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Trevor Craig
Energy Science 110
Renewable Energy & Policy Targets 18
11/12/11
This lecture was about renewable energy both the costs and uses,
while keeping it in
comparison to the fossil fuels we use today. We are using more
fossil fuels every day and that is
causing more CO2 emissions, which become part of the atmosphere,
ultimately causing an
increase in global warming. In 1960 our emissions were about 4
PgC year of CO2 and then in
2000 it was a little bit more than 8 PgC a year, that is a great
increase in CO2, which now comes
primarily from fossil fuels.
The United States used to be the largest contributor to CO2
emissions in the world but
now China is starting to surpass us. It is highly likely that
between the years 2006-2030 we will
see China producing 2000 Mtoe of energy and a majority of that
coming from coal and oil,
approximately 1650 Mtoe of it. Coal and oil is a large
contributor to CO2 emissions and in turn
make global warming move faster. The United States has thought
of many ways to make our
emissions go down and still work at our current pace. In 2030 we
are expected to reach 3000
million tons of CO2 but using different new techniques to reduce
our emissions we could be
down to about 1600 million tons of CO2.
Renewable energy is about 12.9% of energy used, renewable energy
is a good way to cut
down on our carbon emissions but it is not as effective as
things like oil. Renewable energy used
to be very expensive, in 1980 for wind energy it was about 50
COE cents/kWh but in 2010 it was
about 5 COE cents/kWh, obviously costs are going down, this is
also true for other types of
renewable energy. Not all renewable energies are equal some are
much more effective than
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others, solar radiation has the most potential for getting
energy as seen on a log scale it is
10^16W where things like ocean currents are only about 10^9W,
and global fuel consumption is
about 10^13W.
It looks like renewable energy especially solar power would be
extremely beneficial but
there is an unfortunate truth to these fossil fuels. Renewable
energy has a lower power density
than fossil fuels; most renewable energy sources need to go
through some sort of converter to be
able to be used by us, unlike oil. There are other problems like
the cost of renewable energy
being higher, and groups that do not want us to use renewable
energy. There is a long road ahead
of us before we will be using more renewable energy than oil or
gasoline, but maybe someday
we will get there.
Incremental- increasing gradually by regular degrees or
additions.
Photovoltaic- Relating to the production of electric current at
the junction of two substances
exposed to light.
