During early 2008, the price of gasoline spiked to an all-time high, triggered by a jump in the price of crude oil. Although crude oil prices retreated from that all-time high price, many consumers remained increasingly wary of dependence on petroleum as a source of energy. The Obama administration has also pledged to increase the emphasis on developing alternative sources of energy for the United States in an effort to decrease dependence on foreign oil and mitigate the effects of climate change. Does this Spark an idea?
Motivation for Developing Alternative Fuels
Petroleum has been the primary source of fuel for the industrialized world for the past hundred years. However, petroleum is a finite resource. Some experts claim that the world has already reached what is known as Peak Oil, or the point where oil production will no longer increase but will begin to decline as oil becomes more scarce. In addition, much of the world's untapped oil reserves are located in areas that are physically difficult to access, such as beneath the Arctic ice cap. The majority of the known reserves of oil are located in of high geopolitical sensitivity, mainly the Middle East.
Petroleum exhausts are also a major source of greenhouse gases, which are generally acknowledged for being partially responsible for climate change, or the alteration of weather conditions. While some aspects of climate change are the result of normal temperature variations, most scientists believe that present-day climate change is exacerbated by human activities that produce greenhouse gases. These factors have combined to make developing renewable energy sources an increasingly important goal for many Americans.
Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy has been in use as an alternative source of fuel for decades. Countries such as France use nuclear fuel for a large percentage of their non-automotive fuel needs. However, accidents such as Three Mile Island in the United States and the Chernobyl disaster in the former USSR have demonstrated the significant potential danger of nuclear energy. There is also the ongoing problem of safely discard spent nuclear by-products. Some countries, notably Germany, have pledged to phase out nuclear energy altogether. However, the recent spike in petroleum prices has caused many countries to reconsider whether nuclear energy has a place in their energy strategies.
Biofuels
Recently, biofuels have emerged as an alternative source of fuel. Conventional biofuels have been produced by processing plant crops such as corn or sugarcane into fuel that can be blended into gasoline. However, in recent years, controversy has grown around the use of food crops for biofuel production. Because farmers could receive much higher prices for biofuel crops than for food crops, many farmers diverted their efforts to producing biofuels. As a result, food prices escalated worldwide, and famine was exacerbated in large areas of the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Skepticism also emerged about the efficiency of biofuel production, which requires a significant expenditure of energy resources in its production. Large parcels of land are also devoted to biofuel production, which often results in lack of agricultural diversity. Recently, the direction of biofuel production has begun to shift from using food crops to using by-products, waste products or even esoteric sources such as algae.
Solar Energy and Wind Energy
Solar energy is clean and renewable. However, harnessing the power of the Sun has remained largely elusive. The development of solar panels has made it possible to begin to utilize solar energy as a viable alternative for petroleum. However, solar panels are expensive, and are in fact financially out of reach for most individual homeowners and certainly nearly all renters. In addition, many areas of the world are only marginally sunny enough to make the present-day technologies for capturing solar energy viable, let alone financially efficient.
Windmills have been in use for generations. Wind energy is also considered a clean source of energy. However, wind energy has not been considered a viable source to replace more than a fraction the present demand for energy, because of the difficulty and expense involved with harnessing wind energy. In addition, there is some controversy concerning the location of wind turbines in locations such as offshore wind farms, as some observers consider them an eyesore.
Considerations
Emerging societies have increasing demands for energy and fuel. China especially has largely turned to conventional sources of fuel such as petroleum and coal to supply its energy needs. In the developing world, fuel often represents a major expense, even for countries with vast natural resources, including oil reserves. Developing alternative energy sources would require subsidies to be viable in the developing world, at least in the short run. Additionally, some industrialized countries remain reluctant to devote funding to researching alternative fuel sources, especially in challenging economic times.
However, a fundamental shift in attitudes has begun to take place in the emerging, developing and industrialized worlds as more individuals and governments recognize the necessity of developing alternative forms of energy. in addition to the better-known forms of alternative energy, previously little known alternatives such as hydrogen energy and geothermal energy have also begun to receive serious research attention.
Tags: biofuel production, climate change, food crops, nuclear energy, source fuel, all-time high, alternative energy