Alternative Energy

Though you may not think it, fossil fuels are actually the alternative. Only within the last few hundred years have we become dependant first on coal, then on oil and gas. Before this period we produced all our energy from wood or from water and wind. However today when we refer to alternative energy we are referring to the alternatives to oil and gas in the most part. So what are the alternative ways we can produce the energy and power we need to live our lives? The media focus heavily on solar and wind power both on an industrial scale and a home scale. These energy forms can help us to generate electricity. However when it comes to heat, wood and biomass energy provides one of the most practical solutions as an alternative. What pellet fuel can provide us with is an alternative to fossil fuels not only to help fight climate change but also help fight foreign oil and gas dependence. Global market factors do affect the prices of oil and gas, however the facts are we consume the most but we do not produce the most, therefore the price we pay is under the control of other nations. These inflated energy prices do not help our economy with jobs either, therefore we need to make the change ignoring climate change as a factor. We try to encourage the idea of local biomass economies. There are certain targets nations have got to meet to reduce carbon emissions. For instance the European countries have agreed a target of a 20% of their energy produced by renewable by 2020. However currently countries like the UK are well behind this target. Biomass and pellet fuels could go a long way to rapidly increasing this percentage. For instance we could used more agricultural wastes processed into pellets and then used in power plants in the place of coal. This requires practically no changes to infrastructure. While we primarily support the case for biomass and pellets we are under no illusion that biomass can provide all the energy we need. This is case for every form of alternative energy. The future needs to be a mix of technologies all working together to provide the power we need to live our lives.