Write a note on future prospects of global energy trends.
Answers
When you consider that the global annual consumption of primary energy increased more than ten-fold during the 20th century, the importance of planning future energy supply becomes clear. This final chapter examines how future global energy consumption might develop from its current level, and summarises the main influences on that development, including economic, environmental and technological factors.
This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 2 study in Science
Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
summarise the difficulties of forecasting energy demand
assess the importance of political and economic issues, as well as geological and environmental factors, in determining trends in energy use
outline some of the contrasting scenarios for energy supply in the twenty-first century, and discuss evolving technologies that could play a part in future energy systems
appreciate the environmental consequences of society’s current energy use, and the challenges of developing sustainable energy supply.
1 The present-day perspective
Notwithstanding the rapid increase in energy consumption depicted by Figure 1, the average per capita consumption of commercial energy sources has not increased much, if at all, since 1975 (Figure 2a), even in Europe and North America.