We so often hear about the benefits of local goods- buy your food locally, buy housewares made by people in your area, etc. The basic idea is that local products need not be transported, reducing their environmental impact. However, the idea that local creation of products is valuable extends past consumer products. In particular, it’s incredibly important for the environment that electricity is produced locally.
An immediate question springs to mind, however. Isn’t all power produced at least somewhat locally? In short, it is. However, we have narrow down what we consider local. If your power is produced 100 miles away, that’s not terribly far in today’s world, but some of the electricity will be lost over that 100 miles. If the power is produced on your roof or in your backyard, none of it will be lost (or at least very little of it).
There are a set of factors at play here, primarily technological. While our technologies for producing power have advanced, our technologies for moving that power have not advanced- or least they haven’t advanced much. There are some promising technological advances on the horizon, but they have not yet come to fruition. Thus, in short, every mile that electricity has to travel is a mile in which the amount of electricity will degrade. By the time all is said and done, you may be left with 80% of the power you created, leaving 20% as waste.
To truly create green power, that power needs to be created close to home. There is a set of factors at play: 1. This will rely on a local resource (i.e. creating solar power in Phoenix rather than Seattle); 2. This will require little transport, and therefore less degradation of the power; 3. Ultimately, less power will have to be created for the same outcome.
As it becomes easier and easier to build solar cells and wind turbines (not to mention micro-hydro systems) at home, it is worth considering ones environmental impact. The benefits are numerous- it save the environment, saves your power bills, and could even make you money (think tax breaks or even selling power back to the power company). Numerous resources are available to the home builder of green power, allowing it to be used in many different environments (rural, urban, suburban). Between the guides available today, the necessity of saving the climate, the potential financial savings, and the long-term satisfaction of building green power, building your own home power system is more attractive than ever.
Damon Westchester is the editor of www.build-green-power.com.