Sustainable Energy and Our Future

First, when we talk about sustainable energy we need to know exactly what it is... So, Sustainable Energy is by definition, the energy obtained from inexhaustible resources. By definition, sustainable energy meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

But is that actually true though?

Well yeah, that's the idea. However, Sustainable Energy technologies include hydroelectric power, solar energy, wind power, wave energy, geothermal energy, bio energy, tidal energy as well as technologies to improve energy efficiency. And their problem is that they have a really high cost of investment... as is everything in life that generates some kind of comfort or health to us, there is always high costs to pay for comfort.

There are lots of kinds of Sustainable Energy:

• Solar Energy: Most renewable energies come directly or indirectly from the sun. Solar energy can be used directly for heating and lighting houses and other buildings, for electricity generation, hot water heating, solar cooling and a variety of commercial and industrial uses;

• Wind Energy: The heat of the sun also drives the winds, whose energy is captured with wind turbines. The rotation of the Earth also contributes to the winds;

• Biomass: Along with rain and snow, sunlight makes plants grow. The organic matter that makes up these plants is known as biomass. Biomass can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuels or chemicals;

• Geothermal: Not all renewable energy resources come from the sun. Geothermal energy harnesses the Earth's internal heat for a variety of uses, including the production of electric power and the heating and cooling of buildings;

• Hydrogen: can be found in many organic compounds as well as in water. It is the most abundant element on Earth. As energy is always needed to produce hydrogen, it is not a source of energy, but a way to store it and transport it, so that it is referred to as a energy carrier;

• Ocean: can produce thermal energy from the heat of the sun and the mechanical energy of tides and waves;

• Hydro-power (Hydroelectric): Running water creates energy that can be captured and transformed into electricity. This is the so-called hydroelectric power, however, this one can cause the hatching of the soil by the power plants in the area, causing a destruction and alteration in the fauna and flora.

Here is a total of Sustainable Energy used:

As you can see, Biomass is the one most used, wanna know why?

Biomass is any organic matter that can absorb power from the sun. Biomass is organic material that comes from plants and animals, and it is a renewable source of energy that can be converted to liquid biofuels or biogas that can be burned as fuels.

• Wood and wood processing wastes—burned to heat buildings, to produce process heat in industry, and to generate electricity;
• Agricultural crops and waste materials—burned as a fuel or converted to liquid biofuels;
• Food, yard, and wood waste in garbage—burned to generate electricity in power plants or converted to biogas in landfills;
• Animal manure and human sewage—converted to biogas, which can be burned as a fuel

Solid biomass, such as wood and garbage, can be burned directly to produce heat. Biomass can also be converted into a gas called biogas or into liquid biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. These fuels can then be burned for energy.

Biogas forms when paper, food scraps, and yard waste decompose in landfills, and it can be produced by processing sewage and animal manure in special vessels called digesters.

Ethanol is made from crops such as corn and sugar cane that are fermented to produce fuel ethanol for use in vehicles. Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats and can be used in vehicles and as heating oil.

• Biomass fuels provided about 5% of total primary energy use in the United States in 2017. Of that 5%, about 47% was from biofuels (mainly ethanol), 44% was from wood and wood-derived biomass, and 10% was from the biomass in municipal waste. (Sum of percentages is greater than 100% because of independent rounding) Researchers are trying to develop ways to use more biomass for fuel.

But...if we're going to talk about our Future... for how long are we still going to use diesel, gas, ethanol and other derivatives from the biomass process?

Which comes Elon Musk to answer why solar energy over other methods of power generation?

Musk says humans have been relying on the sun for as long as there have been humans, basically. It’s worked up to now.

Yea, gotta agree on that, what would be of us humans without the sun? basically dust in the wind

According to Musk, solar makes the most sense for large-scale deployment, he said, because the sun is essentially a giant fusion reactor in the sky. “If you wanted to power the entire United States with solar panels, it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah; you only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States. The batteries you need to store the energy, so you have 24/7 power, is 1 mile by 1 mile. One square-mile,” he said.

Because as Musk said once, as far as energy sources go, we can always count on solar to come up again another day, if not, we're all fucked.

The Earth is almost entirely solar-powered today, in the sense that the sun is the only thing that keeps us from being at the temperature of cosmic background radiation, which is 3 degrees above absolute-zero,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the sun, we’d be a frozen, dark ice ball. The amount of energy that reaches us from the sun is tremendous. It’s the 99 percent-plus of all energy that Earth has.

Imagine having solar energy as a source? it would never end, and you wouldn't have to keep paying for the costs monthly after investing in it. That would be of course, expensive in the beginning, as it always is for big renewable energy sources.

As i said earlier, for how long will we still be using the energy sources that we use today, such as ethanol, gas, petroleum, liquid fuel and others to keep us going? I was thinking about Tesla whiles i was writing that, it's a big step for mankind, a car that is fueled by electric energy and completely automatic, what else could we ask for?

Must said: "there’s no question whatsoever that all transport — with the ironic exception of rockets — will go fully electric,” Musk explained the “big challenge” for electric cars competing with gasoline-powered vehicles: Essentially, it boils down to the fact that pollution from gasoline-powered vehicles has a huge impact on literally everything, except, crucially, the price of gas.

"There’s an unpriced externality in the cost of fossil fuels,” Musk said. “The unpriced externality is the probability-weighted harm of changing the chemical constituency of the atmosphere and oceans. Since it is not captured in the price of gasoline, it does not drive the right behavior. It’d be like if tossing out garbage was just free, and there was no penalty, and you could do it as much as you want. The streets would be full of garbage. We’ve regulated a lot of other things, like sulfur emissions and nitrous oxide emissions; it’s done a lot of good on that front".

• Musk however, said he does feel some pity for big oil, in that when those companies were founded more than 100 years ago, there was very little indication that their logos would be seen as villainous a few generations later. They had no idea that the cost of their product would be the world's.

• “They worked really hard to create those companies,” Musk said. “They feel like they are being attacked on moral grounds. And it is true that we cannot instantaneously change to a sustainable situation.”

But then... “But then those guys will also fight pretty hard to slow down the change, and that’s really what I think is morally wrong.”

Yes, they know they're doing it wrong, but they won't stop because profit is all they care about, once the world has gone to ashes, they will know... that money won't buy us a new world.

• To us humans, our home should be of ultimate importance, we live here, we thrive here, we are here.

• This is our home, treat it with the respect it deserves or else... well, it's the same as giving ourselves a kick on the back to fall on the inevitable ground that awaits us 300 feet below.

• Well, hope you liked it :)

• Give me your thoughts, what do you think about Sustainable Energy?

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