Tapping into renewable
energy resources at home

The following explanation of renewable energy and its benefits appears on the Web site of Green Energy Ohio, the nonprofit group that helps Ohioans learn about renewable energy.

There are many different kinds of energy that can be considered "renewable." But what is renewable? It refers to a source of power that cannot be used uprenewable energy is replaced at the same rate as it is used.

For example, wind power technologies use but do not deplete the wind, so they are renewable. Fossil fuels like coal take many centuries to form, and are being used much more quickly than they can be replaced. Fossil fuels are not a renewable form of energy.

Renewable energy is clean energy. While fossil fuels emit many pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide, as well as heavy metals and other dangerous byproducts, renewable sources of power generally have few if any emissions. This is important, because as humans use more and more power in daily life, the impacts of these pollutantsincluding acid rain, smog, and global climate changecontinue to grow.

There is another characteristic that is often assumed when people talk about renewable energy: environmental impact. Most renewable forms of power have minimal environmental impacts. Some forms of power, like large-scale hydro power, can be renewable but still be environmentally harmful. So, both a power source's potential for being renewed AND its environmental impact must be considered along with other criteria like cost and local availability.

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