The Problem: The majority of the way we make energy produces toxins, especially greenhouse gases
The Fix: Change the way we produce energy to make fewer or no toxins, step-by-step.
Summary: Its sometimes hard to imagine that every time you turn on a light, there is some amount of coal, natural gas, or petroleum burned to create that light. (If you're lucky, your bulb is powered by wind turbines spinning, or sun hitting a solar panel, or water falling down from a dam)
There are also a huge number of steps between the creation of electricity and your house. This link looks at how we make our energy, what happens to it along the way to its final use, and where we can make that process better.
Probably the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about renewable energy, solar energy can be applied in a number of different ways for generating either heat or electricity. Solar energy has progressed a long way from the clumsy and inefficient photovoltaic panels that first became popular 30 years ago.
Explore Solar
Wind energy has been used for centuries and will likely be the largest component of our renewable energy portfolio going forward. This section talks about the different types of systems for harnessing the power of the wind and the number of important variables one must take into account when installing a wind turbine.
Explore Wind
Nuclear energy is a controversial technology that is very popular in some areas of the world, but is subject to a lot of criticism in the US. Here you will find the risks and benefits of what is likely to be one of the larger debates in the near future regarding what our renewable energy portfolio will look like in this country.
Explore Nuclear
Something that has not gotten much attention lately is how to get energy from the source to the demand. Our current electrical grid relies on century-old technology and is degrading in many parts of the country. At some point, our infrastructure will need to be upgraded to improve efficiency and ensure that it can handle our high tech supply and demand.
Explore The Grid
One of the major criticisms of renewable energies such as wind and solar are that they don't produce energy in response to demand. In other words, what happens if you rely on solar energy and want to turn on your TV at night? Large scale storage will eliminate this problem and also improve the efficiency of all electrical generation by smoothing out demand spikes.
Explore Storage