OSEIA Renewable Energy Benefits

Our energy choices matter.

The energy we use affects the air we breath, the water we drink, and the land we live on.

Our electric energy infrastructure is responsible for heating our homes, running traffic lights, and powering hospitals. From our schools to air traffic control to manufacturing goods, electricity enables our society to function. Energy security, global climate change, societal costs associated with nuclear and coal fired power plants, large-scale hydro impacts, and respect for future generations are all good reasons to support Renewable Energy (RE) options.

Smaller renewable energy sources (sometimes referred to as distributed generation (DG)) face an uphill battle in our centralized energy system. However, RE has many benefits to offer that enhance the safety, reliability, sustainability, and security of our energy system.
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The benefits from integrating Renewable Energy (RE) into our electricity portfolio are far reaching:

Reduce our dependence on outside energy sources by using local (mostly free) sources of fuel
RE research promotes investments in our universities
Attracting RE businesses to the Northwest create more jobs
Using RE reduces pressure on our overburdened electricity grid and reduces pressure on the river and salmon
RE enhances the reliability of our system through the diversification of the energy mix
RE enhances our quality of life and reduces the hazards of global warming by reducing harmful emissions
RE supports farmers by adding an 'energy crop' thereby increasing the value of their land
RE has inherent safety built in from; safe non-flammable fuels, no toxic waste, and its distributed nature - all of these combine to reduce the costs of security needed to protect our energy infrastructure from sabotage
Using RE moves us in the right direction toward our energy future.
We have missed a huge opportunity by neglecting passive solar construction principles. Many passive solar principles add no additional construction costs! Simply designing new developments so that the majority of homes were positioned properly with respect to their southern exposure would save on heating and cooling costs for the life of the structure. In a case study from DOE, using simple cost effective passive solar principles in a Portland Oregon home produced a 42% annual energy savings showing that passive solar principles are valid even in the 'cloudy' Northwest.
Excluding other 'more expensive' RE sources ignores benefits such as the modularity of solar panels, sighting ability of solar in inner cities, diversifying the energy supply, and solar's ability to produce maximum output during peak load use.
Replacing large scale hydroelectric power sources with RE sources can aid in reducing pressure on the river system and fish.
Solar applications are modular - making them suitable for adapting to load growth, and integral for use in advancing Zero Energy Buildings that produce 100% of the power they use.
Produce your own clean, quiet electricity.
Guard against rising energy costs.
Reduce your electricity bills. You produce your energy instead of lease it from a utility.
Reduce dependence on your local utility.
Protect the environment.
Add comfort, security and value to your home.
Protect yourself against power outages.
Solar systems have no moving parts, they are extremely reliable, silent, and very low maintenance
Solar systems require no special training to operate
Solar systems are modular, versatile and can be installed almost anywhere.
Solar systems can be installed rapidly in small or large applications to get power where it is needed
Solar energy poses significantly lower social, environmental, and health costs than conventional energy technologies.
Solar adapts easily to existing structures
Solar utilizes unused 'wasted' roof space
Periodic maintenance of solar PV is minimal
??? got another benefit??? Let us know! Email your benefit to info@oseia.org