Future Energy Resources

3 Key excerpts on "Future Energy Resources"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Global Energy Interconnection

  • Zhenya Liu(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Judging by the supply of energy resources around the world, the long-term development and utilization of fossil energy has imposed rigid growth restrictions on fast-growing energy demand. In contrast, renewable energy sources are inexhaustible with great development potential. The development and utilization of energy resources is limited by regional resource endowments and affected by the economics of technology.

  The supply of fossil energy is subject to rigid resource restrictions, with limited room for development and utilization in the future . Fossil energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas supported the progress of human civilization and socioeconomic development for 200 years in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In spite of a steady year-on-year rise in proven reserves of global fossil energy thanks to fast-developing exploration technology, the reserves of global fossil energy remain limited. Unless mankind can stop relying on fossil fuels, this source of energy will eventually and inevitably be exhausted as a matter of reality and natural restriction.

  The abundant renewable energy resources around the world will become the dominant energy source in the future . Given their abundance and thanks to the growing maturity of development and application technologies, hydropower, wind, and solar energy resources worldwide can meet energy development requirements. The global demand for energy in 2050 can be satisfied simply by developing just a fraction, at 0.05 percent (5/10,000), of the developable capacity of global wind and solar energy. Moreover, the Earth also possesses other abundant energy resources, like ocean, biomass, and geothermal energy. If these renewable energy resources can be developed on a large scale, the energy problems facing mankind will be fundamentally eradicated.

  The imbalanced distribution of energy resources calls for efforts to coordinate energy allocation on a global basis

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  eBook - ePub

  Renewable Energy and Green Technology

  Principles and Practices

  • Narendra Kumar, Hukum Singh, Amit Kumar, Narendra Kumar, Hukum Singh, Amit Kumar(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  2 Renewable Energy: Prospects and Challenges for the Current and Future Scenarios Manendra Singh, Amit Bijlwan, Amit Kumar, and Rajat Singh

  DOI: 10.1201/9781003175926-2

  CONTENTS

  1. 2.1 Introduction
  2. 2.2 Prospects and Present Scenario of Renewable Energy
  3. 2.3 Bioenergy
  4. 2.4 Hydropower
  5. 2.5 Solar Energy
  6. 2.6 Solar Thermal Electricity
  7. 2.7 Solar Heating and Cooling
  8. 2.8 Wind Energy
  9. 2.9 Geothermal Energy
  10. 2.10 Ocean Energy
  11. 2.11 Renewables Growth in Asia Pacific
      1. 2.11.1 India
      2. 2.11.2 China
      3. 2.11.3 Japan
      4. 2.11.4 Australia
      5. 2.11.5 Russia
  12. 2.12 Renewables in Transport
  13. 2.13 Challenges in Renewable Energy Installation and Transmission
  14. 2.14 Fundamentals of Power System
  15. 2.15 Market Failures
  16. 2.16 Connection and Transmission
  17. 2.17 Informational and Awareness Barriers
      1. 2.17.1 Socio-Cultural Barriers
      2. 2.17.2 Policy Barriers
  18. 2.18 Climate Policies and Renewable Energy
  19. 2.19 Global Targets for Renewable Energy
  20. 2.20 Conclusion
  21. References

  2.1 Introduction

  Renewable energy refers to those that are naturally replenished and collected from natural sources for energy generation. The natural sources of energy are sun, wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass energy, and tidal waves. Natural sources of energy are supplemented and eco-friendly to non-renewable energy such as petroleum and coal. The availability of renewable sources varies with location (Chauhan and Saini, 2014 ). The exploitation of natural habitats has long-term implications for the potentiality and availability of ecosystems and natural resources.

  Consequently, if the habitats supplied with these resources are depleted, they will adversely affect natural resources such as food, clean air, and other ecosystem services for prolonged periods. Sustainable harvest is necessary since the natural resources are finite (Barnosky et al. 2012 , Kumar et al. 2015 ; Kumar et al. 2020

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  eBook - ePub

  Power System Fundamentals

  • Pedro Ponce, Arturo Molina, Omar Mata, Luis Ibarra, Brian MacCleery(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  The three sources of renewable energy give rise to a multitude of very different energy flows and carriers due to various energy conversion processes occurring in nature. In this respect, for instance, wind energy and hydropower, as well as ocean current energy and solid or liquid biofuels, all represent, more or less, conversions of solar energy.

  The energy flows available on earth that directly or indirectly result from these renewable energy sources vary, for instance, in terms of energy density or with regard to spatial and time variations. In general, the renewable energies are:

  • Solar radiation
  • Wind energy
  • Hydropower
  • Bioenergy
  • Photosynthetically fixed energy
  • Geothermal energy
  • Gravitation and motion of planets, tides and waves

  Solar energy is referred to as renewable or sustainable energy because it will be available as long as the sun continues to shine. Estimates for the remaining life of the main stage of the sun are another 4 to 5 billion years. The energy from the sun, electromagnetic radiation, is referred to as insolation. Wind energy is derived from the uneven heating of the surface of the earth due to more heat input at the equator, with the accompanying transfer of water and thermal energy by evaporation and precipitation. In this sense, rivers and dams for hydro energy are stored solar energy. The third major aspect of solar energy is the conversion of solar energy into biomass by photosynthesis.

  Animal products such as oil from fat and biogas from manure are derived from solar energy. Another renewable energy is geothermal energy due to heat from the earth from decay of radioactive particles, and residual heat from gravitation during formation of the earth. Volcanoes are fiery examples of geothermal energy reaching the surface from the interior, which is hotter than the surface. Tidal energy is primarily due to the gravitational interaction of the earth and the moon.

  Overall, 14% of the world’s energy comes from bioenergy, primarily wood and charcoal, but also crop residue and even animal dung for cooking and some heating. This contributes to deforestation and the loss of topsoil in developing countries. Production of ethanol from biomass is now a contributor to liquid fuels for transportation. In contrast, fossil fuels are stored solar energy from past geological ages. Even though the quantities of oil, natural gas, and coal are so large they are infinite and for the long term of hundreds of years, they are not sustainable.

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