5. Current Energy Issues
Fossil fuel related issues:
•Resource depletion
•Environmental pollution
•Climate change
•Acid rain
Nuclear power related issues:
•Safety of operation
•Plant decommisioning cost
•Radioactive wastes disposal
•Thermal pollution
•Threat of nuclear weapons
6. Something to think about…
•
•Is there still any hope for future?
•How can we make a transition to a more
sustainable energy future?
7. Towards a Sustainable Energy Future
•
•Reducing energy waste (conservation)
•Improving energy efficiency
•Using renewable energy
•Shifting from large, centralized macropower systems to
smaller, decentralized micropower systems.
* Hydrogen - fuelcell, fusion, Earth resonance?
8. Reducing energy waste
Four widely used devices waste large amounts of energy:
•Incandescent light bulb: 95% is lost as heat.
•Internal combustion engine: 94% of the energy in its fuel is
wasted.
•Nuclear power plant: 92% of energy is wasted through
nuclear fuel and energy needed for waste management.
•Coal-burning power plant: 66% of the energy released by
burning coal is lost.
9. Improving energy efficiency: Better with less
Benefits:
•Prolongs fossil fuel supplies
•Low cost
•Reduces pollution and environmental degradation
•Buys time to phase in renewable energy
10. Saving energy and improving energy efficiency
•Producing both heat and electricity from one energy
source (industry)
•Using more energy-efficient electric motors and lighting.
•Increasing fuel efficiency and making vehicles from
lighter and stronger materials (transportation).
•Getting heat from the sun, superinsulating them, and
using plant covered green roofs.
•Saving energy in existing buildings by insulating them,
plugging leaks, and using energy-efficient heating and
cooling systems, appliances, and lighting.
12. Heating buildings and water with Solar energy
•We can heat buildings by orienting them toward the sun (passive) or
by pumping a liquid such as water through rooftop collectors (active).
13. Cooling house naturally
•Roofs covered with plants, built from a blend of light-
weight compost, mulch and sponge-like materials that hold
water.
•
•Taking advantages of
breezes.
•Shading them.
•Having light colored or
green roofs.
15. Nanosolar powersheet
The new dawn of solar
Revolution solar energy:
•One of the largest inhibitors
to cheap solar power has
always been the high cost
of solar panels (due to their
thick glass, framing, and
expensive silicon).
•San Jose-based Nanosolar,
Inc. appears ready to
eliminate these barriers with
solar technology that
utilizes thin sheets of non-
silicon components that
reduce the production costs
by over 90% and decreases
the thickness by 99% (the
16. Nanosolar is on track to make solar electricity:
•cost-efficient for ubiquitous deployment
•mass-produced on a global scale
•available in many versatile forms.
17. Generating electricity from Wind
•Wind power is a promising energy resource
because it is abundant, inexhaustible, widely
distributed, cheap, clean, and emits no greenhouse
gases.
•Much of the world’s potential for wind power
remains untapped.
•Capturing only 20% of the wind energy at the
world’s best energy sites could meet all the world’s
energy demands.
18. Generating electrictity from Wind
•Wind turbines can be used individually to produce electricity.
They are also used interconnected in arrays on wind farms.
19. Producing energy from biomass
•Plant materials and animal
wastes can be burned to
provide heat or electricity or
converted into gaseous or
liquid biofuels.
•The major advantages of
biofuels are:
•Crops used for production can
be grown almost anywhere.
•There is no net increase in
CO2 emissions.
•Widely available and easy to
store and transport.
21. Make fuel from wastes
•
•Transform landfill methane,
animal manure, or straw and
other agricultural wastes
into fuel.
•These produce energy without
competing with food
production.
•Methane capture reduces
emissions of a greenhouse gas
25 times more potent than
CO2.
Waste recycling/incineration plant
at Cergy Pontoise, near Paris, France
SourceLink:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/atlas/htmlu/munwaste.html
22. Biogas production from wastes
Source link: http://www.makinemekanik.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/biogas-cycle.JPG
24. Future Energy Systems for the 21st Century
Source link : http://www.ihi.co.jp/ihi/technology/cleanenergy/21century-e.html
Future energy
technology?
26. Hydrogen and fuelcell
•Fuel-efficient vehicles
powered by a fuel cell that
runs on hydrogen gas are
being developed.
•Combines hydrogen gas
(H2) and oxygen gas (O2)
fuel to produce electricity
and water vapor
(2H2+O2 • 2H2O).
•Emits no air pollution or CO2
if the hydrogen is produced
from renewable-energy
sources.
27. Nuclear Fusion
•
•A possible source
of energy in the
distant future:
clean and
abundant.
•Fusion could
become the
dominant source
of electricity on
Earth in a century
or so. Source link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6165932.stm
28. JET and ITER
JET (Joint European Torus
)
The star of Europe that can
ITER
The International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor project
29. What can we do, individually?
•Buy the most energy-efficient homes,
lights, cars, and appliances available.
•Look for electronics that are
rechargeable.
•Turn off lights, TV sets, computers, and
other electronic equipment when they are
not in use.
•Walk or ride a bicycle for short trips, or
take public transportation for longer ones.
•Use natural cooling (shading tree,
opening window…)
32. MASDAR
City of the future
•Zero-carbon
•Zero-waste
•Sustainable transport
•Local, sustainable materials
•Sustainable food, water
•Habitat and wildlife
•Equitty and fair trade
•Health and happiness
•Culture and heritage
Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWVsi0UtmgI
34. References
•Energy Information Administrationhttp://www.eia.doe.gov/
•MAST Workshop, Energy http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/~tw/energy/energy.html
•The Olduvai theory and catastrophic
consequenceshttp://www.energybulletin.net/node/45518
•Energy Revolution:
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/energy-
revolution-a-sustainab.pdf
•G. Tyler Miller Jr. Sustaining the Earth: An Integrated Approach, 2007
•Sustainable Energy Options: http://eeru.open.ac.uk/natta/energy.html#7
•Micropower-The Next Electrica Era Worldwatch, 2000
•Nanosolar: http://www.nanosolar.com/
•Hydrogen from renewablesourceshttp://www.aacg.bham.ac.uk/images/hydrogen
•Horizon fuelcell: http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/
•ITER http://www.iter.org/
•RuralZED: http://www.ruralzed.com/
•Efficiencity: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/efficiencity/index.html
•Masdar – Green Utopia in the
deserthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWVsi0UtmgI
