Energy development is the effort to provide sufficient primary energy sources and secondary energy forms to fulfill supply, cost, impact on air pollution and water pollution, and whether or not the source is renewable.
Technologically advanced societies have become increasingly dependent on external energy sources for transportation, the production of many manufactured goods, and the delivery of energy services. This energy allows people who can afford the cost to live under otherwise unfavorable climatic conditions through the use of heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning. Level of use of external energy sources differs across societies, as do the climate, convenience, levels of traffic congestion, pollution, geothermal energy, all terrestrial energy sources are from current solar insolation or from fossil remains of plant and animal life that relied directly and indirectly upon sunlight, respectively. And ultimately, solar energy itself is the result of the Sun's nuclear fusion. Geothermal power from hot, hardened rock above the magma of the Earth's core is the result of the decay of radioactive materials present beneath the Earth's crust.
Relative cost of electricity generated by different sources
See: *Relative cost of electricity generated by different sources
Fossil fuels
Main article: Fossil fuelFossil fuels, in terms of energy, involve the burning of coal or hydrocarbon fuels, which are the remains of the decomposition of plants and animals. There are three main types of fossil fuels: coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Another fossil fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is principally derived from the production of natural gas. Heat from burning fossil fuel is used either directly for space heating and process heating, or converted to mechanical energy for vehicles, industrial processes, or electrical power generation.
Pros
- The technology and infrastructure already exist for the use of fossil fuels.
- Petroleum energy density in terms of volume (cubic space) and mass (weight) is superior to some alternative energy sources (or energy storage devices, like a battery (electricity)).
Cons
- Petroleum-powered vehicles are very inefficient. Only about 30% of the energy from the fuel they consume is converted into mechanical energy. The rest of the fuel-source energy is inefficiently expended as waste heat. The heat and gaseous pollution emissions harm our environment.
- The inefficient atmospheric combustion (burning) of fossil fuels in vehicles, buildings, and power plants contributes to urban heat islands.
- The combustion of fossil fuels leads to the release of pollution into the atmosphere. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a typical coal plant produces in one year:
- 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), could be the primary cause of global warming.
- 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), the leading cause of acid rain.
- 500 tons of small airborne particles, which result in chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, in addition to haze-obstructed visibility.
- 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), (from high-temperature atmospheric combustion), leading to formation of ozone (smog) which inflames the lungs, burning lung tissue making people more susceptible to respiratory illness.
- 720 tons of carbon monoxide (CO), resulting in headaches and additional stress on people with heart disease.
- 220 tons of hydrocarbons, toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC), which form ozone.
- 170 pounds (77 kg) of mercury, where just 1 ⁄ 70 of a teaspoon deposited on a 25-acre (100,000 m 2 ) lake can make the fish unsafe to eat.
- 225 pounds (102 kg) of arsenic, which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion.
- 114 pounds (52 kg) of lead, 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of cadmium, other toxic heavy metals, and trace amounts of uranium.
- Dependence on fossil fuels from volatile regions or countries creates energy security risks for dependent countries. Oil dependence in particular has led to war, major funding of radical terrorists, monopolization, and socio-political instability.
- Fossil fuels are non-renewable, un-sustainable resources, which will eventually decline in production and become exhausted, with dire consequences to societies that remain highly dependent on them. (Fossil fuels are actually slowly forming continuously, but we are using them up at a rate approximately 100,000 times faster than they are formed.)
- Extracting fossil fuels is becoming more difficult as we consume the most accessible fuel deposits. Extraction of fossil fuels is becoming more expensive and more dangerous as mines get deeper and oil rigs must drill deeper, and go further out to sea.
- Extraction of fossil fuels results in extensive environmental degradation, such as the strip mining and mountaintop removal of coal.
Since these power plants are thermal engines, and are typically quite large, waste heat disposal becomes an issue at high ambient temperature. Thus, at a time of peak demand, a power plant may need to be shut down or operate at a reduced power level, as sometimes do nuclear power plants, for the same reasons.
Nuclear energy
Main articles: Nuclear power and Peak uraniumNuclear fission
Nuclear power stations use nuclear fission to generate energy by the reaction of uranium-235 inside a nuclear reactor. The reactor uses uranium rods, the atoms of which are split in the process of fission, releasing a large amount of energy. The process continues as a chain reaction with other nuclei. The energy heats water to create steam, which spins a turbine generator, producing electricity.
Depending on the type of fission fuel considered, estimates for existing supply at known usage rates varies from several decades for the currently popular Uranium-235 to thousands of years for uranium-238. At the present rate of use, there are (as of 2007) about 70 years left of known uranium-235 reserves economically recoverable at a uranium price of US$ 130/kg. The nuclear industry argue that the cost of fuel is a minor cost factor for fission power, more expensive, more difficult to extract sources of uranium could be used in the future, such as lower-grade ores, and if prices increased enough, from sources such as granite and seawater. Increasing the price of uranium would have little effect on the overall cost of nuclear power; a doubling in the cost of natural uranium would increase the total cost of nuclear power by 5 percent. On the other hand, if the price of natural gas was doubled, the cost of gas-fired power would increase by about 60 percent.
Opponents on the other hand argue that the correlation between price and production is not linear, but as the ores' concentration becomes smaller, the difficulty (energy and resource consumption are increasing, while the yields are decreasing) of extraction rises very fast, and that the assertion that a higher price will yield more uranium is overly optimistic; for example a rough estimate predicts that the extraction of uranium from granite will consume at least 70 times more energy than what it will produce in a reactor. As many as eleven countries have depleted their uranium resources, and only Canada has mines left which produce better than 1% concentration ore. Seawater seems to be equally dubious as a source. As a consequence an eventual doubling in the price of uranium will give a marginal increase in the volumes that are being produced.
Another alternative would be to use thorium as fission fuel. Thorium is three times more abundant in Earth's crust than uranium, and much more of the thorium can be used (or, more precisely, bred into Uranium-233, reprocessed and then used as fuel). India has around 32 percent of the world’s reserves of thorium and intends on using it for itself because the country has run out of uranium.
Current light water reactors burn the nuclear fuel poorly, leading to energy waste. Nuclear reprocessing or burning the fuel better using different reactor designs would reduce the amount of waste material generated and allow better use of the available resources. As opposed to current light water reactors which use uranium-235 (0.7 percent of all natural uranium), fast breeder reactors convert the more abundant uranium-238 (99.3 percent of all natural uranium) into plutonium for fuel. It has been estimated that there is anywhere from 10,000 to five billion years worth of Uranium-238 for use in these power plants. Fast breeder technology has been used in several rea
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