When we hear about the benefits of buying nearby, we are usually taking into account such possessions as hard consumer goods- beverage, attire, etc. There is most certainly benefit to buying consumer products near to where you live. If you do not need to convey those goods or the raw materials far, then it saves on the power required to transport those objects. However, most of us don’t consider electricity as a local resource. In truth, we should be.
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The next question that springs to mind is, “isn’t all energy produced locally?” The short answer to this is yes. The longer answer is something more like, “sort of.” If you live in Arizona, you’re not going to be obtaining power from florida- but you might be obtaining it from Oregon. It’s only a few hundred miles. That doesn’t seem so bad. However, many of us don’t realize that electricity is lost during the process of conveying it from one place to another. Power lines simply aren’t efficient enough to convey 100% of the voltage put into them.
This may seem like an odd situation given how much effort has been put into electrical technologies, but the industrial science for moving power simply hasn’t made the leaps and bounds that have been made in the technologies focused on making electricity. It remains a tremendous problem for the climate. By conveying power, energy is wasted before it’s even gotten to your home.
There is, however, an easy solution: generate your own power at home. If you have a wind turbine or solar cell in your backyard, it doesn’t have far to transfer at all. There are a set of benefits: 1. Home power relies on a civic resource (i.e. creating solar power in Arizona, not Oregon); 2. Electricity created at home does not need to be moved miles and therefore will not degrade; 3. Ultimately, humanity will have to produce less electricity since none will be lost in transport.
Undeniably, there are numerous other positive aspects to creating your own home power system. Making your own electricity saves you money by allowing you tax breaks and removing one monthly utility bill. In addition, environmentalists can rest assured knowing their electricity is truly ecological and not being made with fossil fuels. Lastly, you can be sure that a neighborhood resource is being used to make your electricity.
With today’s technologies, it is easier than ever to build your own environment-friendly energy system. It is also less expensive than ever. There are numerous guides that can show you how to make solar cells, micro-hydro, wind turbines, and a variety of other green energy systems on your own. Often, this can be done for less than $200. Even fully-priced systems that can cost into the thousands of dollars tend to pay for themselves in the long-run.
Think about this effect. First, you save money. Second, you create electricity from environmentally-safe sources. Third, you avoid the loss of power through transportation. Today, we should be considering power a neighborhood resource and if we truly want to make an impact on the environment.
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About the Author
Damon Westchester is the editor of http://www.build-green-power.com and an advocate of local power resources.
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There’s renewable energy everywhere but the main constraints about using these renewables are our existing patterns of using energy (eg automobiles, industry etc).
Home energy usage is the #1 area where there’s a realistic opportunity to change the way we generate energy.
Unfortunately there’s not yet enough compulsion to drive these changes forward.
But it will come.