The energy industry significantly contributes to carbon emissions, which warm the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Many energy providers commit to reducing their footprints through innovative strategies and programs.
These include energy efficiency, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. These can help reduce your energy bills and contribute to a greener future.
Electric Vehicles
One of the most effective ways to reduce carbon footprints is by switching to electric vehicles (EVs). As a result, many energy providers are helping customers switch to EVs to help meet their climate change targets and avoid the need for coal, natural gas, or petroleum.
EVs are significantly less carbon-intensive over their lifetime than gasoline-powered vehicles. This is because their carbon emissions don’t come from the car itself but rather from a combination of vehicle operation and electricity generation.
For example, an EV using renewable energy to charge its battery will have a much lower carbon footprint than an ICE vehicle because it requires far less fossil fuel-based electricity. This is especially true in places like Norway, where the nation’s power grid is powered almost entirely by hydropower, producing near-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
However, it’s important to remember that this advantage depends on your country and how your electric car is charged. In countries where fossil fuels are the primary source of electricity, recharging an EV will be more expensive and generate higher carbon emissions.
A 2018 study by MIT found that the carbon footprint of an EV varies wildly depending on what kind of power grid is used to recharge it. For instance, the carbon emissions of a fully electric vehicle in a state that gets most of its electricity from hydropower would be 61 percent lower than an equivalent hybrid vehicle.
Energy Storage
One way energy providers like BKV Energy are helping to reduce carbon footprints is by storing excess energy and delivering it to the grid when needed. This allows the grid to balance fluctuations in production and demand, providing flexibility to consumers and enabling renewable resources to be used more efficiently.
Energy storage can also help to mitigate the effects of wind curtailment and other power outages. However, it is essential to consider the impacts of storage operation strategies on net emissions.
Generally, energy storage projects are financed and structured to maximize return on investment by selling electricity at market rates to the grid. This involves taking advantage of a financial arbitrage when grid operators decide which resources to use at a given time based on supply and demand.
In many cases, storage projects compete against high-carbon sources (e.g., coal or gas) for the electricity they absorb when charging and against low-carbon authorities when discharging. These competing actions favor higher carbon sources, thus increasing net emissions compared to the situation without storage.
For example, suppose a battery bank absorbs cheap energy produced by a coal plant overnight and discharges it during the day. In that case, it will have a net effect of favoring coal against natural gas combined-cycle plants, which would increase overall emissions. In addition, charging a newly commissioned storage system when there is moderate net demand (e.g., 25 GW) and then discharging it during peak periods will also impact overall emissions.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is one of the easiest ways to reduce energy use and lower costs. It can also help combat climate change, improve the air we breathe, and lower pollution.
The IEA estimates that energy efficiency will make up the largest share of the emissions reductions needed to achieve the two °C global warming target. This can be achieved through a wide range of policies and technologies that improve the efficiency of power plant operation, industry, transportation, buildings, and agriculture.
In addition to cutting carbon dioxide emissions, improving energy efficiency can lower water use and enhance the electrical grid’s reliability. This is important in a world where security concerns can jeopardize access to essential services such as heating, cooling, cooking, and power generation or even threaten a country’s economic livelihood.
As a result of increasing energy prices, consumers have become more aware of the impact of their energy use on the environment. As a result, many products, homes, and buildings are becoming more energy-efficient.
A significant contributor to this trend is the development of policies that encourage the use of efficient products, such as appliance standards and financial incentives that offset up-front costs. These policies have helped to increase the adoption of efficient products and appliances across various sectors, including residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation.
Although market interventions have successfully increased the use of efficient products and encouraged energy conservation, the efficiency gap continues. This gap may be a result of either market failures or behavioral failures. Studies are underway to examine the causes of this gap and determine the most effective strategies for correcting it.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is the name of technologies that convert naturally replenishable resources such as sunlight, wind, hydro, geothermal heat, or biomass into electricity. This means that the fuel does not have to be mined, extracted, processed, and transported in the same way as fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.
Fossil fuels – such as coal power plants, which emit around 2.2 pounds of CO2 for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they generate – foul the air and harm human health. The air pollution caused by these fossil fuels also contributes to global climate change, making it essential to move away from them as quickly as possible.
There are many advantages to using renewables as an alternative energy source. They have lower costs than traditional fossil fuels, do not create greenhouse gas emissions, and can help the U.S. avoid importing expensive foreign energy sources like oil.
They can also enhance energy security and lower the risk of oil spills. Because they do not require expensive transportation or fuel, they also offer excellent price stability.
Solar and wind power plants can be replaced infrequently as conventional ones, reducing lifetime operating costs. Photovoltaic systems can remain operational for 25 years, while wind turbines can last two or more decades.
