A short burst of energy
We've all have an occasional "Al Gore-inspired moment" - where we unplug that mobile phone which has been charging for about three days; made sure that we have separated (in a half-hearted sort of way) the right rubbish from the wrong rubbish; switched at least the energy-hungry light bulb with to a long life energy-friendly bulb. These in one way or another have something to do with energy...just like everything in our day-to-day lives - whether its to keep or cook the food that in turn keeps our bodies turning over, our coffee machine on; our journey to work smooth; our working day efficient and relatively hassle-free; the club lights to burn until we drop into bed where the alarm clock ticks through the night toward another coffee fix.
We can't pretend this is going to be a incredibly illuminating take on our current situation or particularly shocking (apart from the energy puns). However, it still remains a fact that energy will not go away as a burning (sorry) issue and as far as Singapore is concerned this post coincides with the publication of the National Energy Policy Report - "energyforgrowth". (A copy of this report in .pdf format is available for download at the foot of this post)
At some point in the not-too-distant future, someone, somewhere, has to make a series of decisions which changes how our world, and therefore our lives, will fare in an hoped-for future. All that we know right now is that energy comes from, fundamentally, two main groups - renewable (an energy source that is able to be used again in a short period of time) and non-renewable (an energy source once used up is very difficult to replace or may be never to be able to be used again). Renewable and non-renewable energy sources go to produce the secondary energy sources such as electricity which keep our world switched on.
For the majority of our history we have taken our energy from the non-renewable spectrum, using fossil fuels - oil,natural gas, and coal. Fossil fuels have formed over millions and millions of years through the action of heat from the Earth's core and pressure from rock and soil on the remains of dead plants and animals accumulated over millenia. Another familiar non-renewable energy source is the element uranium, whose atoms we split (through a process called nuclear fission) to create heat and ultimately electricity in nuclear power stations.
Renewable energy sources we have picked up on to date are solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, biomass from plant matter, and water or tide-based energy. They tend to have a benign reputation compared to the non-renewables.
These days we are moving toward using a mixture of these energy sources (although the predominant energy sources are still derived from fossil fuels) to generate the electricity, gas or oil we need for our homes, businesses, schools, and factories.
Energy runs the planes, trains, ships, cars and trucks which deliver our food, our appliances, our new cars and the million other items which fill our contemporary lives and support our consumer lifestyle.
In this short "bluffer's guide" digitalk via our digital resources will take you through the main contenders for viable energy.
Biomass
This one has actually been around for quite some time - remember wood? Our forests have taken a bit of a bashing but there is actually a little more to biomass than that. Biomass has a growing following as one of the great hopes as a sustainable energy source. High energy crops grown specifically to be used as fuel are being developed. Brazil, famously, has, for some time, been squeezing energy from sugar-cane, and scientists are beginning to consider agricultural and and even animal waste products as possible fuel sources (e.g. some zoos worldwide are using "animal by-products" to keep there electricity on). But it also means we need to face the "great recycler" by contemplating the reuse of our solid waste coming from paper, food and everyday wastes, plastics, wood, glass and tyres. In our rural areas or our factory farms it means
livestock waste and in our cities it means repurposing of sewage. Even such past burners of fossil fuel such as Russia has woken up to biomass(1). They are active in seeking a transition from fossil fuel to wood which they reckon will save between 10 and 20 million tons per year of fossil fuels, primarily coal, and reduce CO2 emissions dramatically. But of course you would expect that considering that Russia is endowed with over a fifth of the planet's forests, more than 177 million acres! Then comes the energy potential of crops such as corn, wheat, and barley. Brazil as mentioned has seen the possibilities of cane sugar and Europe(2) has begun to explore sugar beet. But this "cropucopia" extends even to the humble grasses, the humorously named alfalfa, and is it possible that we will all be in clover with clover? That only leaves the oilseed sources such as soybean, sunflower, safflower - strange to think that such everyday kitchen staples could have an impact on whether or not the planet survives until you ponder that aquatic plants may also play a role in keeping us warm, cold or out of the dark. A generator burning biomass requires crops from 250,000 hectares to match the electricity output of a nuclear power station. But biofuel has its downside, inevitably. If all of the land is turned over to the more profitable growth of biofuel then such essential as wheat and maize may be sacrificed.
Opinion : efficient, viable, relatively clean-burning and available worldwide but can be expensive and may hamper the growing of food for the planet
DIRECT LINKS
(1) .Russia: From Coal to Biomass. Prenova, Svetlana.
E Magazine: The Environmental Magazine (1046-8021)
01/07/2006. Vol.17,Iss.4;p.36-37 from EBSCOHost
(2) GROWING EXPECTATIONS by Naila Moreira,
Science News; 10/1/2005, Vol. 168 Issue 14, p218-220, 3p, 2c from EBSCOHost
Geothermal
Living on a volcanic part of the earth can have its benefits. The earth's centre can reach 12,000 degrees F. that heat geothermal systems draw on this hot source(1) . Iceland is triving to be a completely clean, zero-emission energy economy through the boon of geothermal power. The island with 300,000 people is already well on its way to achieving that national goal, with its entire home heating and electricity generation systems renewable today. The biggest remaining hurdles are Iceland's 190,000 cars and trucks, plus its fishing fleet. Iceland has an abundant resource in geothermal energy, which provided 7,608 gigawatt- hours of electricity in 2005. But there are not so many places in the world where this kind of arrangement can be made with Mother Earth. In Asia, Indonesia(3) some time in the next century could be a world leader. Its hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes have been a bane of the country's people, the country is the core of the "ring of fire" with regular eruptions and earthquakes. But it does have an upside Indonesia sits on top of the world's largest geothermal reserves, equivalent to about 16,000 megawatts of electricity - quite enough to keep the country in energy into a distant future, if not perpetually.
Opinion: Inexhaustible where it can be found and tapped, non-polluting; doesn't need structures such as solar panels or windmills to collect the energy--can be directly used to heat or produce electricity, making it very cheap
DIRECT LINKS
(1) IMAGE "geothermal energy." (2005). In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas. Retrieved November 11, 2007, from CredoReference
(2) Iceland: Pioneer of Sustainability. J. M. E Magazine: The Environmental Magazine
01/07/2006. Vol.17,Iss.4;p.33-3 from EBSCHost
(3) Geothermal energy. Presidents & Prime Ministers, 10605088, Mar/Apr94, Vol. 3, Issue 2
Sun
These days this is usually energy obtained through the use of solar panels. Although this type of solar power is relatively new, the energy of the sun has been around for quite a few thousand years. "Solar collectors," or, as they are more commonly known as, "solar panels(1)" are the usual way of drawing on the power of the sun. There are two ways in which solar power is converted to energy. The first, "solar thermal applications," involves using the energy of the sun to directly heat air or a liquid. The second, known as "photoelectric applications," involves the use of photovoltaic cells to convert solar energy directly to electricity. Solar power is much feted as a future solution since it uses the sun's light, theoretically available anywhere, solar panels can be attached to almost anything. Photovoltaic cells covering an area of 150,000 square kilometres would be needed to meet US electricity needs for a year. But this hasn't daunted cities such as Melbourne (1) who are going for green sun-based solutions. Solar power costs are falling as oil and electricity costs go up, and concerns over global warming have focused renewed investment in the practical employment of solar energy. As the cells get cheaper more and more companies are seeing the potential for a clean, fast buck(2)
Opinion: Inexhaustible, non-polluting, versatile (can used for powering cars and satellites) but large numbers of solar panels are required to produce useful amounts of heat or electricity and only really viable in parts of the world with lots of sunlight.
DIRECT LINKS
(1) "Photovoltaic Cell"
Yvonne. Carts-Powell Gale Encyclopedia of Science in Gale Virtual Reference Library
(2) "City should go solar, say Greens" By Adam Morton in The Age , Australia 12 Nov 2007 p. 6 from Library PressDisplay
(3) "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"
Marc Gunther Fortune (07385587) (0738-5587)
15/10/2007. Vol.156,Iss.7;p.60-65 from EBSCOHost
Waste
One thing is sure as a species we have become incredibly wasteful. In 1960, the average American threw away 2.7 pounds of rubbish a day. Today, that figure is 4.5 pounds every day! In a last ditch attempt to turn bad to good - waste treatment creates energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from a waste source which otherwise may have ended up in your local landfill The other buzz term for this is "energy recovery." These processes often result in usable fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.
Waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities, which generate power by burning trash, have been in widespread operation in the U.S. and Europe since the 1970s and are considered by environmental advocates to be a mixed blessing. They get rid of garbage without adding to already stressed landfills and with the added benefit of contributing electricity to the power grid. But they also generate pollution, usually as a result of burning vinyl and plastics. WtE facilities evolved out of basic incinerator technology that simply burns trash and reduces it to ash and smoke. Waste-to-energy' plants instead use the garbage to fire a huge boiler. When the garbage "fuel" is burned, it releases heat that turns water into steam. The high-pressure steam turns the blades of a turbine generator to produce electricity.
Some critics of waste-to-energy plants are afraid that burning waste will hamper recycling programs. If everyone sends their trash to a waste-to-energy plant, they say, there will be little incentive to recycle. However a recent study of US cities(2) showed that people living in cities with waste-to-energy plants are more educated about municipal solid waste and strongly support their recycling programs.
So, while at first glance, recycling and waste-to-energy seem to be at odds, they can actually complement each other. Balancing the good sense good sense of recycling and controlled burning
DIRECT LINKS
(1) .Burning Trash and Keeping the Car Clean.
E Magazine: The Environmental Magazine (1046-8021)
01/01/2007. Vol.18,Iss.1;p.64-64 from EBSCOHost
(2) Talking Trash. Susan M.Brackney
Indianapolis Monthly (0899-0328) 01/05/2007. Vol.30,Iss.10;p.92-98 from EBSCOHost
Water
The power of water has been around for as long as we know and yet we still have problems maximising its usefulness to our lives. In 2005 this report set a benchmark for water use in the developing world but there are many things which more developed countries might equally think of applying. Falling or running water is ideal for powering a wide variety of tasks. Water power really surged as a solution to energy creation in the 20th century. The development of the electric generator helped increase hydropower's importance. Dams and hydroelectric power plants were built to drive the development of countries as diverse as the USA, China and Egypt(2). In the Asia region the Three Gorges Dam(3) has been a source of controversy ever since its inception. The enormous benefits to China are now, even in official channels, been seen as outweighed by the potential damage, medium term and long-term to the environment and to the Yangtse River itself. Hydroelectric energy is the least efficient way of using land to produce power. One square metre on average produces 0.1 watts.
Opinion:
A huge natural resource which if used carefully can bring enormous benefit but has over the years been seen to have negative impact. As water become scarcer this option may not be continuously or sustainably viable
DIRECT LINKS
(1) A Marshall Plan For Energy And Water Supply In Developing Countries
May 2005.
Source: Columbia International Affairs Online
(2) "Aswan High Dam"
from Encyclopaedia Britannica
(2) Asia: One dam thing after another; The Three Gorges
The Economist. London: Nov 3, 2007. Vol. 385, Iss. 8553; pg. 74 from ProQuest
Wave
The sea is a vast source of energy but it also presents huge challenges in terms of harnessing that great potential(1). To be economically viable a wave power project needs to work with an area of sea measuring 2.5 miles by 1.25 miles. In this sort of space around 30 wave energy devices can be deployed. These float on top of the sea, transferring energy from the waves to equipment on the ocean floor. The energy is then transmitted via a cable to a substation onshore. Wave power generation is not a widely employed technology, and no commercial wave farm has yet been established.
Constructing devices that can survive storm damage and saltwater corrosion; likely sources of failure include seized bearings, broken welds, and snapped mooring lines. Knowing this, designers try to create prototypes that are so overbuilt that materials costs prohibit affordable production.Wave power will only be competitive when the total cost of generation is reduced. Conversion of marine energy sources, including ocean waves and tidal currents, into electricity is however a rapidly developing industry. Many technologies have been proposed(2) and some have generated electricity at full scale, it is difficult to predict which technology will be economic at large scales of installation. So far the only country which has deployed it successfully is Portugal
Opinion: Inexhaustible, non-polluting, but unreliable and potentially expensive to set up in a way that is robust and accident/fault-free
DIRECT LINKS
(1) A comparative approach to the economic modelling of a large-scale wave power scheme
T Stallard, R Rothschild, G A Aggidis. European Journal of Operational Research. Amsterdam: Mar 1, 2008. Vol. 185, Iss. 2; pg. 884 from Proquest
(2) .Wave Power by Tracy Staedter, Technology Review (1099-274X) 01/01/2002. Vol.105,Iss.1;p.86 from EBSCOHost
(3) "Commercial Wave-Energy System To Go off Portugal."ENR: Engineering News-Record (0891-9526) 22/05/2006. Vol.256,Iss.20;p.28-28 from EBSCOHost
Wind
Wind has powered sea-going craft for thousands of years. Windmills have provided power for agricultural tasks which have contributed to the growth of civilization. So wind is nothing new. In our times wind generators take advantage of the power of wind. Long blades, or "rotors", catch the wind and spin. As with water in hydroelectric systems, the spinning movement is transformed into electrical energy by a generator powered by the wind force. Wind farms it has been estimated can generate around 1.2 watts for every square metre of land but often their benefits are now being weighed against how ugly these turbines can be in a pristine environment. Large-scale offshore wind farms(3) are not visible from land and according to various studies have no discernible effect on aquatic species and no effect on migratory bird patterns or mortality rates. At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 73.9 gigawatts; although it accounts for just over 1% of world-wide electricity use(3)
Opinion: Inexhaustible, non-polluting but requires large numbers of expensive-to-maintain wind generators (and thus large land areas) to produce significant amounts of heat or electricity and of course, places with lots of wind, most of the time are required.
DIRECT LINKS
(1)World Wind Energy Association http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php
(2) 10.Wind Power; [1] Power; New York (0032-5929)
Nov/Dec 2006. Vol.150,Iss.9;p.58 from ProQuest
(3) "Harnessing the Power of Ocean Wind" by Evelyn. Lee
njbiz (1540-4161)
04/06/2007. Vol.20,Iss.23;p.3-10 from EBSCOHost
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