To my knowledge, ever increasing global demand for energy finally will turn out as a global dilemma. The best method for energy distribution are based on multi- disciplinary energy saving proposals comprising a combination of fossil and renewable energy sources. The current sources of energy available presently and in the near future include:
1- Oil (petroleum) : It will be drastically reduced and even terminated during the centuary.
Note that fossil energies generate a large quatity of CO2 effluent into atmosphere as the green house effect that gives rise to global warmig : A serious threat of our universe.
2- Natural gas: This is presently distributed in the following forms:
2-1) LPG : It will be depleted when the oil reservoirs finishes.
2-2) CNG : It may be available for several centuries as long as the gas reservoirs are available or can be explored.
2-3) LNG (Liquid methane as clean fuel): LNG requires the advanced cryogenic technology however it remains as an attractive main solution of energy distribution and will be steadily growing up during the next decades.
3- Nuclear energy: A couple of technologies are categorized as below:
3-1) Fusion : It is extremely hard to achieve, regarding ICF and MCF.
3-2) Fission : the mankind has exploited PWR and BWR vastly for the last 50 years and decided to limit this technology due to the following drawbacks:
3-2-1) Radioactive hazards (external doses against ecology and environment)
3-2-2) Waste storage problem (radioactive pollution of underground water sources)
3-2-3) Vulnerability to natural disasters (earthquake and tsunami)
3-2-4) Vulnerability to human errors
Therefore, many countries have decided to abandon or largely limit this controversial technology.
4- Renewable energy sources mainly consist of the following items:
4-1) Solar cell : It is economical and efficient as small units far from the power networks.
4-2) Solar power plant : It can be implemented in Sahara and deserts using a great number of mirrors focusing solar energy on a localized area, thus it certainly can not be a global energy solution.
4-3) Wind energy: Random energy source, awaiting for wind blowing however applicable in windy areas with relatively small output power.
4-4) Fuel cell (Hydrogen fuel); Promising as individual units and feasible to drive the vehicles, however the main obstacle is how to store hydrogen efficiently.
4-5) Hydroelectricity (generating electricity from hydro-power) is the most used renewable energy source in the world. Hydroelectricity is renewable and green, however a huge first cost for construction and abundant water resources are inevitable that is not ample all over the world.
To my knowledge, I conclude that LNG could be a good option in practice for large scale energy distribution, whereas a combination of several renewable energy sources may be managed for small scale (local) distribution in the forthcoming decades.
Do you agree with my suggestion? What is your proposal?
A typical LNG career, transferring a large quantity of energy in a single vessel.
I believe that we must increasingly use renewable resources, but the solution for the power supply for large scale must come from nuclear fusion.
Dear Alexandre
Thank you for your comment, to my knowledge, there is no operational nuclear fusion power plant established on earth mainly due to serious technical barriers. The practical fusion reactors resemble to be natural: our sun and the other stars.
It's true!
We still have a long theoretical and experimental to be covered until mastering fusion energy path. I think we should get over it in a period between 50 to 200 years, or we will have problems.
Hydroelectric power ( using gravitational force of water flow in dams ) and the energy from tides are the energy resources independent of fossil energies.
Nearly 7 % of the world’s electricity consumption is generated with hydroelectricity (generating electricity from hydro-power), the most used renewable energy source in the world. We all know that hydroelectricity is both renewable and green, but what are the other advantages this technology offer? Are there any disadvantages?
On the other hand, Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. They range from volatile materials with like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields associated with oil. The primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0%, coal 27.4%, natural gas 23.0%, amounting to an 86.4% share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world. Non-fossil sources include hydroelectric 6.3%, nuclear 8.5%, and others (geothermal, solar, tidal, wind, wood, waste) amounting to 0.9%. World energy consumption was growing about 2.3% per year.
The global share of the hydroelectricity generation was doubled from 7% to 14% during the past decade because it is the most feasible renewable energy.
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