Nonrenewable Energy
At present, the bulk of our energy comes from fossil fuels, gas, coal, and oil. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, that is to say that if we look at them chemically, they are wholly composed of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The thing about hydrocarbons is that, when combined with the oxygen in the air and heat, they react exothermically (they give out heat). This heat is useful, and is used directly as a useful form of energy in itself, or is converted into other forms of energy like kinetic or electrical energy that can be used to “do some work,” in other words, perform a useful function.
Fossil fuels are so named because they are formed from the remains of animals and plants that were around a long time ago. The formation of these fuels took place in the carboniferous period which in turn was part of the Paleozoic era, around 360 to 286 million years ago. This would have been an interesting time to live. The world was covered in lots and lots of greenery, lush verdant forests of plants. The oceans and seas were full of algae.
So what happened to make the fossil fuels?Well, the plants died, and over time, layers of rock and sediment and more dead stuff built up on top of these carbon-rich deposits. Over many years, the tremendous heat and pressure built up by these layers compressed the dead matter.
Fossil fuel emissions:Take a peek at Figure below. It is pretty shocking stuff! It shows how our fossil fuel emissions have increased dramatically over the past century. This massive amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has dire implications for the delicate balance of our ecosystem and could eventually lead to runaway climate change.
Hubbert’s peak and Peak Oil:
Back in 1956 an American geophysicist by the name of Marion King Hubbert presented a paper to the American Petroleum Institute. He said that oil production in the U.S.A. would peak toward the end of the 1960s, and would peak worldwide in the year 2000. In fact, U.S. oil production did peak at the beginning of the 1970s, so this wasn’t a bad prediction; however, the rest of the theory contains a dire warning.
The theory states that production of fossil fuels follows a bell-shaped curve, where production begins to gradually increase, then as the technology becomes mainstream there is a sharp upturn in production, followed by a flattening off when production has to continue against rising costs. As the costs of extraction increase, production begins to plateau, and then fall—falling sharply at first, and then rapidly. This is illustrated in Figure .This means that, if we have crossed the peak, our supplies of fossil fuels are going to begin to drop rapidly—when you think about how reliant we are on fossil fuels, this means that there is going to be a rapid impact on our way of life.
--> --> So have we crossed the peak, and is there any evidence to support this?The International Energy Agency has stated that energy production is in decline in 33 out of the 48largest world oil producers. So, probably yes.In the same way that there is Peak Oil, there is also Peak Coal, Peak Gas and Peak Uranium. All of these resources are in finite supply and will not last forever. This means that those who believe that heavy investment in nuclear is the answer might be in for a shock. Nuclear has been touted by many as a means of plugging the “energy hole” left when fossil fuels run out; however, everyone in the world is facing the same problems if everyone switches to nuclear power, the rate at which uranium is consumed will greatly increase.
A few other reasons why nuclear is a dumb option: Nuclear power really is pretty dangerous—talking about nuclear safety is a bit of a myth. Nuclear power stations are a potential target for Enemies, and if we want to encourage a clean, safe world, nuclear is not the way to go.
Nuclear makes bad financial sense. When the fledgling nuclear power industry began to build power stations, the industry was heavily subsidized as nuclear was a promising new technology that promised “electricity too cheap to meter.” Unfortunately, those free watts never really materialized. Nuclear power stations have never thrown in a few watts produced cheaply by nuclear power.one of the Solar energy facts on the other hand that it is the gift that keeps on giving. Stick some solar panels on your roof and they will pump out free watts for many years to come with virtually zero maintenance. This is the solar city.
Environmental responsibility: We only have one planet. Therefore, we need to make the most of it. The earth only has so many resources that can be exploited, when these run out we need to find alternatives, and where there are no alternatives then we will surely be very stuck.
Climate change:It is now widely acknowledged that climate change is happening, and that it is caused by man-made events. Of course, there is always the odd scientist, who wants to wave a flag, get some publicity and say that it is natural and that there is nothing we can do about it, but the consensus is that the extreme changes that we are seeing in recent times are a result of our actions over the past years.
So the world must be a large solar city and depend on solar systems and other renewable and clean energy resources like wind, geothermal, hydro etc... in order to live in the quiet clean world of our dreams.
Fossil fuels are so named because they are formed from the remains of animals and plants that were around a long time ago. The formation of these fuels took place in the carboniferous period which in turn was part of the Paleozoic era, around 360 to 286 million years ago. This would have been an interesting time to live. The world was covered in lots and lots of greenery, lush verdant forests of plants. The oceans and seas were full of algae.
So what happened to make the fossil fuels?Well, the plants died, and over time, layers of rock and sediment and more dead stuff built up on top of these carbon-rich deposits. Over many years, the tremendous heat and pressure built up by these layers compressed the dead matter.
Fossil fuel emissions:Take a peek at Figure below. It is pretty shocking stuff! It shows how our fossil fuel emissions have increased dramatically over the past century. This massive amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has dire implications for the delicate balance of our ecosystem and could eventually lead to runaway climate change.
Hubbert’s peak and Peak Oil:
Back in 1956 an American geophysicist by the name of Marion King Hubbert presented a paper to the American Petroleum Institute. He said that oil production in the U.S.A. would peak toward the end of the 1960s, and would peak worldwide in the year 2000. In fact, U.S. oil production did peak at the beginning of the 1970s, so this wasn’t a bad prediction; however, the rest of the theory contains a dire warning.The theory states that production of fossil fuels follows a bell-shaped curve, where production begins to gradually increase, then as the technology becomes mainstream there is a sharp upturn in production, followed by a flattening off when production has to continue against rising costs. As the costs of extraction increase, production begins to plateau, and then fall—falling sharply at first, and then rapidly. This is illustrated in Figure .This means that, if we have crossed the peak, our supplies of fossil fuels are going to begin to drop rapidly—when you think about how reliant we are on fossil fuels, this means that there is going to be a rapid impact on our way of life.
--> --> So have we crossed the peak, and is there any evidence to support this?The International Energy Agency has stated that energy production is in decline in 33 out of the 48largest world oil producers. So, probably yes.In the same way that there is Peak Oil, there is also Peak Coal, Peak Gas and Peak Uranium. All of these resources are in finite supply and will not last forever. This means that those who believe that heavy investment in nuclear is the answer might be in for a shock. Nuclear has been touted by many as a means of plugging the “energy hole” left when fossil fuels run out; however, everyone in the world is facing the same problems if everyone switches to nuclear power, the rate at which uranium is consumed will greatly increase.
A few other reasons why nuclear is a dumb option: Nuclear power really is pretty dangerous—talking about nuclear safety is a bit of a myth. Nuclear power stations are a potential target for Enemies, and if we want to encourage a clean, safe world, nuclear is not the way to go.
Nuclear makes bad financial sense. When the fledgling nuclear power industry began to build power stations, the industry was heavily subsidized as nuclear was a promising new technology that promised “electricity too cheap to meter.” Unfortunately, those free watts never really materialized. Nuclear power stations have never thrown in a few watts produced cheaply by nuclear power.one of the Solar energy facts on the other hand that it is the gift that keeps on giving. Stick some solar panels on your roof and they will pump out free watts for many years to come with virtually zero maintenance. This is the solar city.
Environmental responsibility: We only have one planet. Therefore, we need to make the most of it. The earth only has so many resources that can be exploited, when these run out we need to find alternatives, and where there are no alternatives then we will surely be very stuck.
Climate change:It is now widely acknowledged that climate change is happening, and that it is caused by man-made events. Of course, there is always the odd scientist, who wants to wave a flag, get some publicity and say that it is natural and that there is nothing we can do about it, but the consensus is that the extreme changes that we are seeing in recent times are a result of our actions over the past years.
So the world must be a large solar city and depend on solar systems and other renewable and clean energy resources like wind, geothermal, hydro etc... in order to live in the quiet clean world of our dreams.
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