Murk Sindhya Memon

ERP: 18763

Alternative energy resources to thermal can

best solve global energy problem
In twenty-first century, energy is everywhere and used by everything. We
have become dependent on the abundance, potential, and benefit of energy
not only in our individual lives but also in every sphere of life from economic
to social. This energy is the driving force of our every activity: running all
communication systems, lighting the world, and propelling our vehicles.
Imagine a black out! How would it be to live without energy? To live with
dead cell phone battery, with no fuel to drive your car, with no energy to run
the central air-conditioners in huge skyscrapers. It would be terrible! Our
fear and anxiety to such situations demonstrates the significance of energy
in our daily life. Given the high use of energy every day, the world is heading
towards an energy problem. Since this energy is scarce, we need efficient
methods for producing it. The production can be done through alternative
energy that has a high potential to meet the global demand of energy, and is
environment friendly, or it can be done through thermal production
methods which are cost-efficient and easier to produce.
Alternative energy has the crucial advantage of being renewable energy:
with its never-ending supply, energy can be generated to solve the global
energy crisis. For Instance, lets look at the example of Pakistan. The current
gap between the demand and production of electricity in Pakistan is
approximately 5000–8000 MW with a constant increase of 6–8 % per annum
according to the research by WAPDA. According to the Board of Investment
Pakistan, the installed power capacity is 22,797 MW. However, current
generation stands between 12,000 and 13,000 MW per day, against peak a
demand of 17,000 to 21,000 MW. In order to meet this demand Pakistan can
use various forms of alternative energy methods like Nuclear Power, Hydro-
electric power, or Solar power. The Karachi Nuclear power plant, which was
built with a reactor supplied by Canada in 1972, has a net generation
capacity of 125 MW, enough to provide power to 2 million Pakistanis.
Moreover, According to the USAID map of solar potential in Pakistan, the
 Murk Sindhya Memon
ERP: 18763
country has tremendous potential in harnessing the sun to generate
electricity with an average of 350 sunny days in certain regions. Pakistan has
an average daily insolation rate of 5.3 kWH/m.
Apart from that, alternative energy is also known to be environmental
friendly which means that while solving energy crisis it would not harm the
ecology saving the world from an other problem. To elaborate, renewable
sources of energy like solar, wind, hydro-electric, nuclear, release little or no
particles that cause air pollution or adverse impact human health; wind and
solar power consume virtually no water (geothermal and biomass require
water for plant cooling), meaning the strain on local water supply can be
significantly reduced; and sources of renewable energy are, generally
speaking, vast and inexhaustible. By contrast, a 2011 study conducted by
Harvard Medical Centre concluded that coal costs the US public up to 500
billion USD per year, with many of these costs relating to public health and
waste management.
The other methods of power generation includes thermal power which is
the conventional way; thus, is more cost-efficient. Since the thermal energy
generation power plants are already set, no additional capital is needed for
the construction or research. The International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA) released a study based on comprehensive international
datasets in January 2018 which projects the fall by 2020 of the kilowatt cost
of electricity from utility scale renewable projects such as onshore wind
farms to a point equal or below that of electricity from conventional sources.
Research made by Andy Darvill’s Science Site shows that nonrenewable fossil
fuels contribute to 66% of the world’s source of electricity. It also shows that
it satisfies around 95% of the entire energy needs.  Since there are already
existing structures, the marginal cost is lower.
In the light of all above arguments, it can be seen that every methods has its
own advantages. Thus, it is not possible to rely on either on of them.
Alternative energy has high potential and is beneficial for environment;
while, thermal energy is cost-effective and easy to produce. The best
 Murk Sindhya Memon
ERP: 18763
possibility to solve the global energy crisis would to through the optimal
combination of both thermal and alternative energy productions.