Feature Story:
The world needs more Energy - where's it going to come from?
The need for bodily warmth and for cooking food was what drove the first
humans to make use of fire, and it has been a constant of our search for the
best energy sources for thousands of years.
Our energy needs may be more varied now and electricity was discovered long
ago but heat still forms the basis of many of our systems. Since much of our
electricity production has relied on producing steam to move the turbines that
produce power, the energy industry has been focused on finding and exploiting
the best heat sources. And that has generally meant extracting fossil fuels
such as coal, oil and gas.
It’s not just demand for electricity and process heat for industry putting
pressure on fossil fuel resources. They also provide fuel for transport and
feedstock for the chemical and manufacturing industries. And, while electricity
and hydrogen have both been mooted as potential fuels for the transport
industry, this is shifting, not removing, the burden. Electricity must be
generated and hydrogen produced and both processes currently rely largely on
the same fossil fuel sources that would have provided the transport fuel.
Our demands for electricity, heat, and transport are growing faster than
ever. According to US Department of Energy figures, global energy demand –
which rose by around 42 per cent between 1980 and 2000 (from 283 quadrillion
British Thermal Units [
btu
in 1980 to 400 quadrillion btu in 2000) – will
nearly double again in the years to 2030 ...
Download the Magazine (below)
to read the complete article