CLEAN ENERGY. HEALTHY PLANET.
Our goal is to have San Diego using 100% renewable energy by the year 2035. Until proven otherwise, earth is going to have a nearly unlimited supply of wind and sunlight that can be converted into energy. Now, technically, oil is derived from natural resources in the form of the compressed remains of living organisms that are hundreds of millions years old. However, these are not replenishable, at least not at the rate that humanity is consuming them. Green energy essentially starts working when the wind blows or when the sun rises.
One of the most exciting aspects of green energy is that it’s still so young in terms of its technological development. Every year, new processes and advancements to solar panels, turbine technology, and conversion methods make green energy more and more efficient for mass consumption. Every dollar that is paid in bills goes right back towards improving green energy for homeowners like you.
Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for its zero emissions profile and carbon footprint reduction benefits.
Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (eligible biomass), and the earth’s heat (geothermal). Although the impacts are small, some renewable energy technologies can have an impact on the environment. For example, large hydroelectric resources can have environmental trade-offs on such issues as fisheries and land use.
Conventional power includes the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and the nuclear fission of uranium. Fossil fuels have environmental costs from mining, drilling, or extraction, and emit greenhouse gases and air pollution during combustion. Although nuclear power generation emits no greenhouse gases during power generation, it does require mining, extraction, and long-term radioactive waste storage.