The Environmental Benefits of Clean, Renewable Energy
While in use, solar panels create absolutely no waste or emissions, so the energy they produce is clean energy. The resource they use to do this – photons from the sun – will be available for another 10 billion years, so it’s safe to call it renewable energy as well. In fact, the sun provides enough energy in one day to power the entire earth for a year.
Today, nearly two-thirds of the U.S. electrical grid’s power comes from burning fossil fuels. The byproducts of this process cause air and water pollution, and release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And before combustion even begins, the machines required to mine the fuel and transport it to power plants release emissions that further harm the environment. It’s a dirty business, but one that creeps closer to extinction with every renewable energy system that gets added to the grid.
