Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 2 | Page 41

CIVIL INSIGHT 2018
STUDENTS’ SECTION
41
FUTURE ENERGY: IMPACTS ON THE
ENVIRONMENT AND SOLUTIONS
Shradhye Shrestha Sandeena Bade Shrestha
Student
BE in Civil Engineering
(4 th Year) Student
B Tech in Environmental Engineering
(4 th Year)
INTRODUCTION
As the population of the world is increasing at a rapid rate and as developing countries advance, energy
demands also increase. The world’s population was 3 billion in 1960, 6 billion in 2000, 7 billion in 2010, and is
expected to reach between 9 and 10 billion in 2050[1]. This indicates that the expected growth rate in energy
demand over the next 20 years is much greater than the growth rate of the population and this is largely due
to increased electricity production by developing nations. The electricity generation is expected to increase
from 20×10 15 W-h in 2010 to 31.2×10 15 W-h in 2030, which is equivalent to an average energy increase of
over 5% per annum [1]. The total energy consumption Percentage for 2015 is shown below.
7%
2%
4%
33%
Oil
Coal
Natural Gas
Nuclear
24%
Hydro
Others
30%
SOURCES
There are 10 main different sources of energy that are used in the world to generate power. While there are
other sources being discovered all the time, none have reached the stage where they can be used to provide
the power to help modern life go.The energy sources are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Solar
Wind
Geothermal
Hydrogen
Wave
6. Tidal
7. Hydroelectric
8. Biomass
9. Nuclear
10. Fossil Fuels (Coal, Oil and Natural Gas)
Fossil fuels
Fossil fuel is the most prominent source of energy in which coal is the most abundant. Around 65% of the
world coal production is used for electric power generation compared to 27% for other industrial use which
includes steel production [1].
On average, coal supplies more than 40% of the electricity worldwide, where in the countries like Poland
and South Africa more than 90% of electricity is produced from coal, 76% in China and 69% in India[1]. It is
predicted that the energy demand will grow by 70 % over the next 20 years [1].