There are several ways to define clean energy. It refers to energy processes that pollute less and don’t use resources that can’t be easily renewed. Clean energy may also be called renewable energy or green energy.
The basic forms of clean energy are those that come from water, wind, or sun. In some cases, some manufacturing and use of coal is considered clean and called clean coal.
It’s hoped that clean energy provides for a total substitution for oil, helps to reduce global warming and greenhouse gas emissions and helps to create a safer earth for all inhabitants.
In reality, clean energy too has problems. For instance, wind farms that can provide power can have significant effect on local bird populations, and birds of some types can face grave depletion of numbers when they live near wind farms.
Many environmentalists say that no power source is totally without risk, clean energy could have a wide reaching effect on healing the planet and perhaps stemming the tide of global warming. An additional reason why clean energy can be so desirable is because it tends to come from sources that are free. While harnessing this energy costs money, wind and sun aren’t owned by anybody in particular.
This is not the case with oil. Most of the oil deposits in the world are located in the Middle East. The dependence on oil on these countries often creates diplomatic problems too.
Much remains to be done to see that how to best harness clean energy sources and how to use them to best advantage. One issue is how to transport collected energy from one place to another, since many places that produce this energy are located in remote locations. Changing the power grid to accommodate different sources of energy can help this problem, but this has yet to occur on a wide scale.
