The quote for last week’s lesson was
The days of fossil fuel are numbered. Renewable energy will drive the green revolution –Gurinder Shahi
This makes a lot of sense because resources like oil will be depleted in the near future and it would be wise for countries and companies to start looking towards renewable resources and their ways to harness them. We talked about the virtues of solar and wind power which I thought was very relevant. By harnessing the power of the sun and converting it to electricity, we will be able to power whole cities at no cost to the environment. By placing solar panels in the Sahara desert as per the Desert Tech project, enough power could be accumulated to power Europe by just using 0.3% of the Saharan desert. There are many implications for this project. Firstly, the Saharan desert solar panel project is being looked into by German companies. The German companies cannot be expected to invest hundreds of millions of dollars without any tangible benefits. As we discussed in class, these companies can also offer many hundreds of job opportunities, real investment into the local economies and upgraded infrastructure in many places. This project will be extremely beneficial to those who are involved in it, as long as the African nations are aware of their rights. These Renewable energies are soon to be the oil of today, and it would be wise to capitalize on this.
The readings for last week were pretty interesting, and the article I would like to bring attention to would be article 2 which talked about transportation and energy. These are a few points which I took away from the article.
- There is a need to cut CO2 emissions as there will be a 60% rise by 2030 following the current trend.
- Cuts in CO2 emissions will only come about by transforming the ways in which energy is supplied and used.
- We need to rely on a vast portfolio of new technologies or at least make existing technology more efficient and cleaner.
- Three ways – transform energy usage, energy supply and electricity networks (storage of electricity)
- Some of the ways that we can transform energy use, example Cars with hybrid technology, Building equipped with solar panels.
The article focuses on Transport technologies – many of the steps taken now are important for long term transition and to achieve this action must be taken now
- Governments must educate consumers about the fuel-economy implications of their choice.
- Although most biofuels are more expensive than the current choices today, with R&D the price will go down in the foreseeable future
- Energy consumption by cars – electric, hydrogen fuel cell and biofuels (ethanol produced from sugarcane)
Upgrading public transport networks –
- Intelligent infrastructure whereby drivers are aware of congestion and can avoid them, ERP also works
- Introduction of efficient vehicles capable of running on very-low-CO2-emissions fuel, with high efficiency, at a cost acceptable to consumers and governments and with acceptable performance.
- Introduction of very-low-emissions fuels and provision of such fuels in sufficient quantity to meet the energy demands of the associated vehicles as the stock of such vehicles grows over time.
- Provision of necessary infrastructure to produce and store the appropriate fuels and to transport these fuels to the point of fuelling.
These are just a few of the important points which I took away from the article.
Following up, Prof talked about the use of nuclear energy in our present day. While we must strive to avoid incidents like the Chernobyl disaster, we must also consider the use of such a valuable resource. Nuclear energy has many pros, such as that is reliable and that it has a large energy output. However, its cons are that it needs very stringent safety regulations to ensure accidents do not occur (all it needs is 1 accident).
Furthermore, the disposal of waste is also another contentious issue which needs to be fully addressed before nuclear energy can be readily accepted.
In conclusion, last week’s lesson was extremely interesting and engaging. I particularly liked the osmotic power presentation as it was something new and exciting which I have not heard of before. I believe it has a lot of potential and if costs can be kept down it could be very viable in many countries. The rating I would give for the class is 8/10 and I hope next lesson will be just as entertaining.
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