Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 2 | Page 42

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CIVIL INSIGHT 2018
STUDENTS’ SECTION
Coal consumption has already surpassed oil consumption.
The mass coal producers are:
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China: 3576 mt of coal which was 45.9%
US: 1004 mt
India: 586 mt
The largest exporter of coal is Indonesia and Australia.According to a survey data, China and India are expected
to lead the growth in coal consumption in the next 5 years and China will possibly exceed the rest of the
world’s demand for coal in the next 20 years, while India may become the largest coal importer and second
largest consumer of coal by 2035[1].
It is expected that the fossil fuel may dry in next 50-100 years with disastrous effects.
Despite many advantages of fossil fuels such as availability, effi ciency, transportation, generation of job and
easiness to set up, it has many disadvantages as well. Some of the disadvantages include environmental
degradation, need of truckload of reserves, public health issues, fi nite energy source, oil spill, rising cost,
health issues of coal-mining workers.
CO 2 Emission:
CO2 is produced from various sources, most prominent sources being ocean, vegetation and human resource.
But the major difference between these sources is that the human sources only emit carbon whereas the other
two absorb more carbon than they emit.
From the data of IPCC AR4, the global carbon cycles of fl ux of CO2 are:
a. Fossil Fuel: Burning + Land Use: - 29 GT (Emit)
b. Vegetation & Land: - 439 GT (Emit) AND 450 GT (Absorb)
c. Ocean: - 332 GT (Emit) 338 GT (Absorb)
The above data indicates that humans are the only ones contributing for global warming. Some of the major
fossil emissions from human resources are:
i. Coal-42%
ii. Oil-33%
iii. Gas- 19%
iv. Cement-6%
v. Gas fl aring-1%
SOLUTIONS
Energy and Economy
Energy is an important sector of the economy that creates jobs and value by extracting, transforming and
distributing energy goods and services throughout the economy.
Is the renewable energy industry growing?
Renewable energy technologies are getting cheaper, through technological change and through the benefi ts
of mass production and market competition. As of 2011, there have been substantial reduction in the cost
of solar and wind technologies. Total investment in renewable energy reached $211 billion in 2010, up from
$160 billion in 2009. The top countries for the investment in 2010 were China, Germany, the United States,
Italy and Brazil.
HYDROPOWER
Hydropower is a potential energy solution with less impacts on the environment. During planning and
operation, it includes hydrological, hydraulics, environmental information together with social and political
issues in order to fi nd an optimal solution. It has the highest energy payback ratio compared to all electricity
generation technologies which indicates good environmental performance. Hydropower has the capacity to
meet the future electrical demand and provide other services to make power systems operation more reliable.