Despite common stereotypes, the green approach goes far beyond just recycling. Eco-friendly ideas encompass innovative technologies and science fields. Furthermore, they are constantly evolving. In particular, the green tech market reached a $10.9 billion value in 2021. And over $44.4 billion are forecasted by 2028.
S-PRO also participates in green tech. Moreover, among other things, we create renewable energy software for our clients. With this article, we want to demonstrate the possibilities of green tech for better business approaches.
What’s Green Tech?
Green technology (green tech) is a solution based on a mix of science and technology to produce eco-friendly goods and services. It mitigates or reverses the effects of human activity on the environment.
People often confuse green and clean tech. Cleantech reduces energy use, waste, costs, and environmental effects. Green technology innovation, in turn, refers to sustainable forms of energy production. Furthermore, new green technology finds renewable energy sources and prevents natural resource depletion.
In 2022 there is no need to explain the importance of environmental protection and consciousness. But why green tech became so crucial?
Why do We Need Green Tech?
Green tech has a lot of benefits over fossil resources, as its goal is to be friendly to the environment. There are several examples of them, including but not limited to the following:
- Green tech requires fewer maintenance costs, hence reducing operational costs.
- Green tech uses renewable natural resources, which we can’t exhaust.
- Green tech results in less CO2 emissions
- New green technology companies emerge and stimulate the economy by creating new jobs.
Green technology is going beyond a choice of a single individual. Companies can apply a green technology solution in numerous industries to function independently and cause less harm to the environment. We used to work with one of them.
How did We Create Climate Drops, Green Blockchain Startup?
Our client wanted to encourage people for eco-responsible decisions. So they needed a platform of a green technology solution that tracks and rewards users for green actions. And we created Climate Drops.
Challenges
To build a reliable and safe app, we chose Blockchain technology. As our team had broad expertise in Blockchain, we agreed.
The idea of rewarding eco-friendly actions required a far more diverse audience than just individuals. The client also wanted to encourage businesses and corporations. That’s why there offered three roles in this green software: Sources (users), Lakes (companies), and Seas (funds).
The first one, users reduce harmful emissions. Businesses sell collected Drops to funds. By this, they invest in environmental protection on the global level. And the third role, funds, is environmentally friendly businesses that accept Climate Drops for goods and services.
The rewards in the app are called Drops. Drops are coins stored in an online blockchain-based wallet. Users can exchange them for snacks and other gifts in their city.
Solution
The process is the following. Initially, users take photos as proof of their eco-friendly actions of any kind. Then they get coins as a reward, which they can spend in local stores. Thus, our green tech app is straightforward in use, flexible in providing tips, and safe in keeping coins.
Also, we added value to the users and implemented additional useful features like:
- a display of saved thermal and electrical energy amounts,
- calculation of reduced CO2 emissions,
- GPS-tracking to check the distance of bicycle rides,
- mapping with partnering businesses’ locations.
As the app is about eco-friendliness, we chose inspiring and emotional looks. A simple layout and intuitive navigation are must-have features here.
Result
In the end, the app became a green technology solution indeed. It is constantly improving and expanding. Through its users in three cities of Ukraine, Climate Drops reduces around 0.5 tonnes of CO2 per app user. The same amount is produced for a 3 000 km diesel car trip or 60,821 smartphones charged.
Still, the process is not restricted to only coins and shops. For example, in 2018, Climate Drops organized a competition to motivate environmentally-conscious students. During this competition, 363 tonnes of CO2 emissions were reduced.
Ultimately, all these activities show that green tech is an integral part of current businesses. It can encourage consumers without negative outcomes to nature.
Where is Green Tech Applied?
Green technology innovation can be used almost everywhere. We selected some of the most influential areas of green technology. Consider them in your business.
Geothermal Heating
An increasing trend in energy-efficient houses and structures is geothermal heating. Early humans constructed lava houses and took baths in hot springs. However, nowadays, we can generate electricity from geothermal activity.
For instance, the United States, a global leader in geothermal electricity generation, generated over 16 billion kilowatt hours in 2021. This energy was enough to supply more than 15 million residential utility customers. This amount, for instance, can maintain a city like New York.
Sadly, this green technology solution is not enough to support all needs in electricity supply, but we can use other renewable sources.
Wind Energy
Our ancestors used it as early as 5000 B.C. to move boats down the Nile. By 2000 B.C., grain was crushed, and water was pumped using wind power. Today, wind power plants are almost a common thing in most countries.
The wind is a plentiful and limitless resource. Moreover, it also generates power without consuming fuel or damaging the environment. To produce electricity, wind turbines use the mechanical energy of the wind to turn a generator.
Being new green technology, the usage of wind energy prevents 329 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The same amount of emissions is produced by 71 million cars.
Furthermore, wind power is cost-effective. It is one of the most affordable energy sources. Moreover, wind energy green tech is simple to incorporate in rural or isolated places, such as farms and ranches or coastal and island villages.
Solar Energy
People started utilizing sun energy to ignite fires with magnifying glasses. Nowadays, green technology innovation can convert sunlight into electricity with the help of special panels.
Although solar panels are affordable, their efficiency is highly dependent on weather conditions. It makes them an excellent secondary energy source but not the main one. Solar panels are also exposed to physical damage as earthquakes and hail.
Water Energy
Even if we are used to hydroelectric power plants, the tide energy power station is new. However, wave energy is a significant renewable energy source that uses the motion of waves.
Ocean waves generate kinetic energy as they travel across the water. This movement can power turbines, which convert motion into electricity. Wave size and power can change depending on the moon cycles, winds, and environment.
The drawback of wave energy is that most wave energy systems are small enough for large buildings or structures. This is because the supply relies on the waves’ height, speed, and length density.
Despite difficulties in predicting workloads, technology evolves. And wave power plants have become more and more widespread, becoming a common green technology solution.
Green Energy Storage Technology
The most significant difficulty of renewable energy sources is their unpredictability. Thus, they require a storage solution. But storing energy for a typical home’s daily consumption is expensive, as batteries are costly and lack efficiency.
That is why this new green technology researches ways to accumulate and store energy from renewable sources. The following directions of their investigation include:
- Li-ion, zinc-bromide gel, and solid-state batteries.
- Reversible hydro dams.
- Smart-grid energy use optimization solutions.
Hydrogen
Fuel-cell electric vehicles, unlike battery-powered ones, run on hydrogen. It makes them far more efficient than ordinary combustion-powered vehicles. Besides, they don’t produce harmful emissions, making hydrogen a part of the green tech pool.
Hydrogen fuel is still expensive for ordinary customers. However, many locations around the world already sell hydrogen-powered automobiles. The global hydrogen vehicle market size reached USD 0.65 billion in 2021. Yet, it is expected to grow to USD 43.19 billion by 2030.
Green Building
Green building is a new green technology that focuses on sustainability in the construction processes. It comprises developing and using friendly building materials and construction methods.
Traditional buildings and construction account for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Low-carbon structures are made to release little or no carbon during their existence. For example, they have little heating and cooling needs. Rooftops are equipped with solar panels.
Thus, low-carbon buildings are essential for a green future.
Green Chemistry and Nanotechnology
Green chemistry aims to design new chemicals that do not affect the environment. With time, these new chemicals are planned to replace more harmful ones. It makes green chemistry a green technology innovation.
The usage of green chemicals is limitless. They participate in construction, production, consumer products, packaging, etc. One of the options is to provide nanotechnologies.
They are used to develop new nanomaterials in the manufacture of various sustainable and tear and wear-proof products:
- Crack-resistant paints
- Transparent sunscreens
- Stain-repellent fabrics
- Self-cleaning windows
- Ceramic coatings for solar cells
Nanotechnologies improve manufacturing methods, water purification systems, energy systems, nanomedicine, better food production methods, nutrition, etc.
Green Software
Green software is designed to limit energy consumption and measure minimal environmental impact.
Once Microsoft created Principles of Sustainable Software Engineering, other companies joined the trend. Moreover, in 2021, Microsoft, Thoughtworks, Accenture, and GitHub established the Green Software Foundation. It is a nonprofit organization developing ecosystems of “people, standards, tooling, and best practices for green software.”
Sustainable Software Engineering includes skills for developing and managing a bit of green technology solutions.
- Developers should build software that offers users value while producing fewer carbon emissions. There are eight guidelines for creating green software:
- Applications that require less energy do so by using software components.
- Companies should consume as much electricity as possible from renewable energy sources.
- Organizations should build green software that reduces carbon releases from electronic devices.
- How much a device is used and how much electricity it consumes is known as energy proportionality. This principle maximizes the hardware’s energy efficiency by ensuring a high utilization rate.
- Minimizing the amount of data and their travel distance over the network lowers carbon emissions. Moreover, it boosts the software’s energy efficiency.
- Shifting computing power to a different time or location
- Continuous, long-term optimization techniques can improve software’s overall carbon efficiency.
In the end, green software helps to build a sustainable and energy-efficient network. It provides an understanding of whether the analyzed process is genuinely sustainable.
What is Green Tech Negative Outcome?
Despite its long list of advantages, new green technology has its difficulties.
Firstly, this approach is new. Not all people and companies know how crucial it is for future business stability. It needs yet to spread the word across societies.
Furthermore, implementation costs are very high compared to traditional energy sources. Therefore, initial investments can be fundamental.
However, green technology is still emerging. Many products are in the research and development stage. They still need a lot of upgrades. Besides, in most countries, green technology-based policies have yet to be finalized.
The same thing refers to the qualifications of engineers. Developing green technology is complex, and skilled human resources are outnumbered.
Finally, only time will help to make green tech a standard solution.
Conclusion
Every year, green technologies emerge more and more. Science and technologies unite to make our future independent of fossil energy resources. Individuals and companies choose renewable sources to invest in sustainability. It has become more than a common trend.
S-PRO develops advanced renewable energy software solutions for its clients. We know the tech side well enough to create green software that best matches your business’s needs.
Contact us if you have any questions about green software. Our skilled team will gladly get to work on your project.
