Assignment

UNIT -3

 clean energy 

Clean energy refers to the energy produced from natural resources that are sustainable and so can be replenished over a period of time. This energy is also known as renewable or green energy. Essentially, the production of any clean energy does not result in the creation of environmental debt. Additionally, the technologies used in producing this energy pollute less or do not pollute at all while they also do not utilize resources that cannot easily be renewed.

Let’s have a close look at the various forms of clean energy

available today

Forms of clean energy and technology 

The basic sources of clean energy include water, sun (solar) and wind. Others include biomass energy, geothermal energy, biogas energy, wave and tidal energy.

1. Solar energy

This energy form utilizes technologies that tap the nuclear fusion power emitted by the sun. The energy is then collected and converted for use in various ways such as solar water heating and solar electrical energy among others. Various technologies used for harnessing solar energy include solar collectors, photovoltaic cells and solar attic fans among others.

2. Wind energy

Wind is one of the most underutilized energy resource in the world today. However, it is gradually gaining popularity as an alternative and clean source of energy. Primarily, wind results from the sun’s warming of the air that in turns creates disparities in the temperatures at the earth surfaces leading to atmospheric movements. Wind energy has been in use for centuries especially in powering windmills used to pump water and mill wheat. Today, a common technology used to harness wind energy is the wind turbine that helps to generate electricity in various parts of the world.

3. Water energy

There are several ways through which energy can be harnessed from water. The common ways include collecting energy from moving water (hydropower), waves, tides and ocean thermals among others.

Hydropower entails the energy derived from moving water and which makes the largest share of renewable electricity in the US. On the other hand, tidal and wave energy are two areas that are yet to be fully developed although they are considered to harbor very huge potential for the production of clean energy

NEXT TOPIC -CARBON FOOTPRINT (IMPORTANT TOPIC)

Carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse

gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities,

usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

In other words: When you drive a car, the engine burns fuel

which creates a certain amount of CO2, depending on its fuel

consumption and the driving distance. (CO2 is the chemical symbol for carbon dioxide). When you heat your house with

oil, gas or coal, then you also generate CO2. Even if you heat

your house with electricity, the generation of the electrical

power may also have emitted a certain amount of CO2.

When you buy food and goods, the production of the food

and goods also emitted some quantities of CO2.

Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide), which were induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the time period of a year.

Five steps to calculating your carbon footprint

Step 1: Understanding why you are doing it

Your motivations for calculating your carbon footprint are important as that determines how and what you measure.  For example, if you only want to report internally in your business as a means of engagement this will be very different to reporting to a legislative framework for mandatory carbon accounting.

Step 2: Defining your emissions

There are three agreed ‘scopes’ for considering and measuring carbon emissions:

• Scope 1 measures the direct impact of your organisation, or emissions that are created by assets that your organisation owns. This includes things like company vehicles and fuel use on-site.
• Scope 2 measures carbon you don’t create but consume, which includes electricity usage and natural resources.
• Scope 3 measures the impact of your employees and contractors and the carbon they create. This includes: air travel, waste, contractor-owned vehicles, outsourced activities, or commuting.

Step 3: Reducing your emissions

Having calculated your emissions the next step is a strategy to reduce these emissions.  This brings broad benefits to your company with the most immediate probably being cost, since measurement enables you to identify areas of inefficiencies.  Not many organisations manage to get to zero carbon emissions, but there are many things you can do to reduce emissions.

We suggest you establish where you have the biggest impacts, e.g. transport, and set an annual reduction target: this will give you a goal to work towards and help you stay on track.

Step 4: Verifying your footprint

Because there are so many different things you could measure as part of your carbon footprint, getting your carbon footprint verified will assess whether or not you’re measuring the right things, if the information has been captured accurately, and help to identify how you can reduce emissions.

Step 5: Reporting on your emissions

It is important to let your stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, board, etc) know about your targets and how you are tracking.  You might want to do this as part of a more complete sustainability report, internal report, on your website or in annual reports.  The important thing is being transparent and open with stakeholders so they can see the journey you’re on and help you achieve your goals.

USE THE LINK 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMn59yNwoZ8

NEXT TOPIC -SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 

Sustainable energy is a form of energy that meet our today’s demand of energy without putting them in danger of getting expired or depleted and can be used over and over again. Sustainable energy should be widely encouraged as it do not cause any harm to the environment and is available widely free of cost. All renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and ocean energy are sustainable as they are stable and available in plenty.

Need for Sustainable Energy

During ancient times, wood, timber and waste products were the only major energy sources. In short, biomass was the only way to get energy. When more technology was developed, fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas were discovered. Fossil fuels proved boom to the mankind as they were widely available and could be harnessed easily. When these fossil fuels were started using extensively by all the countries across the globe, they led to degradation of environment. Coal and oil are two of the major sources that produce large amount of carbon dioxide in the air. This led to increase in global warming.

Types of Sustainable Energy(write a short note on each sustainable energy minimum 4 lines in examination)

Solar Energy

Wind Energy

Geothermal Energy

Ocean Energy

Biomass Energy

Hydroelectric Power

NEXT TOPIC -ENERGY ECONOMICS 

Energy economics studies energy resources and energy commodities and includes: forces motivating firms and consumers to supply, convert, transport, use energy resources, and to dispose of residuals; market structures and regulatory structures; distributional and environmental consequences; economically efficient use.

It recognizes:

1) energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be converted among forms

2) energy comes from the physical environment and ultimately returns there

Humans harness energy conversion processes to provide energy services. Energy demand is derived from preferences for energy services and depends on properties of conversion technologies and costs. Energy commodities are economic substitutes. Energy resources are depletable or renewable and storable or non-storable. Human energy use is dominantly depletable resources, particularly fossil fuels

ECONOMICS OF ENERGY

Energy economics is the field that studies human utilization of energy resources and energy commodities and the consequences of that utilization.  In physical science terminology,"energy” is the capacity for doing work, e.g., lifting, accelerating, or heating material.  In economic terminology, “energy” includes all energy commodities and energy resources, commodities or resources that embody significant amounts of physical energy and thus offer
the ability to perform work.  Energy commodities - e.g., gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas,propane, coal, or electricity –  can be used to provide energy services for human activities,such as lighting, space heating, water heating, cooking, motive power, electronic activity.
Energy resources - e.g., crude oil, natural gas, coal, biomass, hydro, uranium, wind, sunlight,or geothermal deposits – can be harvested to produce energy commodities.

Energy economics studies forces that lead economic agents – firms, individuals, governments– to supply energy resources, to convert those resources into other useful energy forms, to transport them to the users, to use them, and to dispose of the residuals.  It studies roles of alternative market and regulatory structures on these activities, economic distributionalimpacts, and environmental  consequences.  It studies economically efficient provision and use

of energy commodities and resources and factors that lead away from economic efficiency.

Environmental Consequences of Energy Use:

Energy use leads to additional environmental damages.  Coal combustion, particularly high sulfur coal combustion, emits oxides of sulfur, which, through atmospheric chemical reactions,

result in acid rain.  Automobile gasoline combustion releases oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds, which, in the presence of sunlight, result in smog.  Electric generating

facilities often use much water for cooling and release the heated water into lakes or oceans,leading to local impacts on the ecosystem.  Extraction of oil or mining of coal can lead to

subsidence of the land overlying of the extracted deposits.

Pervasive environmental impacts of energy use, absent governmental intervention, imply that significant costs of energy use are not included in the price energy users face.  These so-called

externalities (see environmental economics entry) lead to overuse of energy and provide strong motivation for interventions designed to reduce energy use

NEXT TOPIC -Understanding the link between economic growth and energy consumption

It is recognized that energy consumption and economic growth are

related, but the direction of this relationship is not always clear, for example, when does a country’s economic growth stimulate energy consumption or when does increased energy consumption of a country promote its economic growth? It is thought that an increasing share of renewable energy in the energy mix of a country can help meet the growing future demand for energy while influencing economic development. As well as reducing the environmental impact associated with fossil fuels, renewable energy sources can increase diversity of energy sources and, potentially, contribute to energy security and to the long-term availability of energy supply. Renewable energy sources can also promote regional development as they can be used in less developed areas without conventional energy sources, and could reduce costs associated with climate change