How solar energy reduces climate change

Solar panels and wind turbines are an increasingly common sight. But why? What are the benefits of renewable energies—and how do they improve our health, environment, and economy?
This article explores the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. For more information on their negative impacts—including effective solutions to avoid, minimize, or mitigate—see our page on The Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Technologies.
 
Less global warming 

Our atmosphere is overloaded with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions resulting from human activity. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction of various species of animals.
Approximately 29 percent of global warming emissions come from the electricity sector in the U.S. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.
 
Improved public health 

Fossil fuel use contributes significantly to human health problems. Pollution emitted by coal and natural gas plants is linked with breathing problems, neurological damage, heart attacks, cancer, premature death, and a host of other serious problems. The pollution affects everyone: one Harvard University study estimated the life cycle costs and public health effects of coal to be an estimated $74.6 billion every year. That’s equivalent to 4.36 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced—about one-third of the average electricity rate for a typical US home.
Some negative health impacts originate from air and water pollution that clean energy technologies simply don’t produce. Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no associated air pollution emissions. Geothermal and biomass systems emit some air pollutants, though total air emissions are generally much lower than those of coal and natural gas

Solar and wind energy require essentially no water to operate and thus do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other important water needs. In contrast, fossil fuels can have a significant impact on water resources: both coal mining and natural gas drilling can pollute sources of drinking water, and all thermal power plants, including those powered by coal, gas, and oil, withdraw and consume water for cooling. 
 
Inexhaustible energy

The renewable energy industry is more labor intensive compared to fossil fuel technologies which are more capital intensive
Jobs and other economic benefits
 
Sunny skies, strong winds, abundant plant matter, heat from the earth, and fast-moving water can each provide a vast and constantly replenished supply of energy. A relatively small fraction of US electricity currently comes from these sources, but that could change: studies have repeatedly shown that renewable energy can provide a significant share of future electricity needs, even after accounting for potential constraints. Solar panels need humans to install them; wind farms need technicians for maintenance.
More jobs are created on average, for each unit of electricity generated from renewable sources than from fossil fuels.
In 2016, the solar industry employed more than 260,000 people, including jobs in solar installation, manufacturing, and sales, a 25% increase over 2015. The hydroelectric power industry employed approximately 66,000 people in 2017]; the geothermal industry employed 5,800 people.
Clean energy provides affordable electricity across the country right now and can help stabilize energy prices in the future.
Renewable facilities require upfront investment to construct and, they can then operate at a very low cost (for most clean energy technologies, the “fuel” is free). As a result, renewable energy prices can be relatively stable over time.

Using more renewable energy can lower the prices of and demand for natural gas and coal by increasing competition and diversifying our energy supplies. And an increased reliance on renewable energy can help protect consumers when fossil fuel prices spike.
 
Reliability and resilience

 Wind and solar energy sources are less prone to large-scale failure because they are distributed and modular. Distributed systems are spread out over a large geographical area, so a severe weather event in one location will not cut off power to an entire region. Modular systems are composed of numerous individual wind turbines or solar arrays. In situations where some of the equipment in the system is damaged, the rest can typically continue to operate.
 
If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. 
For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.