Renewable Energy: The path to the Future

By : Buddhika Ranaweera (CSCT2010147)

Basically, human being use lots of energy for heating, lighting, movement,
machines, etc. That energy has to come from an energy source.  Some sources are
renewable, some sources are non-renewable.

The fundamental transformation of the World’s current extractive fossil fuel

energy economy to a sustainable energy economy is a critical grand challenge
facing the world today. This transformation requires active global leadership and
coordination. It also requires robust support for sustainable energy research,
development, demonstration, deployment, and education (RD3E) and a new unique
energy policy framework that enables commercially attractive solutions. Together,
these broad, science-driven approaches can help to promote our national security
through increasing Sri Lanka`s energy independence, enhance environmental
stewardship and reduce energy and carbon intensity, and generate continued
economic growth through innovation in energy technologies and expansion of green
jobs.

In this essay you will find what “Renewable energy” means, why we need it, what is
the current world situation, what are renewable energy sources, advantages &
disadvantages of them.

Renewable……??

Renewable energy is a term used to describe a variety of energy sources

which do not have a finite supply. We can renew it (hence the name renewable
energy). In contrast, energy sources such as coal, oil and gas are non-renewable
forms of energy and will one day run out. In fact supplies of these fossil fuels are
already severely depleted and we need to look carefully at other sources of energy
with some urgency. Renewable energy-sources also have a further advantage over
traditional fuels as they do not have the same negative environmental impact caused
by CO2 emissions.
Current Situation..!!

According to the energy statistics in 2008, 19% of the total global consumption in
that year was from renewable sources. Composition of that 19% was, 13% from
conventional biomass (firewood) mainly for heating purposes in western countries
and for cooking purposes in Asia-Pacific reign, 3.2% came from Hydro-electricity;
other 2.7% came from various small renewable power sources. Today the renewable
energy sector is growing faster than ever.

Figure 1 Renewable energy use of 2008

In the local context, Sri Lanka is much greener and uses more renewable energy
than most of the developed and developing countries in the world. Today 48% of our
energy comes from renewable sources. It was about 60%-65% during last couple of
years. So the challenge is to stop this sector from vanishing in to the air in another
couple of decades.
 Figure 2 Energy use Per Capita of some countries

As it shown in the graph we use much less energy than most of the countries. The
value for Sri Lanka in this graph is 464 kilograms.

The government also trying to implement more renewable generation plants to keep
up with huge coal and fossil fuel plants. Couple of major hydro projects, and
hundreds of mini hydro projects are currently underway. Few wind farms about 10
megawatt (MW) are located in place at southern & north-west parts of the country. In
rural areas where there is no connection to the grid, some 250,000 photovoltaic (PV)
or commonly known as solar panels are used. Government is paying considerable
amount of the cost of these panels to make it more affordable and popular among
people.

Why we need Renewable Energy…

Today more than ¾ of the world energy comes from non-renewable energy sources.
The non-renewable energy resources refer to different types of fossil fuels such as
coal, petroleum products, and natural gas. We are pushing these sources to their
maximum capacity and we passed the peak of fossil fuel production, which is current
worlds` biggest energy source.

The major advantages of non-renewable energy sources are low cost and
ease of use. But both these advantage may be diluted over a period as prices of
such fuel rise with depleting resources, and as better technologies are developed for
use of renewable energy sources. There are two major disadvantages of non-
renewable energy resources, crude oil & natural gas will deplete in 25-40 years and
coal will last for another 150-200 years. Everybody knows that it is not only going to
end, but also the environmental pollution by these sources is a major concern too.
Green house gasses such as, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH 4) increase
global warming. Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and Chlorine (Cl2) are
poisonous and cause acid rains. Because of these pollutants cancers and repertory
disorders are rising within communities today. Renewable power doesn`t produce
these gases, even though biomass will produce CO2 when they were burnt the
amount of CO2 a tree would breath in while it is growing in a forest will be higher
than the emission.

What are Renewable Sources…..

Currently, there are five viable sources of renewable energy that we as human being
can take advantage of, those are solar power, wind power, hydropower, biomass
energy and geothermal power. There is also the nuclear power, which is really a
non-renewable source of energy, but because of vast reserves of nuclear material
available may be treated as renewable source of energy. But Nuclear energy poses
special problems of safety in operation of nuclear power plants as well as disposal of
nuclear waste. The major disadvantage most of the renewable energy is the high
cost of equipment required for using them. Also use of bio-fuels is not as convenient
as the fossil fuel. Also the current supply of bio-fuels is limited. It is expected with
further development and research, availability and quality of bio fuels will increase
and prices will reduce. Similarly technologies are being developed to make use of
other renewable energy sources more economical and convenient.

Solar power

Solar power is the name given for using the energy of the sun to provide
electricity or to heat water. Both types can be used in both domestic and larger scale
environments. Since 2002 annual usage of solar power has grown by 20%. Today
global electric production from solar power is more than 21,000 megawatts.
 Advantages:

 Infinite energy resource

 It’s not like the sun is a market-based commodity that can be over or
under produced to obtain a better selling price.

Disadvantages:

 Solar radiation is depending on geographical location

 Solar radiation is depending on the cycle day/night
 Capture of solar radiation is requiring a large amount of necessary
materials & land.
 Expensive manufacturing and implementing of solar panels

Currently the highest efficiency a PV panel can achieve is about 7%. So the
technology is the barrier for solar energy. If we can develop high efficient PV panels
or new cheap materials for solar panels this would be the most reliable source of
energy in the future.

Wind power

Wind energy is another one of those renewable sources that is very, very
environmental friendly, and actually has been used for quite some time. Not only for
electricity generation, but also flour mills and irrigation systems uses it as a
mechanical power. Generating electricity from wind is pretty straight forward –
basically, electricity is produced when wind blows a massive turbine that spins to
create the electricity. The equipment is somewhat expensive still, but over the course
of the next ten years or so, that may change. One other drawback is that if it isn’t
windy outside; guess what – no wind, no power. Luckily, battery technology is very
good in that turbines can store energy for days that have less wind than others.

Advantages:

 Infinite energy resource.

 It produces no greenhouse gases during operation.
 Disadvantages:

 Expensive manufacturing and implementing of windmills and wind

farms.
 Wind turbines are noisy and can become dangerous for wild birds.

Hydro power

Another widely used source of renewable energy, hydro power is harnessed by

using the flow of water to move turbines to create electricity. Water has been used
for quite some time to make electricity, but died out a bit when fossil fuels became
more popular. However, hydro energy is still used today, with about 50% of the
energy in the country being powered by hydro electric power plants according to Sri
Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority. Hydro power plants are typically found on large
bodies of water (like big rivers), so geographically, you’ll only find them in countries
that can support them. Again, as technology develops, we’ll probably see a more
widespread use of hydro power in the future, as it is a clean burning and natural way
to power homes and businesses. World`s biggest hydro plant is Three Gorgeous
Dam in China which produce 20,000 megawatts of power. Its 10 times the Sri
Lankan total energy production

Advantages:

 Very large amount of energy could be generated in this way

 A dam could be used in various ways; as a bridge or as a barrier
against flooding

Disadvantages:

 Construction of dams could be expensive

 Wildlife could be affected.
 Affects ecology by the process of vegetation decaying, which is
releasing methane, which is also responsible with the greenhouse
effects
  Flooding is another problem caused by the dam releasing;

Biomass energy

Creating energy from plants and grains seems to be all the rage these days.
Biodiesel, corn gasoline, and other forms of bio energy are being utilized all over the
place to help combat out of control gas prices. Ethanol, which is basically gas made
from corn, is widely used to power vehicles, and costs quite a bit less than regular
gas. Many manufacturers are crating ethanol ready cars and trucks, and consumers
seem to buy them more and more. There are all sorts of grains, plants and other
naturally occurring gifts from Mother Nature that we can use to create different forms
of bio energy. Brazil is the world leader in ethanol use; they use sugarcane for
ethanol production. About 1/3 of the land area of Sri Lanka is used to grow
sugarcane in Brazil. In Sri Lanka firewood is the only considerable biomass we use
for energy needs. As the technological breakthroughs happen and as we move into
the future, don’t be surprised if by the year 2020, you’re powering your car on carrots
and beans.

Advantages:

 Infinite energy resource, if replaced

 An available cheap source of energy

Disadvantages:

 Pollution with greenhouse gasses, when it's burnt

 If the process of re-plantation of trees is interrupted, could become an
non-renewable energy source

Geothermal energy

If you weren’t aware, we have this really hot thing in the middle of the Earth. It’s
called the “core”. Anyway, deep inside the Earth, there are all sorts of things going
on, and the one we’re most interested in is the heat. There is more than an
abundance of natural heat down there, and when we harness and utilize that heat for
energy, that form of energy is called geothermal energy. More and more these days,
homes and businesses are using geothermal heating systems to save on energy
bills and to do their part in “going green”. Geothermal is actually a really great form of
energy, since it doesn’t produce any pollution or greenhouse gases, but the only
drawback is the initial cost to install the equipment to harness it. Not to mention, you
have to live in a place that has the right geological properties in order to use it.

Sri Lanka is also going to harness this form of energy by new geothermal plant under
construction in south-eastern part of the country.

Advantages:

 Infinite energy resource

Disadvantages:

 Could be used just in volcanic regions

 Setting up could be expensive
 Together with the heat, poisonous gasses could be released

Emerging Technologies

Hydrogen fuel cell and nuclear fusion are two major developing renewable energy
production methods.

Today some vehicle manufactures produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and some
countries have built infrastructure facilities need for their operation. In a hydrogen
fuel cell hydrogen gas combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to produce
electricity. The only byproduct of this process will be pure water, which comes out of
the tail pipe. There is a hydrogen gas cylinder in the car which can be filled in from
fuel stations that provide hydrogen gas, as same as we fill up our Liquid Petroleum
Gas (LPG) driven vehicles today. Because hydrogen is the most abundant element
in the universe we will never run-out of it.
“Nuclear fusion” even though it sounds dangerous it is much, much safer than
today’s “Nuclear fission” method. This technology is still under development and
countries invest billions of dollars in to the research & development (R&D) of it.
Simply this is the process of replicating sun, how it produce energy. Other than
breaking atoms this method creates atoms. It uses two hydrogen atoms to create
one Helium atom, which weight is less than two hydrogen atoms. So according to
Albert Einstein’s law E=MC2 (E-energy, M-mass, C-speed of light) small amount of
lost mass means huge amount of energy output. Think a tea spoon full of water
powering an entire house or a bucket full powering entire city for a whole week.
That’s how much potential this source has.

Conclusions

Wake up people..! it is real we are running out of conventional energy sources. And
we are choking our home planet with harmful gas emissions and melting snow caps
from global warming. So the time has emerged to take an initiative to save this
planet for future generations. Even though there are other options than using non-
renewable energy, we tend to stick on to conventional sources. as it says “if there`s
a will there`s a way”. Let’s change our attitudes and face the reality. It`s not only
government`s duty to implement green technologies but also our duty to take actions
and help the mother nature. Yes there are some boundaries which limit our ability to
use some of the renewable energy sources, but we can increase the use of viable
resources to its` maximum.

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