A world full of energy The industrial revolution began in the year 1750.1 The industrial revolution was possible because of the fossil fuels. These fuels contain a very high amount of energy and because of this many industrial developments followed each other rapidly. It soon became clear that the whole world depended on these fossil fuels. Although the fossil fuels have many great advantages they also have several disadvantages: using fossil fuels is bad for the environment and thus causes global warming; it also causes air pollution that, in turn, causes health problems. The biggest problem we are facing at the moment is that the fossil fuels are running out. There is a slight possibility that there are still fossil fuels hidden underneath the surface of the earth, but there is no way of knowing whether this is the case. A possible solution to this problem is renewable energy. Renewable energy is energy that is created out of natural resources. The advantage of renewable energy is that it does not run out and that it is not bad for the environment. Before the industrial revolution we were also dependent on natural resources and with new technologies, to tap into these natural resources, we will benefit the developments of the industrial revolution without the disadvantages. Renewable energy will be the beginning of a new era, an era where the use of fuel does not cause destruction to our world. There are many different kinds of renewable energy; several will be mentioned in this text. The first renewable energy source is solar energy. Solar energy is energy that is provided by the sun; the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth is tremendous. All we have to do is find a way to harness this energy, at the moment this is done with solar panels. This renewable energy source has several downsides; the efficiency of solar panels is very low and the material that is used for these panels is very expensive. Another downside of this renewable energy source is that it depends on the amount of sunlight. This means that when it is a cloudy day this energy source will not generate a high amount of energy. The second renewable energy source is wind energy; this energy is harnessed with the use of wind turbines. These turbines are preferably places at sea since the wind power is highest at sea. The wind turbines are expensive but the return on investment is considerably short. Wind turbines also have a fairly high efficiency of fifty per cent. Although wind power seems promising, the public in general rejects wind turbines. This is mainly because they do not like the sight of it. Another reason for rejecting the wind turbines is because of the bird mortality rates. The third renewable energy source is hydro energy; this energy is harnessed by placing turbines within dams or underneath waterfalls.2 It is preferred to place the turbines underneath waterfalls since dams do not generate as much energy as a waterfall does. This is because water at high altitudes contains more energy than water at low altitudes. The downside of this renewable energy source is that the maintenance costs of these turbines are very high. This renewable energy source is very location specific3; this could cause a problem: the location where the turbine is placed could be a location with a low energy need. The fourth renewable energy source is biomass; this energy is harnessed from organic material. There are different kinds of biomass or, as they are usually called, different generations, namely, the first, second and third generation. The first generation of biomass consists mainly of food crops like corn and sugarcane. Although this generation contains a high amount of energy, it has a serious downside, which is that this generation competes with our food supply. The second generation of biomass consists of non-food crops, wood and vegetable wastes. This generation does not compete with our food supply and contains a fair amount of energy, but it does use large areas of land that could be used for food crops and the energy extraction process is very expensive and has a very low efficiency. The third generation of biomass consists of microalgae; this generation seems very promising because it contains high amounts of energy and does not compete with our food supply nor does it compete with the land area for food crops. This generation, for instance, can be placed in vertical basins or at sea. Another benefit of this generation is that, unlike the fossil fuels, it can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; that means that this generation can reduce the global warming effect. The main downside of this generation is that the energy extraction process is, just as the second generation, very expensive and not efficient enough. In conclusion, there are several solutions to the problem we are facing, which is the depletion of fossil fuels; these are solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy and biomass. Although these renewable energy sources seem very promising, they have severe downsides. For instance, the techniques for harnessing this energy are very expensive and not efficient enough. Nevertheless, in the future, these energies can still be the answer to our problem. In order to achieve this there is much to be done; not only in research but also in convincing the public that renewable energy is the answer to our problem. 1 Industrial revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution consulted 20-09-2012. 2 Hydro energy http://www.ga.gov.au/energy/other-renewable-energy-resources/hydro-energy.html consulted 20-09-2012. 3 Hydraulic turbines, http://www.microhydropower.net/nl/hydro_nl.php consulted 18-10-2012.