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    Energy's Tricky Tradeoffs

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    pleja18
    The document discusses the challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternative energy sources. It notes that while solar and wind power potential is vast, the low density of these resources means much more land is needed to generate the same amount of energy as coal. Storage and transportation of large amounts of renewable energy also remains a challenge. No single solution exists, and a mix of different energy sources and technologies will likely be needed. Energy production also has water usage and carbon emission impacts that must be considered. Most experts believe large efficiency gains can be made through improvements to existing technologies and reducing overall energy demand, though the latter may not be easy to achieve.

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    Energy's Tricky Tradeoffs

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    pleja18
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    The document discusses the challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternative energy sources. It notes that while solar and wind power potential is vast, the low density of these resources means much more land is needed to generate the same amount of energy as coal. Storage and transportation of large amounts of renewable energy also remains a challenge. No single solution exists, and a mix of different energy sources and technologies will likely be needed. Energy production also has water usage and carbon emission impacts that must be considered. Most experts believe large efficiency gains can be made through improvements to existing technologies and reducing overall energy demand, though the latter may not be easy to achieve.

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    The document discusses the challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternative energy sources. It notes that while solar and wind power potential is vast, the low density of these resources means much more land is needed to generate the same amount of energy as coal. Storage and transportation of large amounts of renewable energy also remains a challenge. No single solution exists, and a mix of different energy sources and technologies will likely be needed. Energy production also has water usage and carbon emission impacts that must be considered. Most experts believe large efficiency gains can be made through improvements to existing technologies and reducing overall energy demand, though the latter may not be easy to achieve.

    Copyright:

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    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views2 pages

    Energy's Tricky Tradeoffs

    Uploaded by

    pleja18
    The document discusses the challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternative energy sources. It notes that while solar and wind power potential is vast, the low density of these resources means much more land is needed to generate the same amount of energy as coal. Storage and transportation of large amounts of renewable energy also remains a challenge. No single solution exists, and a mix of different energy sources and technologies will likely be needed. Energy production also has water usage and carbon emission impacts that must be considered. Most experts believe large efficiency gains can be made through improvements to existing technologies and reducing overall energy demand, though the latter may not be easy to achieve.

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    Scaling Up Alternative Energy

    SPECIALSECTION

    NEWS

    Energys Tricky Tradeoffs


    Total power available (terawatts)

    The worlds energy problem is in fact a slew of technological and sociological challenges involving the use of the land, water, and air we share

    Ive got sunshine, plenty of sunshine

    Sooner or later, humanity must move away from fossil fuels, finite resources that produce planetwarming greenhouse gases. At first blush, Earth appears to have power to spare. The total power from sunlight striking the ground is a whopping 101,000 terawatts, and experts estimate that we could capture enough of that to exceed by a wide margin the 15 terawatts of power that the worlds population now consumes. World demand

    13 AUGUST 2010 VOL 329 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

    Published by AAAS

    How much is left? (years)


    (92 theoretical)
    200 100

    15 20
    RESERVES

    Biomass

    Wind
    (190 theoretical)

    Hydroelectric
    (4.7 theoretical)
    300

    1.6

    Geothermal
    (42 theoretical)

    3.8

    (101,000 theoretical)

    >50
    RESOURCES

    Solar

    Coal

    Natural gas
    RESOURCES

    RESERVES

    64
    RESOURCES

    210

    251

    360

    Oil

    RESERVES

    41
    RESERVES

    125 30010,000
    RESOURCES

    Nuclear (Uranium)

    82

    GLOBAL
    Population in the U.S. (per square mile)

    SOURCE: WORLD ENERGY ASSESSMENT 2000/UNDP; WEA 2004/UNDP; REPORT OF THE INTL. GEOTHERMAL ASSOCIATION TO THE U.N. COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2001; SCLATER ET AL., JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH 86 (1981); NASA

    Give me land, lots of land

    Wind and sunshine deliver energy in a far less dense form than coal, oil, or natural gas. For example, San Jose, California, has just over 1 million residents and consumes an average of 740 megawatts of electrical power. To supply that power, coal mines and coal-fired power plants would have to cover 3,800 hectares of land. In comparison, a wind farm would have to cover 53,000 hectares, an area bigger than the city

    itself. Unlike a coal mine, however, the wind farm could be used to grow crops at the same time. Another issue: The sun doesnt necessarily shine the brightest and the wind doesnt blow the fiercest where most people live. And technologies have yet to emerge to store and transport vast amounts of energy generated from sunshine or wind. So delivering that energy where its needed when its needed remains a problem.

    3,000 66,940.1 300.02,999.9 160.0299.9 79.6 159.9 7.079.5 1.06.9 Less than 1.0

    Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on August 16, 2010

    Land needed to power San Jose


    Hydroelectric

    Average daily sunshine


    (kilowatts per square meter)

    (hectares)
    Coal

    1,300 3,800
    Natural gas

    46,000
    Biomass
    Wind

    San Jose, California

    290

    7,500 4,200

    Solar

    270,000 53,000
    Nuclear

    56 45 34 23 02
    SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (TOP); NREL (BOTTOM)

    REGIONAL

    SOURCE: D. SPITZLEY ET AL., UNIV. OF MICHIGAN CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS (2004); ELECTRICITY FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES, NAS (2010); DOE

    CO2 output per kilowatt-hour (liters)

    SOURCE (TOP): DOE; AWEA; DOE/EPA; ELECTRICITY FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES, NAS (2010); (BOTTOM): DOE; AWEA

    www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 329 13 AUGUST 2010

    Published by AAAS

    26 6.7 11 530

    21

    8.4

    330

    500

    17
    No single solution.

    A river runs through it.

    Water consumption per kilowatt-hour (liters) 0


    photovoltaic

    3.2
    thermal

    5.3

    17

    360 1.9 0.6 1.6 2.6

    The energy problem is also a water problem. Work on your computer all day, and youll use about 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity. If that energy comes from coal, youll have used 1.8 liters of water. If it comes from solar thermal technologies, youll use 68% more water. Use power from biomass crops and youll also use hundreds of liters of water to grow the fuel. Of course, fossil fuels produce heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas. If your kilowatt-hour of energy comes from coal, it produces 0.9 kilograms or 530 liters of pure CO2 enough to fill 265 large soda bottles.

    PERSONAL
    Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on August 16, 2010

    To replace fossil fuels, most experts foresee using a mixture of energy sources and technologies. And they say that large gains can be made in improving the efficiency of existing technologiesas much as 60% in industrial processes. Still, reducing overall energy demand may not be easy. In 2007, the city of San Jose instituted a 15-year program that, among other things, seeks to reduce the per capita consumption of electricity and natural gas by 50%. After 2 years, such consumption was down by just 0.5%. ADRIAN CHO

    787

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