Renewable Energy- the need of the hour!!

Renewable Energy– the need of the hour!!

Plabita Baruah

As 21^st century’s tech-equipped, busy individuals, we seldom spare a second thought about the resources helping us in using the luxuries of everyday life starting from the ACs, fans, lights, TV, heaters, refrigerators, computers, cell phones to almost everything that needs energy to run.

That being said, it is almost impossible to imagine a world without electricity. If we probe deeper into the production of electricity, we see that a bulk this electricity is produced from non renewable resources .i.e resources which once consumed cannot be replaced.

The raw materials used are generally fossil fuels; thermal stations using coal being the producer of approximately 41% of the world’s electricity. Other fossil fuels like oil and natural gas too contributes a major percentage to world’s energy resources forming a bulk of the resources used in world’s transportation system.

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Fossil fuels were formed due to reactions and processes on the dead remains of plants and animals for millions and millions of years.  They are called “non-renewable” because we are consuming them faster than they are created.

Coal, for instance, is created over geological time period and we are likely to consume most of it in less than 1,000 years. And the way we are totally dependent on these resources for almost every activity, without laying much stress on alternatives, imagine the situation when these resources become extinct one fine day.

Not only that, the process required to convert them into usable forms creates high levels of toxic and poisonous gases which is one major cause of nature’s degradation.

The extent of the damage of the Coal/Oil/Gas paradigm isn’t just pollution, or the fact that its running out, or that we have been using it wastefully, or that some countries go to war about resources, or that its price goes up and down and because it’s one of the biggest markets in the world, it imposes a lack of visibility on our economies.

It also kills miners and susceptible people who have respiratory sensitivities or who get cancer from exposure to carcinogenic chemicals. Externalities are sometimes easy to see, such as pollution and land degradation, and sometimes there less obvious prices that we pay such as asthma and cancer, or the impacts of sea level rise.

It has been causing Brownfield locations which are polluted, and causing such a large amount of damage to other species that we are calling this period of time the 6th extinction event the world has ever known.

Many consequences are far removed from our daily lives and may only affect a minority or marginalized subset of the population but burning coal, oil, and natural gas has serious and long-standing negative impacts on public health, local communities and ecosystems, the global climate and the whole planet.

Such is the seriousness of the over abuse of coal and oil which is acting like a slow poison to the various lifeforms in the earth.

Although the buzz for the use of clean and less hazardous energy resources is all around, statistics show that the use of fossil fuel have not ever declined inspite of the looming danger in the near future.

But the good news is that alternative sources of energy are capable of replacing the current technologies we are using, if harnessed in the right manner. These renewable energy sources are environment friendly as they emit less carbon dioxide, compared to fossil fuels. There are many alternative sources of energies that harness natural forces and resources such as solar power, wind power, hydro power, biomass, geothermal energy etc.

World population is expected to double by 2050 and the result will be that energy consumption will triple by the middle of the 21st century. One can imagine the level of environmental pollution resulting from several decades of demographic growth. The amount of needed energy will probably increase thanks to the development of technology, which is expected to lead to a severe shortage in energy.

But we can help to change the course of events. First, the consumption of energy should be saved. All of us are aware of how we should stop energy wastage in every little activity we do.

Secondly, more flexible fuels (renewable energies) which are mentioned above should be used. Solar-thermal technologies that use mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays on the heat exchanger are being incorporated in power plant projects in many countries in the world.

Electricity is also produced by photovoltaic devices. They create no pollution and can be operated almost anywhere and require little maintenance. Wind power is renewable source of energy and reduces our alliance on foreign countries for supply of oil and gas. It does not cause any air pollution and have created several jobs in last few decades. Advancement in technologies has brought down the cost of setting up wind power plant.

Biomass is another major alternative energy source. Burning of wood and straw gives biomass energy which is already used largely for cooking and heating in developing countries. Geothermal energy is drawn or harnessed from beneath the earth which is completely clean and renewable.The earth contains a molten rock called magma where heat is continuously produced. This heat is used for producing steam from boiling water which in turn activates generators.

But despite the promise of alternative energy sources, collectively they provide only about 7 percent of the world’s energy needs. The main reason for this is the relatively higher cost of most forms of alternative energy compared to fossil fuel sources of energy. Also the massive old energy lobbies have successfully used their colossal influence and power to inhibit the growth of renewable sources of energy.

There are other disadvantages of renewable energy like low efficiency, failure to meet large demands and problems related to initial set ups.  But the world is so obsessed with using these easily available energy resources that the time and investment in the betterment of renewable energy harnessing systems is way meager compared to the benefits of switching over to them.

Along with the aid of government, every country should come forward to research more on the efficient use of the renewable sources of energy before it’s too late to save our planet earth.

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