The modern society is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. We may not realize it, but our lives are made much more convenient by fossil fuels. Statistics from EIA show that the per capita energy consumption for the world is 12.55 barrels per person per year. There are also drastic differences between developing and developed countries. For example, the average oil consumption in the United States is 68.8 barrels/parson/year, The average oil consumption in Europe is 4.96barrels/barrels/person/year. However, with the rapid economic development of China, the oil usage there is expected to catch with the world average. If the oil consumption of huge countries such as China and India increases so drastically there will be a shortage of fossil fuels. Heavy use of fossil fuels will also contribute to global warming.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to find another environmentally friendly source of energy. Currently, there are a few options to choose from- namely Solar, Fuel cell Wind, AND Nuclear. Solar energy involves the use of special plastics to capture sunlight, which is then converted into electrical energy. The main challenge is improving the efficiency of the solar panels to make it as cheap as generating electricity from the power grid. Fuel cells are batteries that use chemical reactions to produce electricity. Hydrogen fuel cells are the ‘greenest’, producing water as a by-product. The main problem is creating safe storage for hydrogen gas which is used as fuel for the chemical reaction. Wind energy involves high speed winds turning massive turbines which convert mechanical energy. Lastly, nuclear energy involves the splitting of fusing atoms, and harvesting the heat. The heat is used to generate electricity. Though very efficient, nuclear power plants require a lot of land to house, and are quite dangerous. For example, the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant killed vast areas of flora and fauna.
In Singapore, going green has almost become a catchphrase. Singapore depends almost entirely on fossil fuels to generate power. It is about time for Singapore to search for another practical source of energy. Wind and nuclear energy are not very feasible in Singapore, due to the lack of land. Solar energy and fuel cells would be a better option as there as sunny weather all year round in Singapore. Meanwhile, while we are not using solar energy or fuel cells, we should try to use fossil fuels at the highest possible level of efficiency.
Reference: The Straits Times
2 comments:
you forgot to mention a few sources of energy. They are geothermal energy and tidal energy.
Geothermal energy is impossible in singapore as most of Singapore's land is highly urbanised and Singapore does not have any hot springs or geyseys.
But I think Singapore could make use of tidal energy. Singapore is an island by itself, which means it is surrounded by the ocean, which we can make use of to generate "green" electricity. Tidal energy has many edges over Solar and Wind energy, firstly, they are more predictable than the the other alternatives of Solar and Wind energy.
The ways to gain energy from waves are relatively easy to undersatnd. One of the ways is similar to that of the wind turbine, only that in this case, the turbine is in the water, so when the tides come, the turn the turbine and in turn generate electricity.
Thanks for your comment, I learnt something today.
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