What is renewable energy?
Renewable energy is energy that can be replenished as it is used. Renewable Energy is obtained from sources that are essentially unlimited, unlike, for example, the fossil fuels, of which there is a limited supply. Renewable sources of energy include wood, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, and solar/thermal energy.
What is district energy?
District Energy is the production of steam, hot water or chilled water, or any combination including all three, at a single central utility plant for distribution to other buildings through a network of pipes.
What is cogeneration?
Cogeneration (Combined Heat and Power or CHP) is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat, both of which are used. Through the utilization of the heat, the efficiency of cogeneration plant can reach 90% or more. Cogeneration therefore offers energy savings ranging between 15-40% when compared against the supply of electricity and heat from conventional power stations and boilers. A typical electric generating plant, for instance, wastes nearly two-thirds of its energy input in the form of heat rejected to the atmosphere, while in Hudson that will be used to warm buildings in the winter and cool in the summer, using hot-water adsorption chillers and liquid-desiccant dehumidification.
What is biomass?
Biomass is a very broad term which is used to describe material of recent organic origin. Biomass can be used either as a source of energy or for its chemical components. As such, it includes trees, crops, algae and other plants, as well as agricultural and forest residues. It also includes many materials that are considered as wastes by our society, including food and drink manufacturing effluents, sludges, manures, industrial (organic) by-products, and food-and-yard waste.
What is bio-energy?
Harvesting biomass such as crops, trees or manure and using it to generate energy such as heat, electricity or motion, is bio-energy.
What is carbon neutral?
Being carbon neutral, or carbon neutrality, has two principal meanings. It can refer to the practice of balancing
carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning
fossil fuels with
renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy, so that the net carbon emissions are zero, or alternatively using only renewable energy. It is also used to describe the practice, criticized by some, of
carbon offsetting, by paying others to remove or sequester 100% of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere - for example by
planting trees - or by funding '
carbon projects' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions, or by buying
carbon credits to remove (or 'retire') them through
carbon trading. These practices are often used in parallel, together with
energy-conservation measures to minimize energy use.
What is sustainability?
Sustainability is the ability to provide for the needs of the world's current population without damaging the ability of future generations to provide for themselves.
