Wind Power Turbines
Green solutions and technologies are needed now more than ever. Yet, many continue to be hard to find and implement on a broad scale. Sustainability efforts from large corporations are increasing, yet our dependence on fossil fuels remains steadfast. Mining and drilling for fossil fuels can be dangerous and costly, and the planet is constantly reminding us that it’s the one paying the price. It’s here that we see plenty of opportunity for clean and renewable energies to become part of the landscape green. With the right funding and investment, renewable energy technology like wind power could help turn the tide when it comes to environmental concerns.
Wind power is a clean energy system that converts the planet’s own wind into energy by using mills, turbines, and even airborne kites. The earth’s wind moves the mills that turn the turbines, which converts kinetic energy into electricity that then can be circulated to power thousands of homes. Up to this point, wind power has been a well-known clean energy source but has mostly been underutilized and under funded. However, with the web search company Google now investing in the technology, wind power is beginning to appeal to a very broad market.
Last Friday, Google made a sizable investment of $38 million to North Dakota based wind farms. These wind farms harness the wind energy of the North Dakota plains to create electricity that can power more than 55,000 homes and does so in a clean and safe manner. Google understands that an investment of this size, in a technology as beneficial as wind energy, can help create more wind farms around the country, create more jobs within this clean energy, and help stimulate the economy. For Google, it’s as much about helping the environment, as it’s about making smart business decisions about the future of this planet. Other corporations like Globetrotters Corporation (a Chicago based engineering corporation founded by C.E.O. Niranjan Shah and Hewlett-Packard are following in the same footsteps as Google. These companies are coming to the conclusion that investing in green technology and green energy is really an investment in the future of the technology, the planet, and even their own businesses.
I guess, it looks like Google realizes which direction the wind is blowing.
Saving Energy
Energy conservation efforts will benefit everyone and even if you feel that you can’t do much to conserve energy on a planet wide scale, then think about saving some of your hard-eared money each month. When you look at the different areas in the home that consume huge amounts of energy and make changes, there will be a significant drop In your monthly energy bill.
Lights
You immediately conserve energy by changing from incandescent lights to florescent lights. Florescent lights are not only much brighter than incandescent ones, but they also last up to ten times longer. Florescent lights bring about huge energy conservation as it only uses ¼ of the electricity that is consumed by incandescent lights. Florescent lights are great for hallways, bathrooms, stairways and kitchens and will bring about a drastic reduction in your electricity bill.
Heating and hot water
Two energy guzzlers in all homes are the heating system and the hot water heater and you can address both of these together in your energy conservation efforts. The answer to conserve energy is to install timers for both your heating system and your hot water heater. You do not need the heat turned up when you sleep and neither do you need hot water. By installing timers that will shut these down a certain time after bedtime and switch them back on just before everyone gets up in the morning saves tons of money. Do the same for when everyone has left for the day; the timers switch the heat and hot water off and back on just before everyone returns home. This is a double-barrel energy conservation effort that has a truly huge impact on your energy bill.
Latent consumption
A staggering 73% of the electricity consumption of typical households goes on what is termed latent consumption. This is when you are not using appliances and have switched them off, but have left them plugged into the wall sockets. The typical list of appliances where you can hugely conserve energy by unplugging them are those that have digital displays such as microwave ovens clock radios and coffee makers. Also appliances that use remote controls such as DVD players, TVs and stereo equipment and all LED power indicators such as hand-held game chargers, cell phone chargers and battery chargers. For convenience, use power strips where you can flip a single switch to shut off several appliances and then unplug only one plug.
Energy vampires
The appliances that literally suck up electricity the fastest are clothes dryers, vacuum cleaners and irons. So restrict the dryer use to the minimum, use a broom on hardwood floors and only vacuum carpets. Look at clothes labels for fabric blends that need less ironing, you save elbow grease and electricity at the same time.
