Nuclear Fusion: The Future of Energy
Nowadays, energy is pivotal to almost every major challenge and opportunity the world confronts. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential. Sustainable energy is needed for strengthening economies, protecting ecosystems and achieving equity. In accordance with The UN Conference on Environment and Development, energy consumption is expected to increase dramatically over the next 50 years as the world’s population grows and developing countries become more industrialized. With environmental requirements for lower CO2 emission sources and the need to invest in a sustainable energy mix, new energy sources must be developed. At the same time, climate change is known to be one of the most
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These fossil sources are the biggest origin of CO2 production – the main cause of a worldwide climate change. Renewable sources offer an enduring, clean energy holds, however, they produce a small amount of energy, leave an expansive natural impression and their variances in time require capacity frameworks and reserve energy plants. Nuclear fission present a demonstrated option yet creates extensive radioactive waste that requires transportation and re-preparing. On the contrary, Fusion reaction will be accessible as a future energy choice by this mid-century, and could add to a supportable, secure and safe source. Nuclear fusion can possibly give a manageable answer for American and worldwide energy needs. Fusion could begin providing business power in around 30 years, and it is likely to supply up to 20% of the world's power needed by the year 2100. Its points of interest incorporate not radiating any CO2 gasses, effective energy, copious fuel sources, safe frameworks and no seemingly perpetual radioactive waste (“Fusion for
When one hears the words ‘nuclear power’ they are immediately offset with images of Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These were agreeably a few devastatingly deadly and lasting disasters involving nuclear energy. With newer technologies and processes such as the use of nuclear fission, however, harnessing nuclear energy has become a safe practice. The global climate and overall health of the world is shifting toward the worse, and humanity only has itself to blame. It is time that society sets its fears aside and paves the way for the most effective, and ethical energy alternative for the sake of its beautiful home, Earth. Nuclear fission energy has the potential to power the entire world in a way that is clean, sustainable, and energy-prolific.
Securing a sustainable future for electricity can be ensured by introducing renewable energy sources to develop a sustainable weighting of the three Economic, Environmental and Social pillars of sustainability. It is known today that the world needs sustainable electricity sources to produce energy, as our natural recourses such as coal are running out. The burning of coal for energy produces an output of carbon dioxide, which is the leading cause to global warming the detrimental effects on the future of the environment. The world has access to many sources of renewable energy such as, wind power, solar power, and hydro power. Although, renewable energy does not produce the majority of the worlds electricity as the conversion to renewable energy sources has been difficult due to lack of funding the governments are willing to pay across the world.
With limited fossil fuel supply in the world and the growing problem of pollution, humans have to find environmentally friendly and renewable sources of energy. Alternative energy is any source of energy that is an alternative to using fossil fuels. Energy is an enormous factor in the production of wealth and is very important in economic development. “However, energy is defined as the maximum obtainable potential of work of an energy or energy flow in relation to the reference environment” (Midilli). With the population increasing and expected to double by the end of the 21st century, providing clean and affordable energy is a must. With the price of fossil fuels only to increase over the upcoming years, using alternative energy will
People are inflicting major damage to the Earth's environment, and if we don't do anything to stop the destruction soon, the results could be devastating. Most people know about global warming and think it may be a serious problem in the future. What most people don't understand is that global warming is happening now, and we are already feeling some of its destructive power. Because of the dangerous effects of global warming, alternative energy sources need to be aggressively pursued. Finding and utilizing alternative energy sources may be the only way to combat the increase of global warming.
As globalization is spreading around the world, demand for energy has increased in recent years. There are different types of energy sources to meet this demand, such as solar power, wind power and fossil fuels. However, they are contributing to environmental problems, particularly global warming and air pollution.
One of the biggest problems we face in the growing world today, not just as a country but also as the whole planet, is the rapidly evolving energy crisis. With the depletion of our fossil fuels on the rise, along with mass pollution emitted from the power plants that produce energy from these sources, we turn to other methods of producing electricity to help provide the vast majority of power for the world. The biggest issue with factoring out fossil fuel is that currently, fossil fuels create such a large percentage of the world’s electricity, and the majority of ways to produce electricity, that closing the gap left by fossil fuels means mass development on a global scale of other methods to produce electricity or creating a new way to produce electricity that is surpassingly effective.
Reducing the carbon footprint or lessening the human impact on the earth has only become increasingly popular as societies are now striving towards environmental sustainability. One of the major drivers towards sustainability is to reduce the global dependency on non-renewable resources such as coal, oil, and natural gases. At the current rate in which the world population is expanding, along with the progressively quicker depletion of the world’s non-renewable energy resources, the current energy situation is not sustainable for future generations. There are practices in place to promote alternative renewable energy sources sector such as wind, solar, or tidal power to ensure sustainability. However, in ensuring the global
As the world delves deeper into the 21st century and as more and more countries develop into industrialized or post-industrialized nations, global society is dependent on reliable and steady sources of energy now more than ever. This reliance on energy will most certainly continue into the future as the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) has projected the world’s energy consumption to increase by 56% by the year 2040 (“EIA Projects World Energy Consumption”). Such a substantial surge in demand of energy in what is a relatively short period of time has disquieting implications. According to the British Petroleum Statistical Review, oil, natural gas, and coal consumption accounted for approximately 86% of the energy market in 2015 (“Statistical Review of World Energy”). With current oil prices being at record lows, a booming natural gas “renaissance” in the process of going on, and political pressures in the United States calling for an increase in “clean coal” output, nonrenewable fossil fuels may be the primary options for our society to fuel its future (Sontakke). However, these options come with adverse drawbacks such as dependency on dubious foreign petro-states and various forms of ecological degradation, which includes climate change. Due to these factors, as well as burgeoning cost-competitiveness, the renewable energy industry is poised to gain a sizable share of the energy market.
Energy conversion has been essential in every human activity since the prehistoric age. A basic extent of the evolution of society is directly associated with the changes in the fundamental sources of energy and its uses. Through the last 250 years, people have learned how to harvest and deal with energy in different forms to make work easier and live more comfortable. Nevertheless, this human activity is overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases emission, which make the temperature higher, trap heat and generates serious and harmful impacts on the environment and on climate. Therefore, the governments all around the world are making an effort to promote and develop renewable energy as the new main energy source.
In the recent years, World’s energy consumption has been increasing at a rapid rate due to economic development and population growth. The International Energy Outlook report released in July 2013 (IEO2013) projects that there will be 56% rise in the world energy consumption by 2040 (ref). It has been projected that total world energy use rises from 524 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2010 to 630 quadrillion Btu in 2020 and to 820 quadrillion Btu in 2040, which corresponds to an increase of 16% and 36% respectively (Figure 1.1). It has been predicted that much of the growth in energy consumption may occur in countries that are not included in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (ref). At present, there prevails huge variation in the economic performance of various countries world-wide. For OECD countries, the pace of economic growth varies but is relatively slow when compared to emerging
Currently, most of the world’s energy is derived from fossil fuels (World Energy Resources 2013 Survey). Fossil fuels are a limited resource and might not be able to meet the future energy requirements of the world for too long (Shafiee and Topal 2009). Apart from being non-renewable, these are also significant contributors of greenhouse gases to the environment leading to air, water and land pollution (Marland and Rotty 1984). Due to the nature of these resources there is an urgent need to conserve these resources. It is also important to explore alternative energy sources for the future.To this end, multiple solutions have been proposed. One of the most
The development of renewable and alternative energy is becoming more and more necessary as the traditional fossil fuel energy is a non-renewable energy and can cause various environmental problems such as the global warming effect.
The worldwide demand of energy has been increasing considerably. Up to 2030, it is supposed to be 60% higher than today (B. SCHMITZ, 2013). Currently, non-renewable energy sources, like coal and oil, are more commonly used, since they are cheaper than renewable energies. In the European Union, 80% of the energy consumption demands are covered by fossil sources (B. SCHMITZ, 2013). But, non-renewable energy sources are running out and they are also very harmful for the environment, since they generate greenhouse gases. So, it is very important to discover more renewable ways to generate energy.
Energy is an integral part of human society. From our basic needs of food and shelter to transport and industry, if we are to survive and prosper as a species our energy needs will need to continue to be met. At present the majority of the world’s energy needs are being met by fossil fuels such as oil and coal (Asif& Muneer, 2005). Demand for energy is forecast to rise by 57% by 2025 (Asif& Muneer, 2005) while at the same time fuel reserves are becoming depleted. As well as reserves not being able to satisfy demand, the continual burning of oil and coal is having a major effect on the climate, contributing to global warming as well as a degrading of the environment in general. This is particularly evident in the third world where rampant population growth coupled with a desire for improved standards of living and a move to western life styles means a rapid increase in demand for energy. In shot we need an alternative to oil and coal. There are two main candidates, renewable energy and nuclear power. Nuclear power has the potential to supply the world with clean and cheap energy but there are a number of draw backs to using this source of energy. These include concerns over safety, proliferation, cost and dealing with waste (Asif & Muneer, 2005).
Electricity is the mainstay of our society, so its production is essential. However, this production and its delivery come with inevitable environmental, social and economic impact. How we secure a sustainable future for electricity relies on implementing new technology, improving existing methods and ensuring affordable consumer pathways. Sustainable energy is a form of energy that can meet today’s demand of consumption without putting our natural resources in danger of expiration or depletion and can be used over and over again. Sustainable energy should be widely encouraged as it does not cause any harm to the environment and is available widely free of cost (Conserve Energy Future, 2016). In a recent update of the world population estimate by the United Nations, the number of living humans was estimated to be in excess of 7 billion with the expectation to exceed 9 billion people by 2050. With such a large growth relate, electricity demand will grow insatiably.