About The Future of Renewable Energy Research Assignment

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Future of Renewable Energy
Food, water and shelter are the three basic elements for the survival of human in this world. However, energy has been included in these basic elements to ensure smooth survival of man on Earth. The world energy development and transitions are entering a new era where clean and low-carbon energy has become inevitable. The revolutions of gas and oil in the United States of America made it realize its objective of “energy Independence” for 40-years. In 2008, USA proposed a new strategy of rebuilding America with “green energy”, which provided a revolutionary phase in the oil and gas. The oil and gas revolutions in the United States of America changed the global energy exerting a significant impact on the global economic and political development. Governments across the world have proposed a new energy strategy aimed at promoting the supply and consumption of energy. This strategy is also aimed at promoting technological advancements in the energy sector to drive industry development as well the energy system. This paper is aimed at summarizing the general trends of energy developments by reviewing its history and provide a future of the renewable energy.
Some of the most intriguing and challenging questions anyone can ever ask are “where are we coming from and where are we going?” These questions tend to be more challenging if one poses a third question like “why are we here?” No one can claim to have answers to these questions, but reading through some of the history of humans can provide some insights into the past and future. The book Energy and Civilization integrates the historical and technological evolutions to explain as well as pose a challenge to almost everything. Having a journey to the past, Vaclav Smil digs into the factors that shaped the human creativity and provides insights into what can be done to influence the future. Having said that, Vaclav attempts to paint a picture of how the future will be like. Therefore, by looking into the past, we may be able to grasp a glimpse of the future. By visiting the past, we can confidently say that economic growth is dependent on energy and raw materials which are finite. However, a detailed analysis of the human history, it is evident that the finiteness of energy and resources is theoretical. On the other hand, while the usage of energy and raw materials throughout the human history has been evolving and increased in the past two centuries, the available amounts have almost doubled.
The source of energy originated from the discovery of fire as a heat. As time went by, it was discovered that fire under a kettle produces steam which can be converted into energy. Looking at the human history from that perspective, one can argue that although resources appear to be finite, human ingenuity is infinite. It is no secret that this is the situation that global energy producers find themselves in.
PART ONE
Energy Transitions
The historical industrial civilization has been characterized by energy transitions. During the early days, when areas such as the agrarian economies were less developed, people depended on simple forms of agriculture to get their basic needs. This included the capture of solar energy for their survival. Solar energy which is stored in firewood was used to meet basic human needs such as cooking and heating.
As the economies continued to develop and become complex, the needs for energy increased substantially. As history documents, the supplies of firewood as well as other biomass sources of energy became insufficient to support the needs of the developing economies in Europe and the United States. As these earlier sources proved to be insufficient to support the growing economies, the regions shifted to hydropower and to coal during the 19th century. In the 20th century, societies changed to oil and natural gas. Nuclear power was added to this energy mix in the 1950s and it is believed that it is the mother of the “green energy” strategy.
The economic development stages in the human history has been characterized by distinct energy transitions. In every stage, people have been shifting from one energy source to another. Currently, fossil fuels dominate the energy sources in industrial economies as well as it is the major source of energy in developing economies. The 21st century has been characterized as the most innovative centuries of all since it is already experiencing some of the next significant transition in the energy sector. The 21st century is turning away from the fossil fuel energy sources to renewable ones. This transition has been fuelled by various factors such as environmental concerns, limited fossil fuel supplies, technological changes and prices.
Animals, firewood and charcoal were the main sources of energy during the middle ages. By 1860, coal was the main energy source in England and Wales. It was a slow transition and occurred before the industrial revolution mostly. There are a few reasons to as why the transition occurred and why it was a slow one. First was because the transition invention and use of new technology. Faster technological changes accelerated the transition. However in most cases improving the old technology extended their purposeful lives thus slowing down the transition. Secondly, inventions were economic decisions. Time and resources were required to convert this ideas into apparatus that will work. Innovation is basically about research and development and allocation of resources was required. But that was an economic decision. Before funding the innovations, they innovator had to convince economists the technology is worth developing. Thirdly, wages and prices underwent through a unique evolution in Britain between 1500 and 1800. Wages saw a significant rise with the prices of capital and energy prices declined. The increase in wages and prices facilitated the use of new technology that replaced both capital and energy for labor. In the 18th century, like other industrial country like the Netherlands, Britain was a high-wage economy. Unskilled labor received wages that were four times that of the World Bank’s subsistence. In other European and Asian countries, wages were almost to hit the poverty line level. Conversely, Britain’s energy prices were the lowest of them all. Britain was distinguished from other countries due to its relatively low energy prices. Fourthly, British had high wages and low prices on energy due to its advancements in globalizing the economy of the region. This was the same case in countries like Netherlands. These countries managed to create large, commercial and connected trading empires that produced high standardized products in both rural and urban areas. As the trade continued to grow, so did the cities. In Europe, London was the city that was expanding at a fast rate with its population increasing from about 50,000 in 1500 to 1,000,000 in 1800. The rapid urban growth pave way for an increase in wages. The development of industries in rural areas contributed to higher wages in countryside as well. Moreover, the continued growth of London contributed to an increase in demand for energy in area during the Middle Ages and into the 16th century. During these this period, charcoal and firewood were the primary sources of energy. As the city continued to expand, prices grew further since the supply regions were to be expanded to meet the growing demand. On the other hand, transport costs as well increased due to the demand. Coal started arriving the city but in small quantities and its price was the same as firewood during the Middle Ages, but its usage was limited to blacksmithing and burning of lime. Its polluting nature rendered it undesirable for other uses. However, besides a new source of energy being introduced into the city, the prices for wood continued to increase and became the most expensive source of energy than coal. Since the prices for wood energy were almost twice that of coal, people began to substitute firewood and charcoal energy with coal. This pave way for the invention process that contributed to the transition from wood to coal.
The invention process can be traced in various activities but the focus is on the use of coal as the major source of energy. Its most important application was heating and cooking in residential areas since it was the largest use of energy during the 18th and 19th centuries. The shift from wood to coal energy in residential areas occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries explaining why coal was the major source of energy during the early phase of the Industrial Revolution. As prices for wood energy continued to rise as compared to those of coal, the need for substituting it with coal increased as well. Shifting from wood to coal was not a matter of replacing the other, it presented various challenges.
The first challenge began from the design of house layouts. The early house were designed in a manner that the room was large and the fire heating place was built at the center of the house. The fire place was open but that of coal required an enclosed space necessitating the need for a new design. To sum it all, the development of the new houses presented various challenges.
For the last two centuries, both the economy and level of energy consumption had surpassed the growth of human population. As a result, modern economies have the ability of producing goods and services based on the pre-industrial economy principles. However, besides the fact that energy played a significant role in the development of economies, it is recently when it begun to receive the attention of historians in regard to these economies.
Energy was the gate pass from the traditional to modern economies. The discovery of new sources of energy was a necessity, although it is not unique in the modern economic growth across the world. However, it is essential to consider the various differences among the countries. While energy transitions were rapidly experienced in Europe and Wales, it was different in other countries especially in southern Europe. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the traditional sources of energy such as firewood dominated the energy mix until the beginning of World War II.
The energy consumption in the developed countries had four phases especially fossil fuels. The first phase was from 1864 to the beginning of WWI with a growth rate of one percent. The second, was during the Interwar era (1914-1946) with a growth rate of less than 1%. The third phase was from 1946-1973 with an annual growth rate of 17% while the last phase began in 1974 up to the present with an annual growth rate of less than one percent.
The scarcity of energy resources had a significant impact on the industrialization process in most countries that had from the countries where the process had occurred earlier. To be precise, most of them had adopted high intensity labor industries due to its abundance and low energy because of its scarcity. The use of coal in most of the developed countries began during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. During this time the use of coal was increasing with the scarcity of fossil fuels resulting in higher prices. Much of the industrial growth in most of the developed countries from 1880s to 1910 depended on hydroelectricity which was growing at a fast rate. At the beginning of WWI, Italy was the largest producer of hydroelectricity than even France which is the largest producer in Europe.
The importation of oil in most of these countries began in 1864 and remained the secondary source of energy until 1950s when its use became more important than that of coal. Its use increased until the early 1970s when it began to decline. Towards the end of 19th century, natural gas entered the energy mix but its importance was not recognized until the 1950s. In the 1970s, its use surpassed that of coal. Fossil fuels became the primary source of energy due to the increase in oil price during the 1970s. The increase in oil prices had a significant impact on the economy of various countries by decreasing its consumption. However, the consumption of oil picked thereafter though at a slower rate than before. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, oil was the primary source of energy in most economies.
However, the consumption of modern energy is lower n most of the developed countries such as Italy due to the differences in the growth pattern. The transition from traditional sources of energy to fossil fuels had a significant impact on the environment. The extensive use of fossil fuels has contributed to the immense increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing one of the most dangerous problems of all times (global warming). The various changes to energy mix plays a significant role in carbon dioxide emissions since they emit different amounts. The historical major energy transitions from wood to coal, oil and natural gas can be characterized as from low to high hydrogen/carbon ratios. The carbon dioxide emissions had also seen a gradual increase over the centuries.
Developing Countries
Energy transition patterns in developing countries are almost similar to those of the developed nations such as USA. During the early days, USA relied on kerosene for lighting followed by coal
In most of the developing countries especially in the African continent rely on traditional sources of energy for cooking and more than 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity. The traditional sources of energy have various negative impacts especially on the human health and high carbon emissions, and degradation of the ecosystem. More than two million deaths in these countries can be associated with indoor pollution from due to the extensive use of solid fuels. However, the new technology of improved stoves have played a significant role in mitigating this effect.
Energy transitions and developments in developing countries depend on a variety of factors such as geographical location, cultural values, governance, climate and energy policies. These developments and transitions have a large impact on the economic developments of the countries. As the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) notes, “Energy services such as lighting, cooking, refrigeration, and power for electronics and motive force are provided most cheaply and conveniently, and with the least local pollution, when they are derived from electricity or gas delivered through networks” (Brook & Besant-Jones, 2000).
Energy transitions and developments in developing countries did not undergo the phases of industrialization. Steam engines were never used in most of these countries, they just adopted some of the modern technologies that were being utilized in industrialized countries. Some of the most and common sources of energy used in developing countries include oil and electricity.
Electricity in Developing Countries
Industrialization of developing countries never started from scratch as it did in Agrarian countries. They began by using oil and electricity and most of them have established various initiatives of expanding its access. The same initiatives were the ones used by developed countries in the past. In most areas of developing countries, lighting is often provided by kerosene as it was in the past in developed countries into the 1900s. The use of kerosene lamps for lighting pose challenges especially in the quality of indoor air.
PART TWO
New Energy
Due to the need for low-carbon energy resources, there is a high demand for new energy that meets these new requirements. However, development of these low-carbon emitting energy resources requires rapid technological developments. Some of the energy resources that have been proved meet these new society needs are renewable energy, hydropower and nuclear power.
Renewable energy
The new demands by the society to have low-carbon emitting energy resources has been the primary purpose for the utilization of renewable energy and its development. Due to the continuous technological and scientific advancements in the development of renewable energy resources, Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America have become the major producers of this new energy. With the rapid technological and scientific developments being witnessed in the modern era, the installation capacity of renewable energy is likely to increase by 2030.
Biomass fuel production is another resource of renewable energy but it is region-specific and depends on the agricultural produce such as sugarcane of the area. Plants are able to grow through the use of energy from the sun. Plants are made up of organic matter, otherwise known as their biomass, which may be used for transportation of fuels and chemicals and in production of electricity. Bioenergy is the use of biomass for the purpose of production of useful energy. Latin America and North America are the primary producers of biomass fuel but Asia-Pacific and Europe have joined the mix.
Another source of renewable fuels is solar energy which is directly used in homes and industries for the purposes of heating and lighting, generation of electricity and for the purposes of heating hot water, besides its commercial uses. Its advantage is that it converts sunlight energy into other forms of energy which is also stored in batteries for later use.
Tidal energy also known as ocean energy is produced from turbines which are waves, winds, and tides driven is also used in the production of electricity. Another alternative is
Hydropower
Hydroelectric power is usually tapped from running water, mainly from rivers, which is in turn used to run heavy turbines and electric energy is produced, which is used for lighting homes and industries. The world’s hydropower industry continues to develop and is influenced by water resources. Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America are the primary producers of this source of energy. However, Canada and the United States of America are the leading producers with America having promulgated two bills whose objectives are to simplify the construction of small hydropower projects. In Canada, Hydropower accounts for more than half of the energy consumption mix.
Nuclear Power
Due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the developments of nuclear power in the world needs to be cautious. North America and Europe are the primary producers of nuclear power.
New energy will be important in solving the various environmental issues as well as achieve the low-carbon energy source objectives. The accelerated technological advancements and their utilization has triggered the global energy to rise. According to various studies, new energy mix proportions are growing with renewable energy attracting more attention than others. With a continued technological advancements, the costs associated with the development and utilization of new energy sources will continue to decline making it the best alternative as compared to fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources have become the primary forces of global energy and their development is growing at a higher rate. Currently, power from renewable energy has surpassed that of natural gas becoming the second largest source of global energy. This is an indication that the development of new energy is getting into the Golden Age.
Most of the recent researches on energy are concentrating on new energy implying that the “New Energy Revolution” might come early. This might be a fact considering the recent breakthroughs in a decline in power generation costs as well battery energy storage technologies. During its 125th anniversary, Science highlighted some of the top 125 challenges in the world economy including substitutes to oil energy. In his analysis in 2015, McKinsey proposed an outlook into the future where he provided 12 disruptive technologies that are likely to transform the future. Renewable and other energy storage technologies were the ones that received much emphasis. In 2015 during its 21st convention, the UN Conference on Climate Change adopted a policy that was passed at the “Paris Convention” whose emphasis was controlling the increasing global average temperatures and lower greenhouse gas emissions. These objectives spearheaded the need for new energy technologies. The recent developments in artificial intelligence is likely to play a significant role in coming up with the structure of new energy. To promote the construction of this structure, technological advancements such as the internet and energy networks such as distributed grids will solve the current energy generation enhancing the the developments and utilization of renewable energy which will make the society get rid fossil fuels.
Various technologies such as nanotechnology have brought about new materials for the future of energy transitions in the modern era. This type of technology is likely to accelerate the development of new energy in the future. The continuous technological developments are likely to make this technology the second black gold after oil. According to recent studies and forecasts, these new technologies are likely to reduce energy generations enhancing the development and utilization of the efficiency provided by renewable energy. This will enable the society get rid of fossil fuels.
Nanotechnology has emerged to be the new material which is expected to accelerate new energy developments. According to recent studies and forecasts, developments of nanotechnology materials are likely to lower the development costs of new energy such as solar energy by 2030. Consequently, this technology has resulted in breakthroughs in energy storage. Over the past few decades, there has been significant progress in battery materials. Mass production of this new battery materials and nanotechnology materials that support quick charging and long service as well as durable, there is a likely of new energy coming sooner than expected.
The world should be prepared
The desire to achieve low-carbon energy resources in the society is the primary key in the strengthening of renewable energy developments. There are potentials for the development of renewable energy are huge across the world especially in developed and vast countries such as China. Based on the recent forecasts, it is expected that the capacity of renewable energy is likely to increase by 2020 and contribute to more than half into the energy consumptio...