What are wind farms?

If you want to know more about what wind farms are and weather, they are better than solar farms then feel free to read my article. ‘Solar farms vs wind farms’

Offshore or onshore?

Now as you would have just watched the size of the wind turbine determines how much wind gets picked up and therefore how much energy gets produced.

Both offshore and onshore wind farms have got positives and negatives to them. (AS most things do)

Offshore farms

Credit to: Pixabay

Offshore farms tend to be more expensive to set up. This is because they have to travel far out to sea on boats and assemble it by driving down and then having to mantel it all together. This can be very tricky and time consuming. Not only that but the weather conditions would have a huge impact on when and how they get set up. We all know the sea can get very rough at times meaning they would have to wait for a day when the sea is calm and risk the possibility of being out there in rough seas as the sea can change at any moment.

However, one of the positives of having offshore farms is the fact that they can be made bigger and wider. As the video stated the bigger, they are the more wind they collect and therefore the more energy produce. Not only that but because they are far from shore it will not make a huge impact to on seers if they are bigger due t the fact from them being so far away, they will still look small. this means they will not have a greater visual pollution. This is similar to the noise pollution due to the being far out into the sea and the waves being noisy themselves the noise from the turbines will be somewhat blocked out.

Onshore Farms

Credit to: Pixabay

On the other hand, onshore farms basically are the opposite. They tend to be cheaper and easier to set up due to the fact it only takes a plot of land and a few machines to set it up. It also has less dangers when it comes to weather condition therefore has a wider range of days where they can set it up.

Obviously, there are some downfalls to on land wind farms. Due to them being on land they can create a larger eye sore meaning they tend to not be as big. This means they do not collect as much energy as those offshore. Also due to them being around population the noise pollution will be more obvious as they are normally found in the countryside where there are not a lot of noise coverage.

Offshore vs Onshore

After looking at both sides I personally would say that offshore windfarms are better as they produce more energy and don’t have as big of an impact on people as it is not close to anyone. Also, it is pricier I feel the benefits out way that.

The UKs climate

As many are aware climate is a very big thing right now. We are discovering that places are getting a lot hotter in summer months and a lot colder in winter months.

This means that during the summer months we are seeing more sunshine and therefore more heat. This could be a huge positive when it comes to using solar panels because they covert the sunlight/heat and change it into power that can be used across the UK and the world.

How do solar Panels work?

As you would have watched solar panels have got a whole system going on within them that can be hard to get your head round. The main things that are key to remember is that they last for a very long time and unlikely to get broken unless in extreme weathers. Different amounts of solar modules are needed to change different items. It only takes a few to charge a phone but lots to charge a house. Finally, it is possible for it to be used to power the world. So why not the UK?

Could solar Panels create all the UK’s energy?

As stated, it takes a different amount to change different object/appliances. Therefore, it would take a lot of solar panels to be able to collect and produce the energy that it needed to power the entirety of the UK. However, this is doable.

Ruffly only 5.9% of the UK is actually built on this means towns or cities Majority of the UK is country sides. Now I am not saying we should ruin the environment and cut down lots of trees or anything like that. However, over half of the UK is farmland and another 34.9% is natural untouched land. Therefore, there is more than enough land to set aside a few plots to put solar panels without making a huge impact on the environment or people.

Even if this does mean sadly cutting down a few trees the amount of pollution it will stop due to no longer needing fossil fuels that create pollution everyday will make the initial impact more than worth it.

The initial struggles of making this happen are quite substantial. Getting the funds, having permission, finding a plot big enough, getting it up and running and so on. This can be daunting. However, after this initial struggle the positive impact on the UK and even the worlds environment would be huge. If one country did this and showed it can be done successful and how much money can be saved and how much better the environment and pollution rates are. Why would the rest not follow?

Wind Farms

Wind Farm is southern California credit to: Wikimedia Commons

Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind—like a fan—wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

Energy.gov

Wind Farms are a collection of 2 or more wind turbines. As the quote above states, they use wind to make electricity. The wind turns the blades which as the blades go in circles more and more energy is produced. For these wind turbines to work they are usually placed in ages that are known for high wind. Such as in the countryside where there are less buildings blocking the wind. There are both land and sea turbines. I can guarantee that if you have been to many beaches, you would have at least once seen some wind turbines in the far distance. this is due to there being a lot of wind at the sea front.

Solar Farms

Solar Farms are a collection of solar panels that collects sunlight and converts it into energy that gets sent to the power grid to be distributed.

If you would like to know more about Solar farms, then please read my article ‘what are solar farms?’

Solar Vs Wind

As this video shows there are many positives and negatives to both wind and solar energy. They share the same positives and the same negatives. The only difference they found is that wind turbines are not the nicest to look at and are noisy. However, I would have to say solar panels can be seen as unpretty too, meaning once again they are similar in comparison.

Although we do have a range of solar farms and windfarms all around the world there is still huge amounts of potential that we could still harness.

As this graph shows we are only using such a small proportion of energy we could create from both Solar and Wind energy. According to this there is more potential when it comes to wind as it can produce more energy. However, we are a lot closer to reaching that potential whereas for solar we are only just scraping the surface of the potential it can give us.

When it comes to deciding between wind and solar, I think either of them would be applicable or work. The decision maker I feel would be what is the need for it. For example, if it was to help lower your houses energy bill having a huge wind turbine in your garden may just ruin your view out the window; But having a few solar panels on your roof would help lower the energy and not disrupt you or your neighbours. However, if you have a huge plot of land in the countryside and want to power your local village or business then putting a few wind turbines up would not cause to much disruption.

Therefore, I feel both are equally good and it depend on the purpose of the renewable energy and where it is needing to go that has the final say of which one is better suited for you.

What are Solar Farms?

Solar farms are a large collection of solar panels in one place.

Solar Panels are devices that collect the suns energy (sunlight) and converts it into energy that we can use.

Once the energy has been converted and collected it gets sent to the power grid. This then makes it way back through the power lines to the houses/organisations around that area.

You many have seen some solar panels on the roof of different houses or sheds. This is because it has become more common to give back to the environment and solar power is a great example of this. However, these are technically not classed as Solar farms due to there normally only being a small amount. Solar Farms are usually found on the ground over a vast space of land.

Solar farm in Vietnam. Credit to: Wikimedia Commons

The placement of the solar farms tend to be in the hotter/sunnier countries and places facing the sun so it can collect as much sun light (energy) as possible.

Are their different types of solar farms?

Yes!

The main two types of Solar Farms I am going to talk about are:

• Utility-scale – The image above is an example of this type of Solar Farm. Utility-scale means it is HUGE Solar Farm with thousands of solar panels all in one place. They are normally found in remote places such as deserts or farm fields. These Solar Farms tend to produce a higher voltage of power meaning it can travel along the power lines to the power grid and be used to power business or a wide range of homes.
• Community solar- These are a smaller collection of solar panels that are used to help reduce the energy bill in a community. (Hence the name community solar) They tend to generate around 5MW of electricity”, this then gets shared out between that community meaning that each house would get a cheaper energy bill because they have been a part of producing that energy. Even when it comes to Community solar panels, they are usually found in a big open space just this time within the community.

Black Rock Solar, a non-profit entity, installed a 31-kilowatt photovoltaic array at Rainshadow Community Charter High School in Reno, Nevada.  Credit to: Rapid Transition Alliance

This is an image of a community coming together at the opening of their community solar farm.

1. Renewing, Upgrading & re-using old parts

There is a lot going round at the moment about how we need to become greener. The recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only heightened the need for it. Russia and China are the main sources of imports to the UK. We get some of our oil and gas from Russia, and we get a lot of our materials from China.

Credit to: Wikimedia Commons

We are living in what is known as the Information Age. It can also be called the Computer Age, Digital Age or the New Media Age. Our technology sources are ever expanding and changing. For example, a new iPhone is made roughly every year, a new Mac is also released roughly every year and so on with many different devices. This is something we see as good. However when it comes to the environment it is quite the opposite.

Every time a new device comes out there are many people all around the world who then throw their old device away even though it works perfectly fine. This leads to many devices being left in landfill. Not only that, but the different materials inside phones and laptops can be easily re-used which some people don’t know. This then means that some people go to landfill and collect different devices and try and make use/money out of them.

Credit to: PxHere

Credit to: PxHere

Not only having different devices end in landfill is bad but it is also bad for the environment to create these new devices. The majority of computer/phone parts come from China. Meaning it creates a lot of pollution to get those goods/parts over to the UK to be made and sold.

Therefore it is good for the environment if you remain with the same device until it does not serve the purpose you need anymore. Then rather then just getting rid of it, find ways to recycle it. Such as donating/selling the different parts. Even if the device does not work there will be parts inside that do, meaning it is possible to either mend the existing device or use the parts to mend other devices. This would then lead to less devices ending in landfill and less parts needing to be imported from China.

WEEE Recycling

In every company (and even in typical average homes) there will come a time when you need to update or replace your devices. As stated previously this leads to many devices being sent to landfill. However some devices such as laptops/computers maintain their information on their hard drive. It can be a dangerous situation when it comes to businesses and getting rid of those computers as this can lead to many companies hording their old computers and storing them never to be used or disposed of. Although this is better then them going to landfill, it still has the same effect of old computers just sitting around and one day being thrown away.

WEEE recycling is one way round this situation as they look to destroy all the hard drive data which then means those laptops can be recycled and reused with no harm to the company or data getting leaked.

“WEEE recycling helps to turn your business’s old IT equipment into new products without compromising your security” (shredall)

WEEE (Waste Electrical & Environment Equipment) is all devices that are either battery powered or gets plugged in.

2. Re-using precious metals

What are precious metals?

Some examples of precious metals are:

• Gold
• Silver
• Platinum

These are probably the well known precious metals. However a small amount of people know how much they are used and in what. For example I can guarantee right now you are close to some gold, maybe even all three.

Different devices are made using some of these metals. Take a phone as an example, there is gold in your sim card. Now if we look at your computer, there is gold in your motherboard.

Credit to: Pixabay

Credit to: Pixabay

Smartphones contain about 60 different elements – including not only gold but copper and silver too. All three are good conductors of electricity, and circuits usually receive a thin covering of gold because it doesn’t corrode and so ensures a durable connection.

The conversation May 2020

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If you collected roughly 41 mobile phones you would be able to recover around 1 gram of gold. Now if you are anything like me, I know for a fact I have at least 8 old phones in a box under my bed. Old phones are also not hard to come by, people can sell them for as little as £5.

When you hear 1g you may think that is teeny what’s the point. However to put it in perspective. “Most women’s gold wedding rings weigh between 1 gram and 7 grams” (Special Metals) This means if you collected 41 phones and extract all the gold you could use that gold for a wedding band that could cost hundreds.

If that is not enough, currently in the UK 1g of gold is worth roughly £47.08. That is a lot for some old phones sitting in a draw or in a box somewhere.

Not only is extracting the gold good for you due to it making you money it helps the environment.

Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments. It pollutes water and land with mercury and cyanide, endangering the health of people and ecosystems. Producing gold for one wedding ring alone generates 20 tons of waste.

Earthworks 2019

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If all the old gold was taken from every old device we would have a lot of gold that could be used and therefore reduce the amount of mining we have to do. This would therefore reduce the pollution and destruction mining for gold produces.

3. Greener hosting

What is hosting?

Hosting (when it comes to websites) is a server that holds all the data for your website/platform. That server is normally found in a huge warehouse type building which has hundreds of different servers all working around the clock. As many people are aware the longer you keep your devices on the hotter, they get. Therefore, due to the fact the servers are on 24/7 they need to have a very effective fully functioning cooling system in place to stop the servers from burning up. Not only will it take a lot of power to keep those servers running but it will also use a lot of power to keep the cooling system working. This can lead to a lot of CO2 being produced.

Credit to: Flickr

In 2016, it was reported that the world’s data centres used more than Britain’s total electricity consumption – 416.2 terawatt hours, significantly higher than the UK’s 300 terawatt hours. At three percent of the global electricity supply and accounting for about two percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, data centres have the same carbon footprint as the aviation industry.

Computerworld August 2019

What is green hosting?

Due to server farms being so large it is very difficult to have one run on renewable energy. However, to green host a server farm does not need to necessarily use renewable energy. A Green hosting sign it one that tries to give back to the environment and make up for the pollution they do create.

Different server farms do this is a range of ways. Some have decided to plant trees, other has decided to make renewable energy and sell it and finally some has decided to buy into creating renewable energy. This means they do not use the energy themself, but they help other organisations and companies produce renewable energy therefore lowering their pollution.

You may wonder how to know whether your host company is green hosting. Well… “This is straightforward: If your host is Green, they will tell you, loudly and proudly!” (WHSR February 2022) It is a huge positive for a host company to be green. This is because it will make you want to have them as your host therefore will help them gain more money. The more information a host provides about what they do to be green the more likely that they do what they say. If you want to make sure there are certificates, they may receive if they are green and therefore should be able to provide that on their website too.

Conclusion

There are many ways you can be greener on the web. Some are smaller and easier, and others are slightly more challenging. Just remember every change you make towards been greener makes an impact. A small change is better than no change at all.

Ban Russian oil 

As I am sure many are aware there is a war currently going on, because of ‘Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine’ (British Government 8th March) there has been a huge push to stop using Russian oil and gas.

This is in the hope that the war can be stopped through economic solutions rather then military operations. The UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng stated on Tuesday 8th March that The UK will have stopped the imports of Russian oil by the end of the year.

Rather then immediately stopping imports it has been chosen by a number of countries to do this through phases so as not to effect the consumers too drastically at once. By phasing it through out the year it should mean that consumers can get use to the changes and think of alternative ways to cope without the Russian oil and gas.

Stopping the imports of Russian oil should not make too big of an impact on the UK due to the fact that it is only 8% of oil demand. The UK not only produces oil itself it also gets it oil from ‘reliable suppliers including the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and USA’.

We have more than enough time for the market and our supply chains to adjust to these essential changes. Businesses should use this year to ensure a smooth transition so that consumers will not be affected.

Kwasi Kwarteng –  UK Business Secretary 

Renewable sources

With all of these conversations going on it is the prime opportunity to think about different options. Due to the demand of oil and gas going up and therefore prices will be increasing significantly, it produces the option of changing to a different renewable alternative source of oil and gas.

Credit to: Wikimedia Commons

Some of these  alternative solutions could be:

• Solar Energy
• Hydro Energy
• Wind Energy
• Tidal Energy
• Geothermal Energy
• Biomass Energy

While some of these take a lot of planning and different resources to work such as Tidal and hydro energy. Those two options would definitely need another party that sources that energy to you.

On the other hand renewable sources such as solar energy are easy to come to although are on the higher money side. The positives to Solar energy is that it can be used by anyone as long as it is installed correctly.

Solar energy 

If you asked a business person what their biggest business expensive they have is most would respond with their energy bills. This is definitely true for those business that have lots of computers and servers being used every hour of the day.

Due to this many business are trying to lower their energy bill by getting some of their energy through solar energy. Solar energy consists of solar panels that collect the sun light and covert it into energy. To then store this energy there are solar batteries that will store that energy to be used in the workplace/at home.

Some positives to this is that solar energy is silent so it would not create a lot of noise like other gas generators. Having solar energy also means that if there was a power outage your lights and computers would still be able to run on that solar energy. This is a big bonus for business who obviously don’t want to loose time where they could be working and making money.

Any renewable energy source would be able to cut down businesses/home energy bills. That added extra cost of buying the supplies and appliances may save you a huge sum on money in the long run. It will also reduce your carbon footprint.

Climate

What is Climate?

Climate is the pattern of the weather conditions in a particular area over a period of time. Every country has a different Climate, some are more alike then others but everyone is different in one way or another.

What are Climate zones?

There are 6 different climate zones. These are 6 different sections of the earth. Depending on which section the country is in depends on which climate zone they are in.

SciJinks

The different climate zones are dependant on how close you are to the equator. The closer you are the hotter climate you have and the furthest away the coldest.  This is a Rough idea of each Climate zone:

• Tropical- Hot & Humid such Mexico
• Arid- Dry such as Egypt
• Mediterranean- Hot dry summers & cold wet winters such as Italy
• Temperate- mild summers & mild winters such as the UK
• Continental- Long cold winters & short hot summers such as Russia
• Polar- very cold for a long period of time such as the poles

What Causes Climates to change?

The main course that effects the different climes is the use of greenhouse gasses.

“As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history.”

United Nations

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Websit

It is not very common to link climate change and pollution to the internet and the use of websites. However “Cisco predicted that the internet will account for 3.5% of global carbon emissions by 2025, and Microsoft predict by that time, data centres will rank among the largest users of electrical power on the planet” said Tom Greenwood at the WordPress Meetup London.

This means it is more important then ever to be more aware of the websites we are producing/using and the impact it has on the Climate.

Tom Greenwood goes on to talk about three process that we can do to help us become greener on the web. Those steps were: Measuring Our Impact, Reduce Data Transfer and finally Use Cleaner Energy.

Measuring Our Impact

You can go onto websitecarbon.com This is a site where you can find out how much CO2 your website is producing every time someone views it. Most websites are usually on average 2.25 Grams of co2 per view.

Reduce Data Transfer

This is how fast your websites load. The more data you have on a website the longer it takes to load therefore the more emission it produces. The best way to lower this is to have smaller/ less pictures and to not have auto play on videos. These add a lot of data to a website and therefore produces more CO2.

Use Cleaner Energy

Credit to: Pxfuel

We have no way of controlling what energy people use to access all the different websites. However we can chose what energy we use to host these websites on. This is due to the fact that most CO2 from the internet comes from service farms and different data centres. If these areas can be charged by renewable energy it will reduce the amount of co2 produced by that website significantly.

Every little change helps stop the climate changing and helps us become a greener web.

How can we be more green?

When we think about being green the main solutions we think of are as follows:

• Recycling
• Using less plastic
• Driving less
• Using less electricity (such as turning off lights)

These are only 4 of the many ways we can become more green.

However…

It is uncommon to think about websites and the internet when we think about becoming a greener planet.

‘The internet is the world’s largest coal-powered machine’ says the green website foundation

Bitcoin

Credit to: Wikimedia Commons

Mining Bitcoin uses a lot of electricity. As you can see from the picture there are farms all around the world that has hundreds of computers mining for bitcoin 24/7. It is estimated that Bitcoin uses 0.5% of all electricity used around the world. That is roughly 7 times more than Google.

“The environmental impact of mining has long been a problem to reckon with.  Iran was rocked by power outages earlier this year that were partly blamed on bitcoin. In March, Bill Gates warned bitcoin was “not a great climate thing.” And U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called its energy use “staggering.”

Eugenie Kim, September 2021

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Due to Bitcoin having a huge impact on the environment there has been a push to try and make it illegal in a large number of countries. However in 2021 there were only 9 countries which had a full ban on cryptocurrency (a Digital or virtual currency such as bitcoin).

A few of these 9 countries are: China, Egypt, morocco, Nepal and others. At the moment majority of the European countries have actually legalised the use of bitcoin in the use of transactions. These countries are: France, Germany, Japan, Spain and United Kingdom. In the UK cryptocurrency is clarified as property however it is not a legal tender to use.

Credit to: YouGov

From the statistics above is it clear that the support for bitcoin is widely in the younger generation. This may be because that generation is known as the tech generation. 34 year olds and under have grown up with the expansion of tech and therefore more in touch with all the newest tech and trends, which can inspire them to get involved.

On the contrary those aged 40 and above where not brought up the same way meaning they see tech as less important and can see the bigger impact it has had on todays society and the climate.

Website hosting 

There is no doubt that using the web contributes to the climate and CO2 levels. ‘Web Neutral Project founder Jack Amend calculates that powering the average website produces 4,500 pounds of CO2 a year, equivalent to driving the average new car for more than 10,000 miles.” (Williams, 2022)

We think about driving less and using less plastic when it comes to being more green. However it is import, especially in todays society, to understand and be aware of the webs impact on the climate and how it can be just as damaging as driving a car.