low-carbon pathway to the future. This divide encompasses costs, technological maturity and scale of existing infrastructure.

In recent years, a range of forces has aligned to enhance clean energy's prospects - technological progress, shifting public opinion about climate change, growing interest by governments in supporting alternative energy technologies through subsidies and emission caps and pricing, and a massive increase in private investment.

Can these forces bring clean energy technologies from their current position, on the fringe, into the energy mainstream? This is the question addressed in a major new study by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), Crossing the Divide: The Future of Clean Energy.

The study focuses on four kinds of clean energy technology. Biofuels include ethanol, biodiesel and next generation cellulosic-based fuels. Renewable power generation technologies include wind, biomass, geothermal, solar photovolaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and ocean power.

Carbon capture and storage technologies are primarily designed to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions from coal-fired electric power plants. Finally, conventional clean technologies include nuclear energy and hydropower.

The Crossing the Divide study uses a scenarios approach for thinking about the future of clean energy. Unlike forecasting, scenarios do not attempt to foretell one "right" future.

Instead, the scenario development process focuses on key uncertainties that could lead to futures that are very different from the present. Scenarios are "plausible stories" about the future, which provide a framework for anticipating change and identifying it earlier.

Crossing the Divide develops three possible scenarios for the future of clean energy. In Launch Pad, strong policy support and rapid advances in technology drive the development and adoption of clean energy. In Asian Phoenix, the global balance of power shifts to Asia, and Asian nations play a primary role in defining the future of clean energy technologies, as both consumers and exporters.

In Global Fissures, economic slowdown and turbulence, followed by a long, slow recovery, discourage government support and private investment in clean energy technologies.

For each of these macro narratives, CERA developed an in-depth assessment and quantification of the prospects for clean energy technologies. This analysis provides a framework for assessing the winners and losers in clean energy, and helps to define key risks and opportunities as companies and investors place their technology bets.

One major finding of the study is that for clean energy to "cross the divide" and enter the mainstream, major technical advances will continue to be needed in coming years to make clean energy technologies cost competitive and scalable.

Achieving the requisite technical advances will, in turn, depend on four primary forces. The first three are energy prices, government policy, and the pace with which scientists and engineers working on clean energy can foster innovation. All three of these are affected by the fourth: economic growth.

Oil and natural gas prices directly affect the economics of clean energy technologies and shape political concerns and actions over energy security. Oil prices most strongly affect biofuels development but also have a strong effect on energy security, which drives other technologies as well. Natural gas prices most strongly affect renewable power technologies, as well as hydropower and nuclear.

Government policy is central to the development of clean energy. It typically ranges from funding for research and demonstration projects to mandates, financial incentives, and subsidies for technologies approaching commercial viability. Three kinds of policies are important in shaping the future of clean energy - energy security policy, climate change-related policy, and technology development policies.

Government policy is central to the development of clean energy. Energy security policy plays a role in driving all clean energy technologies. Unfortunately, energy security policies can be inconsistent in nature, waxing and waning with fuel price, economic cycles and sense of risk.

Climate change-related policies are affected by scientific understanding, politics, economic growth, and the level of cooperation and coordination present in the world geopolitical system.

The technologies most strongly affected by these policies are renewable power generation, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear. The long-term nature of the climate change threat provides an important impetus for establishing long-range approaches, at both the global and national levels, in this realm.

Technology development policies are the final area where governments can act to encourage adoption of clean energy technologies. These policies are typically driven by economic growth and fuel price cycles, as well as energy security policies. They can vary greatly in terms of their strength and sustainability, as well as which technologies they favor.

Government supports of all kinds are most effective when they are sustained and predictable. It is also important for policymakers to recognize the value of pursuing multi-faceted, flexible policy approaches.

The challenge for governments is to institute policies that get clean energy technologies off the drawing board and sustain them to the point that they become commercially viable and are able to wean themselves from the support - thereby allowing for a phaseout, rather than an increase over time, in subsidies.

Useful approaches include public-private partnerships to assemble clean energy development clusters, protection of new clean energy intellectual capital, and sustained subsidies to nurture emerging clean energy industries to maturity and scale.

Clean energy policy supports must also be multi-dimensional. Carbon markets cannot single-handedly ensure that new low-emitting technologies become widely available and competitive.

Although these markets can be influential in directing investment, it is still not known whether there will be enough public support to establish high enough carbon prices to encourage long-term development of alternative technologies. Since carbon pricing alone will sometimes not be enough, policymakers need other arrows in their quivers.

The third driver of advances in clean energy technology is the pace of technical innovation. Speeding the pace of innovation depends heavily on policy support and private investment, and these, in turn, are strongly affected by fossil fuel prices and carbon pricing.

A long-term perspective is required, involving policy and investment horizons that stretch over the course not of years - but of decades.

As noted above, the fourth driver, economic growth, has a strong impact on the other three drivers. A robust global economy can make it easier to provide financial support for development of clean energy technologies and to absorb the costs associated with carbon emission restrictions.

In thinking about clean energy, it is important to keep scale in mind. The existing installed base of carbon-based energy infrastructure has been built over the course of more than two centuries of ongoing investment and technology development. Implementing change in a system of this size will take time. A long-term perspective is required, involving policy and investment horizons that stretch over the course not of years - but of decades. Renewables and clean energy in general will increase in significance in an expanding energy system that is striving to meet the needs of global economic growth.

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Is Biomass Really a Clean Energy Resource?

As we strive to find alternative energy resources, many possible solutions are on the table. Biomass energy is one such solution or is it?

Biomass energy like biodiesel or ethanol is unique in that it has existed in primitive forms since the early days of mankind. Burning wood in a cave is a form of biomass energy, which is simply the conversion of an organic material in a manner that produces heat. For example, a fire converts the organic wood into heat. Therein, however, lays the problem.

Global warming is a much debated issue with everyone having a strong opinion and no one seemingly willing to listen to the other side. Whatever your view on this subject, what is clear is we are producing an absolute ton of carbon-based gases in our modern civilization. This is a key issue since the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is a key factor in climate regulation on our planet.

To understand the problems of biomass as an energy form, one has to understand the biomass cycle that occurs on the planet. Simplified, the biomass cycle regulates the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. The biomass, primarily in the form of plants, uses carbon to grow and the biosphere effectively acts as a sponge for carbon. This sponge effect, however, has limits. As with a sponge in your kitchen, the biomass can only suck up so much carbon at one time. When there is too much carbon in the atmosphere or we shrink our “sponge” with deforestation and such, we run the risk of overwhelming the atmosphere with carbon gases. If our atmosphere has excessive carbon, heat is trapped and all hell begins to break loose. From a practical standpoint, this means our relatively mild climate on Earth will start becoming more chaotic. After the most recent hurricane season, that definitely is not a good thing.

Taking the biomass cycle into consideration, the negatives of all biomass energy production are that they create more carbon gases. A caveman sitting next to a fire in a cave is using biomass energy to produce heat, but the black smoke is a very nasty carbon pollutant. In modern terms, biomass energy doesn’t really resolve the amount of carbon we are putting into the atmosphere. Yet, there is an argument on the other side of the biomass coin.

Proponents of biomass argue it is a better energy source than fossil fuels. The basis of this argument is that plants [biomass] have taken in much smaller amounts of carbon gases over a shorter period of time than fossil fuels. Thus, burning them is a carbon neutral situation. The problem, of course, is that even if this concept is correct, we are not cutting down our carbon emissions. At this point in time, we need to be reducing carbon gasses, not maintaining our current output.

It is indisputable biomass has its problems. It is a better alternative than fossil fuels, but how much so?

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on solar power and renewable energy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Chapo

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