Energy is everything and everything is energy. Einstein’s equation proves as much. It is the reason for the existence of life and also it’s advancement. The level of advancement of a civilisation is dictated by it’s level of mastery of energy. Just look at how far we have come in just the last 200 years compared to the last 2000 years!
Since the mid 18th century, with the beginning of the industrial revolution, our energy requirements have increased exponentially. And to provide for those requirements, we have been using fossil fuels. We have been extracting coal, oil and natural gas to meet our energy needs to advance ourselves as a species.
This has served us well so far and the results speak for themselves. But this has not been without consequences. In our mission to harness as much energy as possible, we have really not paid heed to what we’ve done to the very earth from where we derive these resources. It seems like mankind has created more problems than it has solved.
We have polluted the air, the water and the lands. We have pushed global warming to alarming rates and have managed to make holes in the ozone layer. We are destroying the very place we are trying to make. Such an irony! In doing so, we have also almost exhausted the fossil fuel reserves and it is high time for us to look for alternatives.
There are many different ways that we can meet our energy needs without all the adverse consequences. Some of them are already in application and some are getting ready to be.
As advanced as we have become, we should really start looking for totally clean energy that would undo all the harm we have done and help make the planet liveable for the future generations.
Alternative Energy Sources
These are the best alternative energy sources that should be developed to totally eradicate the use of fossil fuels. Many alternative energy sources are already being used like hydroelectricity, biomass, geo-thermal power, but in my opinion these are the most viable ones and the best contenders for change:
1. Solar Energy
Solar Energy is already in use throughout the world but we still haven’t been able to tap the full potential of this. But it is not because of a lack of trying as this has to be the number one energy source that is being aggressively developed right now.
The earth receives more energy from the sun in an hour than we use in a year. Imagine if we could harness all that energy. It could spell an end to the energy crisis and solve many big and small problems. It is crazy that we haven’t already switched completely to solar power.
Also, the sun will continue burning for at least 5 billion more years, so we need not worry about longevity. We will always have more than enough energy. Right now the way we are harnessing solar energy is through solar panels which use photovoltaics technology.
Some recent advancements in this area:
- Solar City, the brainchild of Elon Musk, will be providing entire solar roofs by the end of 2016. The roof will be made entirely of solar panels and combined with Tesla’s backup battery packs, will allow a home to run completely on solar power round the clock.
- Australian Engineers, recently made the world’s most efficient solar cells with an efficiency of 34.5% breaking the previous record of 24%. This is a step closer to achieving theoretical limits.
- With the increase in efficiency, the price of solar power has dropped dramatically over the past few years and experts assert that the prices may soon rival that of coal. Once this happens, more countries will start looking more seriously into solar power.
- World’s largest solar power plant will be built in Dubai which will be operational by 2020. The solar farm will generate 1000MW of electricity.
- Engineers from South Korea have created solar cells that are 100 times thinner than human hair. This will allows to use solar cells in wearables and a lot of different places.
- An experimental bike path paved with glass-coated solar panels was constructed in Netherlands in 2014. The results have been highly promising. Solar roadways, a company based in the US, is intending to do the same with the roads in the US.
2. Wind Energy
Wind Energy is mainly harnessed by using the air flow through wind turbines to generate electricity. Throughout the world there are places where wind is strong all year round. The human race has actually been using wind power for thousands of years with early applications including use of windmills to crush grains and to pump water.
Some recent advancements in this area:
- Vortex Bladeless is a company which has developed bladeless turbines to harness wind power that will be more efficient, noise free, bird friendly, and less visually intrusive.
- An MIT startup has come up with an air borne wind turbine that floats 1000 feet above the ground that will catch winds that are upto 8 times stronger than on the ground.
- A French company is developing a wind turban tree that looks just like a tree with special instruments instead of leaves that harness the wind as it blows past.
- Denmark has set a new World record by becoming the first country to produce nearly half of its energy through wind turbines in 2015.
3. Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it only makes sense to harness it for energy generation. And that is exactly what hydrogen fuel cells do. They generate electricity by using the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The reaction is contained in a fuel cell and produces water and electricity as output.
This technology is still not widely used but is a promising one that is being looked into major companies. It is a highly clean energy and one that may have a large impact on energy productions in the coming future. The most impact is expected in the automobile industry.
Some recent advancements in this area:
- Stanford lab has found solutions to two major problems with hydrogen fuel. They have developed a way to finally make manufacturing of hydrogen fuel clean and they have finding effective grid-scale surplus energy storage for renewable energy.
- Scientists have managed to make mini-fuel cells that can keep a phone charged for a week.
- The London Hydrogen Network Expansion Project’s fuel cell electric car made in conjunction with Hyundai has broken the record for the longest ever continuous journey driving more than 6000 miles.
It also managed to break another record; that of the longest distance travelled on a single tank of hydrogen, which was 400 miles!
- Chinese scientists have built the world’s first hydrogen-powered tram.
4. Fusion Power
Fusion Power is e generation of energy by nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process in which two or more elements come together to form heavier elements. The process releases enormous amounts of energy. Our sun is basically a huge nuclear fusion reactor.
Nuclear fusion is the “holy grail” of energy research. A fusion reactor on earth would literally be like having our own artificial sun. The energy output would be tremendous and clean and virtually limitless power could be generated for generations.
Some recent advancements in this area:
- Researchers have created a new imaging method that promises to dramatically improve the efficiency of controlled fusion attempts.
- Physicists in China recently reached a milestone in fusion technology by heating hydrogen plasma at a whopping 50 million degrees for 102 seconds beating the previous record which was just a quarter of a second!
- Another breakthrough was made by MIT whose experiments have paved a path to reveal the sources of heat loss during a fusion reaction so that the reactors can work at full potential.
- Weldelstein 7-X is a fusion device in Germany which recently produced its first hydrogen plasma. This is highly promising project, one that is finally poised to help researchers achieve clean, reliable fusion energy.