Fossil fuels are predominant in today’s energy system and account for more than 85% of the world’s energy consumption. Today, the need for energy is enormous, plus it’s constantly growing and will continue to do so. How can we meet the energy demands, if we predominantly depend on fossil fuels? We can’t, and sooner or later we will have to find alternatives.

There are two reasons why – energy supply and environmental issues. Fossil fuels are limited resources and cannot be replaced. They were formed, as their name suggests, from the fossilized remains of plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years. In other words – they are non-renewable. When the supplies run out, and they will run out, that’s it.

One of the biggest problems with fossil fuels is pollution. Coal fueled power plants are the largest source of air pollution in the U.S. Burning fossil fuels produces many pollutants – carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and many other harmful compounds. This causes many health and environmental problems – acid rain, smog, ozone hole, and global climate change just to name a few.

So what can we do? The future is definitely not in fossil fuels, we know that. It belongs to renewable energy. Solar power, wind power and hydro power are the leading renewable energy technologies of today.

By increasing the use of alternative energy sources, we could slowly start decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. The best thing about renewable sources is that they will never run out.

One of the biggest reasons why renewable energy is not used more often is the cost. But this is positively changing. The technology is improving and the costs for solar, wind, and other renewable sources are going down.

Alternative energy sources are definitely the way of the future. But how smooth will the transition from fossil fuels be? That’s up to us and is certainly something to consider sooner rather than later.

You can start using renewable energy today and greatly reduce or even eliminate your power bill. Learn how to generate electricity at home and see earth4energy manual. It’s easier and cheaper than you think.