Where does our energy come from today?

Right now, most of our energy comes from brown energy sources; fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Fossil fuels are taken out of the ground and then burnt in large power stations to create electricity. But the problem is that when we burn fossil fuels they produce greenhouse gases, which is bad for our environment. Traditional fossil fuels are getting harder and harder to find and will run out eventually. We have to import them from other far off countries, relying on them to give us our energy – and this makes the fuel very expensive! But what can we do?

Where can energy come from in the future?

The good news is that there is a cleaner way of producing electricity and we can do this by using natural resources like the sun, the wind, rivers and the sea. This is ‘renewable’ energy. Putting solar panels onto our roof can capture the power of the sun to make electricity, and solar thermal panels use the sun’s energy to heat up water. We can use the power of the wind to turn turbines that make electricity, from big wind farms with tall turbines to

having your own small turbine in your back garden, if it’s windy enough! It is also possible to use water to generate energy, when it’s moving in a river, or from the power of the waves and tides in the sea.

A target to aim for

At Good Energy we have a set a target that 100% of our energy in this country can be made by renewables by 2050. It just needs everyone to think about how we can make our electricity in a different way. More and more people are realising that they don’t need to rely on big power generators and companies to get their power; in fact you can generate your own. Last year, more people installed their own mini renewable generators in the UK than ever before, for example putting solar panels on the roof of their house or even their school. When it’s not possible to make your own, lots of people are switching their energy supplies away from big, brown-power companies – and have moved to suppliers that are able to supply 100% renewable energy now.

Electric cars and clever washing machines

Renewable energy generates the most when it’s windy or if there’s a lot of sun – so it’s not always easy to predict when it’ll be available. In the future we’ll need to use power when it’s there so we’ll need more clever electronics to do this – such as washing machines that can turn on automatically when it’s really windy or raining lots. New electric cars are able to be powered on renewable electricity too. Instead of stopping at the petrol station and spluttering out lots of emissions from the exhaust, electric cars can be plugged in overnight and are as green as the electricity you put in to them!

So, to hit our renewable energy target, we all need to think about where our energy comes from and how every bit of energy we use has an impact on the environment we live in. The more people think about it, the less energy they are likely to use.