You often here that it's important for the government to encourage a switch to more renewable forms of energy, and whenever you turn on the news this is something that you'll see coming up a lot and particularly among politicians.

But switching to renewable energy isn't something purely the responsibility of businesses and politicians - actually it's something you can do yourself right now from home if you are willing to invest in more efficient energy to help the planet and your energy bill. You might make only a small difference on your own, but if everyone were to follow your lead that would make an incredible change in our CO2 levels - so it's time to lead the revolution!

The good news too is that there are many different types of renewable energy you can use around your property, meaning that there's sure to be one that is well suited to your particular requirements. Here we will look at some of the most commonly used forms of green energy to help you decide which is right for you.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy means harnessing energy right from deep below the Earth's surface where there's no wind to cool it down. Over the years the Earth absorbs heat from the sun which is why the core is so hot, but you have to dig deep to find this.

Generally this geothermal energy is kept as heat energy and used by heating up pipes of water. This makes it ideal for heating outdoor pools cheaply and for other heating oriented tasks, but not really suitable for running electrical appliances etc. Another problem is that it requires you to dig up large portions of your garden, and to have a lot of land in the first place meaning not everyone will be able to use it.

Wind Turbines

Wind turbines work by harnessing the kinetic power of the wind. This is used to turn rotors which in turn drive a turbine to generate electric current. This is more energy efficient than solar power in that it can convert more of the power it drinks in into useable electricity (particularly vertical wind turbines), but it also requires more maintenance and is more likely to go wrong as well as taking up more space and making a lot of noise/killing birds.

Solar Panels

Solar panels are one of the most popular solutions for green energy at home. You use these by arranging them normally on your roof pointing up at the sky in order to soak up energy from the sun. The main type of solar panels are solar voltaic which work by using the light from the sun in order to excite electrons organized in a particular way and thus create current to be used to power appliances.

While you won't generate that much energy per solar panel, you can use arrays of many panels to produce more, and they are relatively cheap and hassle free to set up making them a very popular and accessible entry point for most people.