Question 1

What Does Green Energy Mean?

Accepted Answer

While it’s a term that heralds a new future in business gas and electricity, it can often be difficult to understand what’s meant by “green” energy. There are conflicting definitions out there, and with other terms (such as “renewable” or “clean” energy) often being used in place of “green”, it can get confusing.

Fortunately, as industry experts in finding business energy deals, we’re here to help prise apart the terms, and provide you with a full overview.

Green energy refers to energy that has zero impact on the global climate, as well as the environment around it. It’s gained from natural sources, and doesn’t release any air pollutants

It’s most commonly associated with wind turbines and solar panels, although there are other types of green energy that we’ll touch on shortly.

Clean energy also doesn’t pollute the air, but isn’t necessarily from entirely natural sources. Cleaner energy sources could also have minor negative impacts on the environment.

A good example of this is the controversial nuclear power, which utilises the Earth’s near-endless supply of uranium. It does have some environmental impact, so cannot be classed as fully “green” energy.

Renewable energy may pollute the air, or otherwise have an impact on the environment, but these forms of energy still play an important role in moving away from fossil fuels.

This includes things like hydroelectric dams which, while they offer an infinite source of energy thanks to the flow of rivers and oceans, have significant environmental impact during their construction.

Ultimately, there’s significant overlap between these different types of energy, which can contribute towards the difficulties in defining the three terms. For instance, solar power is clean, green and renewable, as it produces no pollution, has very minimal impact on the environment, and is infinite.

Question 2

Where Is Green Energy Sourced From?

Accepted Answer

If you’re planning for your business’ energy needs, it’s crucial you’re aware of where your energy is sourced from. This helps you plan for its reliability, its effectiveness, and its place in your future plans.

Here’s just a few of the more common sources for green energy, and how it’s produced as well as statistics on its usage for clean energy across the UK.

Solar Power

Perhaps one of the most well-known forms of green energy, and one that’s long been ingrained in the UK energy market, solar power uses specially-designed panels to harness the Sun’s rays, and turn them into a relatively reliable source of electricity.

While solar power only accounts for around 6% of all renewable energy used in the UK, there’s a huge trend over recent years that shows how that’s changing. In fact, according to data from Statista, the UK’s supply of solar energy has gone from 95 megawatts in 2010 to a colossal 13,695 megawatts as of 2021.

Plus, as increased investment goes into renewable and clean energy sources, and the integrity and strength of solar panels improves, this number is set to rise exponentially.

Wind Power

Another form of power that’s synonymous with clean energy, wind power and its associated turbines have become much more prevalent in the UK’s landscape. This is for good reason, too – the UK’s climate lends itself well to producing power through wind turbines.

Similar to solar power, there’s a massive upwards trend in investment and infrastructure for wind power. The ONS found that the amount of electricity generated through wind power has increased by 715% over the last 12 years, and is only continuing to rise.

Geothermal Energy

A lesser known but no less potent form of generating electricity, geothermal energy is a relatively recent development in the field of clean, renewable energy sources. It utilises the power of the Earth’s core to create a form of low-emission energy that’s unlimited in its scope.

Unfortunately, the UK government hasn’t yet factored in the applications of geothermal energy after the global energy crisis of the last year, and so it only accounts for just under 0.3% of the UK’s annual demand.

However, the caveat in this report is that there is a huge potential to increase this significantly over the coming years, and with enough backing.

Hydroelectric Energy

While certain forms of hydroelectricity do have substantial environmental impact (and therefore wouldn’t qualify as “green” energy), tidal hydroelectricity offers a superb balance between minimal environmental disruption and a clean, renewable energy source.

This kind of green energy utilises the movement of the tides to power underwater turbines that in turn produce electricity and power. Sadly, this form of clean energy is still in its infancy, and isn’t yet economically viable to produce more significant results.

Question 3

Why Is Green Energy Important?

Accepted Answer

It might go without saying, but the move towards greener energy is a necessary and long overdue one for the world as a whole.

Habitats are being lost to pollution, ice caps are melting, and population growth means that we’re consuming fossil fuels at a faster rate than ever before. And that’s just the start of an ever-growing list of environmental issues that could spell disaster over the coming months and years.

With temperatures steadily rising across the globe, and climate change presenting itself as a looming threat on the horizon, it falls to world governments to implement strong and thorough action plans. This has already been mobilised, following the global summit as part of COP26.

Amongst other key policies and resolutions was the aim to go global net-zero by 2050. This is a huge target, with the world’s industrial heavyweights having to quickly adapt to new and challenging electricity and gas demands.

Almost 200 countries across the globe signed up to the agreement, spearheaded by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), which aims to keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C.

This figure is crucial, according to climate scientists – anything above this is considered a catastrophic rise. In fact, figures from NASA state that, if the Earth’s overall temperature rises by 1.5°C, there’s set to be widespread heatwaves for 14% of the Earth. At a 2°C increase, that percentage more than doubles to 37%.

This might be fractions of percentages, and seem insurmountable odds for you and your business, but climate agreements like those put into place at COP26 prove there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Green energy plays a pivotal role in all of this. By moving towards renewable and clean energy sources, we’re all making decisions that help to safeguard the future of the planet for us and the next generation.

As more and more businesses get on board with green initiatives, and world industries begin to phase out coal and natural gas in favour of cleaner energy sources, we’ll start to see the climate beginning to slowly heal and gain a sense of stability.

We’ve already seen evidence of this with the repairing ozone layer. With the global shift away from aerosols and pollutants, and the emergence of green energy solutions, the Earth’s atmosphere has begun to stitch itself back together.

This faint glimmer of hope further enforces the need for increased focus on greener, more renewable energy sources. With support from businesses like yours, the future starts to look greener.

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