What type of energy resource have highest demand in future?
Answers
Answer:
The human race, in its never ending struggle to improve its standard of living, has invariably depended on colossal amounts of electric power to fuel our evolution. A present day estimate by National Geographic determined that we use 320 billion kilowatt-hours of energy every day. Today, most of this enormous requirement is addressed by burning fossil fuels. So far, fossil fuels have catered to our energy needs very efficiently, but they are also non-renewable and rapidly depleting.
Explanation:
(1) Fossil Fuels – Coal:
Fossil fuels are the remains of dead plants and animals on land and in the seabed. These are formed from the fossilized remains of dead animals and plants that are exposed to heat and pressure in the earth’s crust for hundreds of millions of years.
Fossil fuels primarily consist of hydrocarbons. They contain carbon and hydrogen in varying ratios, such as methane, that has a low carbon to hydrogen ratio, or anthracite coal, which is almost pure carbon.
(2) Solar Energy:
Almost everything in this world ultimately derives its energy from the sun. Instead of obtaining the sun’s energy from indirect sources like fossil fuels, researchers and organizations worldwide are looking to directly tap this unlimited source of energy.
The earth receives about 174 billion megawatts of power at the upper atmosphere as a result of solar radiation. About 30% of the incident solar radiation is reflected back, while the remaining, which amounts to 3.85 x 1024 Joules every year, is absorbed by the atmosphere, oceans and landmasses. The amount of solar energy that is available to us during an hour is more than the total amount of energy consumed worldwide in an entire year. But this is a diffused, rather than concentrated, form of energy and the greatest challenge lies in harnessing it.
Wind power will be nearly as important in coming years. It's perhaps the most established renewable energy source (besides hydro), and is just as cheap as fossil fuels in many markets around the world.