Green Energy: An Assignment
A source of energy that often comes from renewable energy technologies such as solar energy, wind power, geothermal energy, biomass and hydroelectric power is known as Green Energy. Each of these technologies works in different ways; by taking power from the sun as with solar panels, using wind turbines or the flow of water to generate energy.
To be deemed green energy, a resource cannot produce pollution, such as is found with fossil fuels. This means that not all sources used by the renewable energy industry are green. For example, power generation that burns organic material from sustainable forests may be renewable, but it is not necessarily green, due to the CO2 produced by the burning process itself.
Green energy sources are usually naturally replenished, as opposed to fossil fuel sources like natural gas or coal, which can take millions of years to develop. Green sources also often avoid mining or drilling operations that can be damaging to ecosystems.
Importance
Even when the full life cycle of a green energy source is taken into consideration, they release fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, as well as few or low levels of air pollutants. This is not just good for the planet but is also better for the health of people and animals that have to breathe the air.
Green energy can also lead to stable energy prices as these sources are often produced locally and are not as affected by geopolitical crises, price spikes or supply chain disruptions. The economic benefits also include job creation in building the facilities that often serve the communities where the workers are employed. Renewable energy saw the creation of 11 million jobs worldwide in 2018, with this number set to grow as we strive to meet targets such as net-zero.
Issues
Climate change remains one of the most serious threats to the integrity of life on earth. Thankfully, many of the tools needed to stop heating the planet already exist. The use of renewable energy resources is expanding in the West, but the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar cells needs to be scaled up. To source, all energy from renewables by 2050 — necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — citizens will need 1 billion additional electric cars and a more than 30-fold increase in solar photovoltaic capacity.
But as economies in the West address the climate crisis — albeit at a painstakingly slow pace — another crisis is worsening elsewhere. Making all those vehicles, panels, and turbines requires resources such as copper, lithium, and cobalt — which, like fossil fuels, are extracted from the ground. But unlike fossil fuels, many raw materials for green energy come disproportionately from developing countries.
In the last few years, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has trickled into the public consciousness, beginning with a 2016 Amnesty International report that revealed child labour at the country’s nonindustrial mine sites, which provide the cobalt that ends up in smartphones and other devices around the world.
The human rights abuses and environmental degradation in places like Congo do not bode well for the West’s transition to sustainable energy, which will stretch the demand for green energy materials. Some critics even cite such adverse effects of renewable energy production to argue against any transition to green energy, such as in the recent, widely criticized Michael Moore-produced documentary Planet of the Humans — which also pushes the falsehood that manufacturing renewable technology consumes as many fossil fuels as burning them.
The question of how to source metals and minerals ethically remains a legitimate and urgent one.
In hydroelectricity, Reservoir land requirements, Reservoirs methane generation, Reservoir safety, Downstream aquatic ecosystem, etc will be the concern.
Even though a source of renewable energy may last for billions of years, renewable energy infrastructure, like hydroelectric dams, will not last forever and must be removed and replaced at some point. Events like the shifting of riverbeds, or changing weather patterns could potentially alter or even halt the function of hydroelectric dams, lowering the amount of time they are available to generate electricity. A reservoirs capacity may also be affected by silting which may not be cost-effective to remove.
Wind turbines suffer from wear and fatigue and are scheduled to last 25 years before being replaced, often by much taller units.
Some have claimed that geothermal being a renewable energy source depends on the rate of extraction is slow enough that depletion does not occur. If depletion does occur, the temperature can regenerate if given a long period of non-use.
The biggest problem with mainstream renewable energy is intermittency. Wind power is only generated when it’s windy, solar power is only generated when it’s sunny.
By far the biggest argument for switching to renewable energy is that we need to save the planet and stop relying on technologies that poison our atmosphere. But what is the carbon footprint of building a wind turbine, or transporting biofuel, or disposing of a defunct solar panel? And what is the impact on the local environment?
Some solutions
One proposal is to improve the traceability of mining supply chains. At first glance, it makes sense: If manufacturers can achieve transparency from mine to final product, consumers will be able to make ethical purchases and put the “bad guys” out of business. Improved traceability has played an important role in pushing companies toward more ethical conduct. For example, some diamond retailers use blockchain technology as a tamper-proof transaction tracing system to ensure that conflict diamonds do not enter the legitimate supply chain.
Small hydro and run-of-the-river are two low impact alternatives to hydroelectric reservoirs, although they may produce intermittent power due to a lack of stored water.
Conclusion
Green energy is less harmful than fossil fuels energy; space, consistent weather, carbon footprints, etc are the problems.
(Note: Information is taken from twi-global.com, Wikipedia, foreignpolicy.com)
