By: Julián Berrío Cantillo, MSc
Architect (Universidad de Los Andes)
Master Science in Renewable Energy and Architecture
(The University of Nottingham, England)
During the last decades terms such as renewable energy, clean energy, unconventional sources, alternative energy, green energy, among others, have been heard with more echo at the global and national level. However, more than a trend, fashion or green marketing strategy, we must ask ourselves: What is the true importance of its implementation? And why is it important to evolve towards this type of strategy?
The rapid growth of the world population is directly related to the increase in the production of greenhouse gases (anthropic – human origin) due to the growth of cities, where high energy consumption is required for their development and life cycle. International organizations such as the World Energy Council (WEC – World Energy Council) emphasize the concern of the high levels of energy demand that may reach the world in 2020, growing between 50% to 80% more than the records obtained in the 90s (Omer 2008). Energy demand is mainly associated with three sectors: Industry, transportation and buildings; human activities that currently use 78.3% of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), 2.5% of nuclear energy and only 19.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the extensive use of fossil fuels has stood above other types of strategies for energy generation, involving the use of non-renewable natural resources formed from complex biogeochemical processes during millions of years of evolution of the planet. Also read facebook audience blaster. In its combustion processes, fossil energy has a negative impact on the environment since it generates higher emissions of gases such as Carbon dioxide (CO2) causing excess temperature (global warming) and causing problems such as climate change and phenomena such as acid rain, soil, air and water pollution, among other effects.
The term renewable energy refers to energies derived from natural processes that do not involve the consumption of exhaustible resources such as fossil fuels and uranium. These natural sources are inexhaustible and are constantly regenerated by natural processes as they are used. Renewable energies are paradoxically derived from the oldest and most modern source of power that has existed: the sun. Renewable energy strategies involve energy from the sun in a direct or indirect way (Boyle 2012). The use of direct form is a form of conversion of solar radiation in thermal processes, electrical and chemical through the use of technology such as photovoltaic energy that uses solar panels to generate electricity and solar thermal energy used through solar collectors to heat water or indoor spaces. Aslo read exeinfo pe. On the other hand, types of indirect energy such as biomass (use of accumulated energy in plants and organic waste), wind (force of the wind as a generator of electricity), hydroelectric (which takes advantage of the energy from falling water) and Wave energy (obtained from the mechanical energy generated by waves) are strategies that indirectly depend on solar radiation that has been previously absorbed by the earth, generating the formation of winds,
However, there are other types of renewable energy that do not depend on solar radiation such as geothermal energy, which takes advantage of the heat energy contained within the earth and tidal energy that takes advantage of the differences in heights and changes in the level of the tides. Also read manycam download. caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon with respect to the position of the earth.
In the world, countries such as China and India have already experienced environmental risks as a result of high levels of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that have come to affect air quality in their cities, putting the health of their inhabitants at risk, being a consequence the use of fossil fuels as the main raw material. Due to these consequences, multi-million dollar plans to promote renewable energies and changes in energy policies have been adopted by China, becoming the world’s leading investor in so-called renewable energies. Likewise, important advances in this area have experienced Latin American countries such as Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Costa Rica, which are leading the region. Nevertheless,
REFERENCES
- Boyle, G. (ed.) (2012) Renewable Energy: power for a Sustainable Future .3 rd Oxford: Oxford University Press and Open University
- Omer, AM (2008) ‘Energy, environment and sustainable development’. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews [online] 12 (9), 2265-2300. Available at <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032107000834> [March 11, 2017]
- REN21 (2016) ‘Renewables 2016, Global status Report’ [online]. Available at <http://www.ren21.net/status-of-renewables/global-status-report/> [10 March 2017]
