As energy costs soar and dis­cus­sions con­cern­ing the impact of global warm­ing on the world con­tinue, it is clear that we must do what we can to limit our depen­dence on fos­sil fuels.

Alter­na­tive energy refers to energy that is envi­ron­men­tally sound and not based on fos­sil fuels such as coal, petro­leum, and nat­ural gas. It is often linked with renew­able energy – energy obtained from sources that are inex­haustible. Renew­able energy usu­ally means hydro­elec­tric, geot­her­mal, wind, bio­mass, pho­to­voltaic, and solar-thermal power.

Geot­her­mal energy, the energy stored in the earth, can be har­nessed for heat­ing build­ings and water. Geot­her­mal or ground source heat pump sys­tems use pipes installed in the ground. Water or a mix­ture of water and antifreeze are cir­cu­lated through the pipes to absorb heat from the sur­round­ing soil. In hot weather, the process is reversed, cool­ing the house by using the ground as a heat sink.

Solar pho­to­voltaic sys­tems use the sun’s energy to con­vert solar energy directly into elec­tric­ity. Howard County has imple­mented a solar demon­stra­tion project by installing solar pan­els at the East Colum­bia branch of the Howard County Library. The County is explor­ing more ways to use alter­na­tive energy at its facil­i­ties, and is pro­mot­ing green busi­nesses, includ­ing alter­na­tive energy installers. Visit the Howard County Green Busi­ness Direc­tory for more infor­ma­tion about solar energy options in this area.

Alter­na­tive energy is becom­ing more pop­u­lar as the tech­nol­ogy improves and the cost comes down. In the past, solar water heaters were one of the most pop­u­lar renew­able energy projects that a home­owner and busi­nesses could install. Solar water heaters work by cir­cu­lat­ing water through sys­tems that are heated by the sun. These pre-warmed water sys­tems are more effi­cient than tra­di­tional hot-water heaters.

The Mary­land Energy Admin­is­tra­tion (MEA) oper­ates a Solar Energy Grant Pro­gram. The solar grants are avail­able to res­i­den­tial, busi­ness, school and non­profit enti­ties, and can be used to off­set a por­tion of the cost of either solar elec­tric­ity gen­er­a­tion or solar water heat­ing projects. Geot­her­mal heat pump grants are also avail­able from the MEA. The fed­eral gov­ern­ment also pro­vides tax cred­its for alter­na­tive energy projects. Please see the links below for more infor­ma­tion on alter­na­tive energy incentives.

Con­sider pur­chas­ing renew­able energy through your elec­tric com­pany. BG&E, for instance, works with other sup­ply com­pa­nies to pro­vide res­i­dents and busi­nesses with elec­tric and gas ser­vice. Renew­able energy pur­chases are some­times cheaper than the cur­rent price of stan­dard electricity.