The quality of our lives depends on having lots of energy to do things for us.

We use energy to:

• Heat and light our homes, schools and businesses
• Run electric and electronic equipment such as computers, televisions and telephones
• Run our cars, trucks, airplanes, ships and trains
  

All our energy comes ultimately from the sun and stars. We usually think of our energy sources as either renewable energy (like hydroelectric power or power from wind turbines), or fossil fuels (like coal, oil and natural gas).

Renewable energy comes from new solar power. The sun shines on the earth and evaporates the water, which then falls and makes energy at hydroelectric dams. The sun warms the air causing it to expand and move across the surface, thus creating wind, used to turn wind turbines that make electricity. Lastly, the sun also makes plants grow, and these plants can be burned for energy; for example in a woodstove.

Fossil fuels are stored solar energy. Plants grew millions of years ago, and then were buried and slowly converted to oil, natural gas or coal. The uranium that powers nuclear power plants ultimately came from supernova explosions billions of years ago.

There are two basic reasons why it matters whether you use renewable energy or fossil fuels. First, there is a limited amount of fossil fuels available and we are using them up much faster than Mother Nature is making them. Some forms of fossil fuels are almost already gone. For example, there are only 10 to 20 years worth of natural gas left! Second, when we use fossil fuels we burn them and burning fuels causes air pollution. Some air pollution causes smog, some toxic effects, and some cause global climate change. We are running out of clean air even faster than we are running out of fossil fuels!

The good news is that we don’t need to keep burning fossil fuels. There is enough sunshine falling on the earth every day to power the world for 27 years! We can capture and use some of this energy by installing solar cells, by building wind turbines and by using biodiesel and wood to get our energy. One very exciting new technology is hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen can be made from electricity and water, then stored as a fuel to power cars and other vehicles. Hydrogen can be used in a fuel cell to make electricity whenever we need it.

Here in the United States especially, energy is a big problem, because we use so much. The United States uses almost 25% of all the energy used on earth—even though we re only 6% of the total world population! We can all do lots of things right now to reduce our energy consumption, such as:

• Use compact fluorescent bulbs instead of regular light bulbs, and turn them off when you leave the room
• Lower the thermostats and wear sweaters instead
• Buy energy efficient appliances
• Keep our homes well insulated
• Walk instead of driving
• Use public transportation whenever we can
• Drive smaller, fuel-efficient cars. SUVs get very low miles per gallon compared to others cars.

We can support renewable energy by buying Green tags . Green tags support renewable energy such as wind and solar energy. See the Green power pages on Puget Sound Energy's web site for more details.