Renewable sources of energy
Description:
The majority of energy is currently produced by the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There is a limited amount of fossil fuel reserves. Fossil fuels are being consumed faster than they are produced by the earth and they will eventually be exhausted. This has increased the need to find new renewable sources of energy. Renewable sources of energy can easily be replenished. Modern sources of renewable energy include wind energy, solar energy,water power, geothermal energy and biofuel.
Enablers:
- They will last forever as they use energy generated by the sun or wind.
- Wind power mitigates the emission of greenhouse gases and therefore reduces global warming
- Increasing awareness of the need for the conservation of fossil fuels
- Increasing cost of traditional sources of energy i.e fossil fuels
- Dangers of alternatives including nuclear energy
Inhibitors:
- Not aesthetically pleasing e.g wind turbines
- Hazardous to ecosystems e.g. dams create barriers for migrating fish,
- Extensive land use is required which could otherwise be farmed
- Availability not consistent
Paradigms:
For 30 years, governments and international institutions have been aware of the limits of conventional energy and its broad damaging consequences. However implementation of renewable sources of energy have not progressed as fast as fossil fuel energy consumption has increased. Governments have tried to reach a global consensus for action which instead leads to paralysis. As a result, world civilizations are still dependent on fossil fuels. Less than 20 billion dollars of the tax payers’ money was spent in the last 30 years to promote renewable energy as opposed to 1 trillion spent on atomic energy research.
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Timing:
- The U.S. has a long history of using wind energy. By 1889, about 77 windmill factories were scattered across the country, employing 1,100 workers. They sold water-pumping windmills to railroads (who needed water for their steam locomotives) and farmers (to pump water for their animals).
- In the 1930s and 1940s, hundreds of thousands of electricity-producing wind turbines were built in the U.S. Just like wind turbines today, they had two or three thin blades, which rotated at high speeds to drive electrical generators. These wind turbines provided electricity to farms beyond the reach of power lines and were typically used to charge storage batteries, operate radios and power a few lights.
- From 1920 to 1950, an industry for solar hot water heaters served about 50,000 homes in just South Florida. In 1979, with doubts about our oil supplies from overseas, 50,000 solar hot water heaters were sold and installed around the U.S. One hundred thousand units were sold in 1984.Solar hot water heaters are quite popular in Japan, where more than 10 million systems are in operation and sales of 250,000 each year continue. Solar hot water systems are even more common in Israel, where 90% of the homes use the sun to heat their water.
- In 1990 Germany passed a law on renewable energy in order to increase the share of renewable energy in the overall energy supply by making it mandatory for electricity providers to accept electricity from renewables at a certain price level (Feed-in Pricing Law). This law created a virtual boom for wind energy.In 2000, the Bundestag required that renewable electricity be distributed among all suppliers, based on their total electricity sales.
- In 2001, the EU adopted the Directive on the Promotion of Electricity Produced from Renewable Energy Resources (Renewables Directive)
- The Kyoto Protocol entered into force on February 16, 2005.The treaty, if implemented,would bring down greenhouse gas emissions to the level that they were in 1990 by 2012.