The world is facing some major challenges with regard to energy issues. The utter disregard for natural resources for the last two centuries, has depleted the world’s energy sources by a great extent. The methods of extracting and using energy have also created serious environment problems, like climate change. The rising population of the world will need even more energy for their use, even as conventional energy sources are depleting. Governments and citizens have to address this issue which has social, political and economic implications, in order to find a solution which is beneficial for the environment. Read on to find out about some energy outlooks and challenges that out world faces:
Transitioning to newer energy sources
One of the challenges of the energy issue is to transitioning to alternative sources of energy, like wind, solar or biofuels. Though the technology exists, it is quite expensive for most individuals to set up their own alternative energy sources. More advances in technology is required to facilitate the shift to low carbon intensive energy sources on a big scale. Many governments have set policy targets and goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to source electricity from renewable sources of energy.
Hydropower is emerging as the most effective alternative in most locations but the drawback is that the sites for generation are less accessible and have value in terms of social and environmental reasons. Biofuels require large areas to be cultivated, competing with food production and conservation of natural ecosystems. Solar energy is expensive and is not commercially viable, as there are many challenges between location, cost and delivery from the source to demand.
Electricity derived from wind power is achieving commercial viability in countries like Denmark, Spain and Germany.
Intermittency problems
Traditional energy delivery systems are not equipped to distribute energy derived from wind and solar power because of…
