{"id":244,"date":"2020-07-22T15:09:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T14:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/?p=244"},"modified":"2020-07-22T15:09:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T14:09:44","slug":"a-better-world-with-clean-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/22\/a-better-world-with-clean-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Better World With Clean Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The word energy is\nderived from Greek en\u00e9rgeia, a word that was developed by Aristotle (<\/strong>384BC-322BC) to mean the capacity to do work. Thomas Young first\nintroduced the word \u201cEnergy\u201d to the world of physics in 1800 but it was apparently\nnot popularized.  Finally, in 1905, Albert Einstein established the general equivalence of\nenergy and mass with his theory of relativity paving the way for scientific use\nof the word \u201cenergy\u201d today. For more on this history see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the meaning\nof energy can be ambiguous, its impact is not. Humankind has lived a better\nlife since our advancement in our use of energy. Some of the greatest shifts in\nhuman history happened thanks to the discovery of electricity, one form of\nenergy. In the conceptual West, key figures such as Ben Franklin, Michael\nFaraday, and Thomas Edison made important contributions to our understanding and\nharnessing of electricity. Electricity in turn has powered innumerable inventions\nthat have undoubtedly enabled new ways of living\u2014computers, elevators, and maglev\ntrains have respectively enhanced our computational intelligence, made possible\ntaller and compact buildings, and made travel faster and more efficient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is much\nconsensus on the utility of energy, there isn\u2019t nearly as much on how best to\ngenerate the energy. Energy comes in different forms. Often the form that the\nenergy is in is not the form we want to use. This requires a process of energy\nconversion\u2014informally called energy generation. (Energy cannot be created or destroyed,\nso the idea of energy generation simply implies making the energy available in\nthe form we want, which is in this case is as electrical energy). For example,\nthe energy of the battery of a phone is in the form of chemical energy and we\nhave to convert it to electrical energy in order for it to be used to power the\nphone electronics. Unfortunately converting energy from one form (the source)\nto another results in energy losses and waste products.
\nEnergy sources can be classified into renewable and non-renewable sources. Most\nof the non-renewable energy sources have disproportionately negative impact on\nthe environment (They are called non-renewable because they cannot be\nreplenished, at least not as fast as we\u2019d like). It is estimated that major\nsources of energy are petroleum and natural gas, a thing of concern since these\nenergy sources produce undesirable waste products. Renewable energy sources on\nthe other hand produce much less waste\u2014though not zero waste\u2014than non-renewables.\nNon-renewable sources have powered much of the electricity revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why are non-renewables\nno longer desirable? Let\u2019s discuss a few representative non-renewable energy\nsources. Coal and oil are two common energy sources. The burning of coal\nproduces carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases), which contributes to\nglobal warming, a phenomenon of rising temperatures. Coal produces the highest\namount of greenhouse gases per unit of energy produced. Oil and natural gas are\ncleaner than coal, but they too are very hazardous to the environment. Producing\nthe oil creates air pollution; the toxins which are released in the atmosphere\nare dangerous for humans and ecosystem. The burning of oil and natural gas,\nlike the burning of coal, also releases carbon dioxide. And the other\ndisadvantage of oil is that the spills of oil can affect the surrounding\nenvironment. One of such incidents of oil spill is Exxon Valdez oil spill which\noccurred in Alaska in Mach 24, 1989, when an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping\nCompany struck prince William Sound\u2019s Bligh Reef and spilled 37,000 metric\ntonnes of crude oil. This incident did a lot of damage to the environment,\nincluding destroying some of the species that lived there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An oil spill into water bodies affects animals<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Cleaning up an oil spillage, <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In general, most\nof the non-renewable sources of energy are very harmful to the environment. It\nis estimated that 7 million people die due to pollution each year. The\ncontinued use of non-renewable resources has effects on our health and our\nwellbeing.
\nBut what are the alternatives? The alternative to these hazardous sources is clean\nenergy sources, which includes renewable energy sources. The global community\nis now working towards replacing some of these non-renewable sources of energy\nwith clean energy. The European Union was an early mover on clean energy. In\n2009 they had ambitious energy and climate targets for 2020 (20% greenhouse gas\nemission reduction, 20% in renewable energy and 20% energy efficiency). Ten\nyears later EU is still on track to achieve these ambitions.
\nBut is this a reasonable, sustainable trajectory? The reasons for the continued\nincumbency of non-renewable energy sources are many and complex but include: they\nhave traditionally been cheaper, they are readily available or can be cheaply\nmade, and they have already been deployed making it harder to take them down\njust to install a newer system that does the same thing (i.e. produce\nelectricity). However, in many instances these sources may have been cheaper due\nto government subsidies. The cost of producing electricity using non-renewable\nsources can be just as much as that of producing from renewables. This of\ncourse may depend on location\u2014some places with a lot of water would naturally\nfind it cheaper to produce electricity using that water than having to import\nnatural gas. Solar and wind energy, where available, can be a sustainable\nsource of energy both from an economic and environment point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Generating electricity from moving wind is better for the environment than burning coal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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While solar power can require a lot of land, it is also a cleaner form<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KCHKNA is looking at producing energy from\nwaste, a form of energy production that is still under-utilized. Every human settlement,\nand much more now than in times past, produces waste. Waste material is also an\nenergy source, albeit less dense than for example coal. But waste is made\navailable just by virtue (almost) of human beings being alive. This provides an\nendless source of energy that is available day and night, anywhere! From\ngasification to fermentation, KCHKNA aims to turn the energy stored in waste\ninto other useful forms, without degrading the environment or human health.\nThat to us is what renewable energy looks like; we fit right into an existing cycle\nwithout generating an extra bit of waste!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is still a great need for\nelectricity around the world. As of 2020, one in seven people still lack access\nto electricity and most of these people live in the developing world. These\npeople perhaps do not care as much about clean energy as they do about energy,\nwhatever the source. But clean energy need not be an afterthought, after unclean\ndevelopment. If we don\u2019t pay the price now, we\u2019ll pay the price in the future. Clean\nenergy is good to the environment, and it saves the people from living in a\nharmful environment. So, whether one simply cares about Planet Earth for its\nown sake, or about the people living on it, generating energy from clean\nsources is the way to go. The most exciting bit is that as of 2020, most\nrenewable energy sources are not as expensive as they were! And with more and\nmore countries and organizations coming onboard we can expect economies of\nscale to kick in and make the question of economic feasibility a minor\nheadache. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word energy is derived from Greek en\u00e9rgeia, a word that was developed by Aristotle (384BC-322BC) to mean the capacity to do work. Thomas Young first introduced the word \u201cEnergy\u201d to the world of physics in 1800 but it was apparently not popularized.  Finally, in 1905, Albert Einstein established the general equivalence of energy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,14],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-clean-energy","tag-energy-from-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}