Wouldnt it be fantastic if we can produce our own green energy source? If we can do that, we dont have to pay electrical bills or gasoline anymore for our cars. While we can buy some of the equipment, the rest will have to be done on our own.

Take solar or wind energy for example. We already know how to harness and make it. If you want to make one, do some research online and then set up the system yourself.

To have solar energy, you will need to buy an inverter, battery, charge controller, solar panels, some wires and support structure. The only variation with wind energy is that you need a fan. Once you have everything you need, you can place it all together.

If you are not skillful, you will be pleased to know that some companies sell the entire system. By buying it from them and having it installed by their experts, you are sure that there wont be any tribulations the moment you switch it on.

There is one more thing you need before you can use one or the two green energy sources. Before you buy the materials or the system, make sure you have a flat area that is about a hundred square feet or so because it occupies a lot of space.

For those who dont have the space or the budget to use these two energy sources, another option is to make your own biofuels.

Biofuels are used in many countries and they get it from harvesting corn, sugar and other crops. Luckily, you dont need a farm to produce it because you can also make your own using some recycled waste.

A excellent example of this is vegetable oil which we use for cooking. To turn this into a biofuel, we first filter it by warming up the liquid and then filtering this with a coffee filter. The next step is to remove the water also by boiling it again at 100 degrees for a small cycle of time.

We need to know the amount of lye bestow in the vegetable oil and we do this by a process known as titration. When we are done with that, we now mix sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide.

The process of converting used vegetable oil before it becomes a biofuel takes quite awhile and it must be heated the entire time. This is done so the fuel we produce is pure and only when this is achieved that we give it time to cool.

Just how much biofuel we make after all the work varies but you will have an thought of how much you have produced since this is the one you see floating at the top. If there is still some glycerin bestow, filter it again. From there, you already have your own backyard biofuel which you can use and even sell to those who are just as concerned with the environment as you are.

By making our own green energy sources, we make ourselves less dependent on gasoline in its various forms to power our heater, home or car. Why dont a lot of people do it? Well simply because they dont have the time to make it and would rather rely on someone else to do it for them.

For more than a century, we rely on oil to fuel our cars. But did you know that the worlds oil is close to drying up because it is a nonrenewable resource? Well that may not happen tomorrow or next year but we are getting closer because of the demand in the world market. Why wait for that day when we can rely on a green energy source like water to power our cars.

Water can power a car? If you reckon thats impossible, well it is already here but this is not yet being made on a commercial scale.

The German automobile BMW has produced the worlds first ever hydrogen powered car. While only 100 of these units were produced, you can already imagine if more of these vehicles are on the road.

The early model namely the BMW Hydrogen 7 uses the body of the 760i model. Once you pop the hood, you will notice that the engine is different since it uses gas and hydrogen.

This just means we have not yet really abandoned are dependence on gas. Given more time and money, the current 4.7 miles per gallon it can travel using water alone could hit double digits in the future.

The largest challenge to using water as a green energy source as opposed to oil in vehicles is the engine. While there are cars around like the Prius which runs on electricity and gas thanks to fuel cell technology, the hydrogen combustion is less than 10 years ancient so you could say we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

To prevent the water from evaporating, this has to be stored in a generous, 30-gallon, bi-layered and highly insulated tank so this does not evaporate into compressed gas. Another safety mechanism is the valves which are designed to open should the difficulty within the tank exceed 5 bars.

With the success of the BMW H7, the company came out with a new car that is also partly powered by water known as the H2R. While we cannot yet place our garden hose into the fuselage to fill it up, this vehicle uses liquid nitrogen as a fuel.

Tests on this vehicle have shown it can achieve 285hp and get to a top cruising speed of 185.5 miles per hour. It can also accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour under 6 seconds.

But why use water? It is because hydrogen combustion is clean so it does not emit harmful gases into the atmosphere unlike cars that run on petrol or diesel that emit carbon monoxide. Studies have shown that it also weighs less than hydrocarbon-based fuels and burns quicker than conventional gasoline.

So when can you guess to buy a car that uses water as a green energy source? Hopefully in the next 10 to 20 years. It is really up to the automakers because all we can do is wait until a better and clear car hits the dealership.

Right now, the best option we have are electric cars. Since its introduction in 1999, more people are using it because they dont want to spend anymore for gasoline that could hit an all time high of more than $110 per barrel.

If water as a green energy source can be used to power a car, why dont we do the same for solar power which has been around much longer?

Is biomass a green energy source? According to experts, yes it is. In fact, it is one of the three main areas of bioenergy.

But what is bioenergy? Well, it is a process by which organic notes such as creature waste, plants and wood are used to breed electricity, produce heat and also aid in the manufacture of biofuels.

In the case of biomass, hot air or water is generated to produce electricity. This is done through direct combustion and is considered the simplest and most ordinary method of generating energy from biomass.

Aside from generating electricity, biomass can be used for hot air manufacture so you can keep a place warm. For this to work, biomass has to be combusted in a furnace where it heats either water or air. Language of water, this enables you to have warm water so you can take a shower. In small, biomass in itself can also be used in a small scale as a heating system.

Since you can breed electricity and heat, some people have been able to combine the two which is known as combined heat and power or CHP. A touch that many consider to be excellent as you use one energy source for two purposes.

If you are able to equate the amount of electricity generated between biomass and lets say solar energy, you will notice that biomass produces more because the energy in plants is already captured and stored.

You dont have to collect it first which is what happens with solar or even wind energy since this is manufactured technology. It is readily available unlike the other two which is really dependent on the ride out.

Another is the fact that you can even use organic waste to product electricity. No other green energy source can do that and by using this extensively, any government can save money because you dont have to spend money to dispose of the waste and you will no longer depend on unknown oil that much to power your plants.

The downside to biomass is that because you have to burn waste and other organic materials to product power, you add to the pollution which is already in the atmosphere. But this can be offset of course by planting more crops which we know helps reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

You will also have to shell out a lot of money initially for the costs of labor, the transport of these fuels and how these should be stored.

Biomass uses renewable natural resources which is why it is considered a green energy source. This means that we have an endless supply of it around just like the power of the sun or the wind which flows from the ocean. The challenge is to find suitable land that has a sufficient water supply so these will be able to grow.

This means that in areas where water is not that abundant, you cannot rely on biomass technology to breed power. When that happens, you use other means and one excellent example given the right geographical location is wave energy which is the process of generating power from the water.

There is a way to breed power without causing harm to the environment. We have the technology and the green energy sources. We just need to muster the willingness to make it happen.

Solar energy is a green energy source because it is a renewable and it does not cause any harm to the environment. This is achieved by converting the suns rays into electricity with the help of solar cells.

There are three basic approaches how we can use this form of green energy source namely passive, active and by using photovoltaic cells.

When we refer to passive solar energy, nothing is converted. What happens is the buildings design helps avoid heat loss and gets the most out of day lighting.

Such a technique can also be used in homes because studies have shown that this can reduce the heating requirements by as much as 80% with minimal cost. This means you dont have to turn on the air condition or heater that often and if everyone does that, we dont consume that much electricity which we get from non-renewable resources.

The second approach which is active solar energy is the first way of converting sunlight into heat. You should know that there are certain limits to this one and all it can do is make sure you have hot water.

The third approach is the huge scale version and it can power an office or an entire home. This is done with the help of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. The smallest ones around can be seen in calculators and watches with generous ones planted over huge acres of land.

The only limitation to this green energy source is the fact that it can only breed power when the ride out is excellent and the sun is out. Should it rain, then nothing is collected and converted. When this happens, the auxiliary system is turned on until the ride out improves.

Despite that, scientists and students themselves have made solar powered cars. NASA or the National Aeronautical Space Administration has sent satellites into space that are powered by solar panels. A fully functional airport can function on its own thanks to solar power even if it is situated in the midpoint of the frozen desert.

So people can see the awesome power of solar energy, did you know a kilowatt of solar energy can produce 5.5 hours of electricity per day. If you have more solar cells in place, naturally you will be able to produce enough power to last numerous days.

Solar energy is just one form of green energy source around. Through the years, we have learned to tap other resources and these examples contain wind power, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity and biogas. These are all safe and by using these more often, we dont need to depend on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.

To make this happen, we have to persuade our law makers to promote the use of such resources. Although you hear speeches left and right about their concern for the environment, it is all talk and not that much proceedings. It is a touch that has to change.

Two countries that have increased solar usage happen to be Germany and Japan. Spain, France, Italy and South Korea are next in the list and where is the United States? Well, one thing is for certain and that it is not in the top 10 despite the fact that it is an industrialized nation.

Why is hydropower a green energy source? It is because we are able to harness electrical power by converting water into electricity.

The use of hydroelectric power or even hydroelectricity dates back to Very ancient Greece and China when they installed waterwheels in rapidly flowing rivers to turn millstones and other equipment. Years later, this was used in the New World which is now known as North America to power saws and other equipment.

But the hydroelectric plants of today still use the same basic principles as the historical waterwheel with some variations. The variation is that we use the force of the power to push the turbine which in turn powers a generator thus generating electricity.

To make sure that there is a steady flow of power being produced, a dam has to be built to retain the water. If there is a need for more power, the gates of the dam are opened so water can be released. During non-peak, the gates are closed. To ensure there is water at all times, some dams have a recovery and pumping systems to the water released can be used again.

There are issues with the use of hydroelectricity. Some claim that it poses a problem for fish and aquatic plants on both sides of the dam. Because the flow of water has been changed, the nutrient rich silt which helps crops grow could be affected which is exactly what happened when the Aswan Dam was completed in Egypt.

But there are ways to fix that and the larger picture is that power produced from hydroelectric plants do not breed any emissions or waste which happens to be much better than operating a coal-fired power plant.

There is another way to breed hydropower and you get this form the sea. This is also known as wave power or wave energy which uses changes in the air levels of sealed chambers to power turbines. When a wave rises into the chamber, the rise water pushes the air out which then turns a generator.

Once the wave goes down, air flows into the turbine and back into the chamber through doors that will close.

These chambers remain afloat on the ocean and how much power it produces varies. A lot of these are used on the western coasts of Scotland, northern Canada, southern Africa, Australia, and the northwestern coasts of the United States. These systems are usually small and can power a warning buoy or a small light house.

There is also tidal energy. The variation with wave energy is that when the tide approaches, the water is trapped in reservoirs behind dams. When the tide drops, the water behind the dam is released thus producing power similar to a hydroelectric power plant.

This can only work if you have tides that are at least 16 feet and since there are only a few places in the planet that can do that.

Lastly, you have ocean thermal energy. Here, you get power based on the different temperatures in the water. For this to work, you need at least 38 degrees Fahrenheit variation between the warmer go up water and the colder deep ocean water. Still in the trial stage, it is used Japan and Hawaii.

Hydropower is a green energy source. It is safe to use and what is even better is that it is renewable.

For a very long time, we have relied on fossil fuels. It provides heat to our homes, gas for our cars and electricity. Since we are now using it more than ever, there is a consequence. We are depleting our resources and slowly killing our planet. Fortunately, we can change our ways and then shift our concentration to green energy sources.

But why green energy sources? Well because there are advantages to using them which we will never be able to get if we dont change our ways. This is also even if some will argue that the problem with green energy is that it is sometimes trying to breed the power we need. While that may be right, that is why there are other green energy sources available and we just to know which ones are viable given the geographic location.

The various green energy sources such as solar, wind, wave, hydropower and geothermal do not produce whatever thing harmful which may have a negative effect on the environment. This is the exact opposite of what you get when you continue to operate a coal or nuclear power plant.

Coal you have to remember releases carbon dioxide into the air. On its own, it may not cause that much hurt but there are currently 50,000 coal plants around the world and that number is expected to grow.

Nuclear plants may not release whatever thing harmful into the air. The issue is how we dispose of the spend rods and if another nuclear accident should occur. We remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. We have probably learned better ways to prevent another incident from happening. Through the years, a few minor accidents have occurred and although the leak was contained, just imagine if it wasnt?

Green energy sources may not be maintenance free but at least it does not require that much to maintain them compared to conventional means. In the end, we save money because such facilities dont cost that much to operate.

The next advantage of using green energy sources is that we will never run out of them. For centuries, the suns rays have reached so has the wind which is blown from the sea. By using it, we decrease our dependence on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.

If you reckon about it, many of us have taken these green energy sources for granted. If we do the right thing now, future generations will not have to face the mess that we could have handled on our own years before.

In small, the power is in our hands. We have the technology and we know what to do with it. The only thing we need is to do is to place our money where our mouth is because despite the number of conferences on global warming and climate change, small has happened.

It is simple to talk about how concerned we are about the environment but you have to question yourself when will more solar panels or wind turbines will be erected? When will the number of coal or nuclear power plants be reduced?

Green energy sources is the solution to the environmental, political and social tribulations of this lifetime. By spending more on these technologies, no country will have to depend on another or even a corporation for their power needs because they are self dependent and free.