Issue of Climate Change
We have all heard of climate change and the doomsday predictions by people across the world. Climate change is a term which encompasses recent climate phenomena ranging from Global Warming to the El Nino. But surely, Climate Change has made impacts in our everyday life, in ways which might not be apparent. The rise in freak weather incidents ranging from the increased hurricanes in the Western Atlantic Ocean to the melting glaciers in the upper reaches of the Himalayas and in other areas of the world. The evidence pointing to these imminent dangers for mankind is mounting. Yet, People haven’t sensed the gravity of the situation. Let me clear out the air and try to present the actual situation:
It has been projected by various international organizations that the sea level rise is going to drown vast portions of land and can possibly drown entire Island Countries like Maldives, Tuvalu as early as in the year 2050.
United Nations projects 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by 2025 if consumption continues at current rates.
By the year 2100, the predicted increase in average global temperatures is around 5.5 oC. Such an increase in temperature will result in catastrophic ice meltdown on our polar ice-caps. This can drown large areas across the world and cause global population migration.
The debate around climate change has raged on for quite some time now and various inter-governmental bodies have had a tough time finding incriminating evidence against the devils of climate change. Various groups of people have acted as devil's advocate in this debate and called the evidence as "outliers" and not pointing to any trend in the making. Yet, whatever be the truth regarding the whole issue, it is always wise to safeguard ourselves and act in a much more responsible way.
How is Climate Change related to our Energy problems?
Humans have relied on exhaustible sources of energy for solving their energy needs without understanding its "non-renewable" nature. Instead of looking at the exhaustible nature of our energy sources, we have always looked in the other way because these sources are much more "economical" to us. Though in recent years, a section of scientists have realised that even though renewable energy sources might be uneconomical, it might be the logical choice in the long run as our current sources exhaust in the next 100 years.
Our exhaustible energy sources are mainly derived carbon-based fuels like coal or oil which are limited to few areas across the globe. Also, Carbon based fuels have a particular disadvantage of emitting carbon dioxide when it undergoes combustion in car engines and in power-plant boilers. This emission of carbon dioxide has been established to be the primary reason for temperature rise which has led to global warming. Our dependence on non-renewable sources has proved to be the main reason for climate change. On the other hand, renewable energy sources ultimately derive its energy from the sun and its CO2 emissions are nearly zero. This has been one of the primary drivers for the shift to renewable energy sources across the globe.
The search for environment-friendly and truly renewable sources is the chief priority of engineers and scientists alike. Various possibilities exist for such sources from solar energy to hydroelectric power generation. Also, futurists and scientists have numerous out-of-the-box ideas to solve our energy needs. I present some of these futuristic ideas below:
Space based Solar Power
Solar Energy has been the poster boy for renewable energy sources for a long time. Solar power has been promoted as the next big thing in the energy sector. Yet, it faces a lot of issues in relation to the intensity and unreliable nature of sunlight. A Typical Solar PV panel on earth can harvest solar energy for only a small part of the day. Not to forget, solar energy has problems with the intensity of sunlight which varies with cloud cover. So, what is the best way to harvest solar energy?
Some people have suggested putting up a solar panel in space and beaming down concentrated sunlight to earth. This would require putting up large mirrors in a stationary orbit (known as a geostationary orbit) over a particular area. In a geostationary orbit well clear of the earth’s shadow and atmosphere, the average intensity of sunshine is eight times as strong as it is on the ground. And with the sun always in their sights, Space Solar Power stations could feed a reliable, fixed amount of electricity into the grid. But, all is not hunky-dory with this technology as carrying a payload like a solar panel into space requires enormous cost and energy. Currently, carrying one kilogram into space requires $10,000. This doesn't justify the huge investment into space solar power.
High Altitude Wind
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Wind is claimed to be a form of solar energy in motion. About 0.5 percent of the radiation entering the atmosphere is converted into the kinetic energy of air: a mere 1.7 watts, on average, in the atmospheric column above every square meter of the earth. Luckily, the energy is not spread equally across the atmosphere but has an uneven distribution in the atmosphere. High Altitude Winds have a major share in this wind energy distribution. So, Why not tap into these wind energy sources at higher altitudes than on the ground?
The answer to this question is not easy as it seems to be. Such an idea requires floating wind generators tied to on ground power stations and long copper conductors which conduct the electricity from the floating generators to these power stations. Also, these helium filled balloons will have to be refilled every few months which adds to our list of problems. Nonetheless, Scientists do expect a lot of future scope in this concept.
Nanotech Solar Cells
There are two ways of using sun's energy to create electrical energy. One way to do it is by using the thermal energy in sunlight to create steam to drive a turbine and the other is to use the energy in each photon of light to make the electrons in conductors (Semiconductors to be specific) move. The latter technology is known as Solar Photovoltaic technology, popularly known as Solar PV. Existing solar PV technology only allows one electron to be moved per photon of light. Through advancements in the fields of Quantum dots, Scientists are basically trying to increase the number of electrons moved to six or seven and use a much wider range of frequencies to accomplish this job. Nanotechnology is helping us to make changes in individual molecules and make them compatible with our needs.
This buzz has awakened energy companies who have started researching in this area. The primary aim is to increase Solar PV efficiency from the current range of around 20 percent to much higher levels.
Designer Microbes: Bio-Molecules designed to let us "grow" energy
Humans have reached a stage in their evolution when their control over their surroundings has reached a point where they can control the growth of organisms around it. This has largely been possible because of progress in the fields of genetics and bio-engineering. Certain sections have even started viewing the genome (information encoded in an organism's DNA) as piece of software that can be manipulated to suit our purpose. This has led to the possibility of plants being grown with the sole objective of harnessing fuel from them. This has created a revolution in the biological industry with reports suggesting that the ethanol based fuel from these plants can substitute petrol or diesel in the near future. This can solve the oil crisis for at least the near future.
Hydrogen based Fuels / Fuel Cells
This technology is inspired by the humble electrolysis of water equation and it does the exact opposite to generate electricity. This technology has already been applied by car companies as a substitute for petrol and other oil equivalents. As compared to its non-renewable counterparts, the Fuel cell is far more environmentally friendly as the only byproduct is water. But this technology has a lot of issues with hydrogen and its availability. The extraction of hydrogen itself is a very energy intensive process. Also, safety in storage of hydrogen is a legitimate concern for scientists and users alike as hydrogen is a highly inflammable substance.
In spite of these pending issues, car companies have found fuel cell to be highly relevant to apply this technology to certain newer models. This energy source has considerable promise to power vehicles in the near future.
What can you do?
Innovations in energy generation require out-of-the-box and absolutely creative ideas. These ideas can range from harnessing power from people's feet to charge mobile phones to cold nuclear fusion.
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POWER-GENERATING FLOORS TESTED IN JAPAN
In early 2008, the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) installed piezoelectric pads in the flooring at the ticket gates at a station in Tokyo, an ongoing experiment to make train stations more energy-efficient. The 2008 experiment followed one conducted in 2006, and was meant to test improvements made in power generation performance and capacity, as well as advancements in material durability. Electricity generated from the floor is used to power facilities such as lighting or automatic ticket gates in the station.
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