The Evolution and Use of the World’s Energy Systems
Every minute enough of the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s surface to meet the world’s energy demands for a whole year. Combine this powerful energy source with other readily available energy sources like wind, moving water and geothermal heat, it almost seems incredulous that our human population depends on the burning of fossil fuels to meet nearly all of its energy demands. And this picture doesn’t look like it will change very much in the near future.
Why fossil fuels? The fossil fuels we largely depend on today are coal, oil and natural gas. They are called non-renewable energy sources. That description is actually another way of saying we use them faster than they form. Over 100,000 times faster to be exact! So how did we ever decide this would be the primary energy resource to power human development and progress?
It all goes back to human mastery of fire to provide warmth, light and a means of preparing more palatable and easily digestible foods. To the early humans, fire was the equivalent of having a little sun with them wherever they needed or wanted to go. With this energy available at anytime and anyplace, humans could begin to spread about the world and thrive, regardless of the climate or amount of sunlight available. It provided the power for humans to begin their mastery of Earth as a species, less vulnerable to extinction than all other animal species, yet with a greater ability to bring about change — for good or bad.
Impact of The Industrial Revolution
Carbon Dioxide increase since the Industrial Revolution. Source: Global Warming Art Project
It was wood — a renewable biomass energy source — that was unquestionably the first fuel used for fire. Although the fossil fuel coal had been used as a fuel since 1,000 B.C., it wasn’t until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution from the mid-1700s through the 1800s that coal began to replace biomass as the primary source of energy.
The Industrial Revolution also marks the beginning of an era when the world human population started to explode. Indelibly tied together, both energy consumption and population growth have experienced exponential growth with few exceptions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As the population increased, energy demands increased with greater intensity.
Coal: the First Mass Use of Fossil Fuels
A lump of coal. Source: Minerals of the world project
Why coal? Coal can provide much more energy over longer periods than wood or any other biomass product. Forests were also diminishing in many regions because they were being consumed for fuel, particularly in England — where the Industrial Revolution started. Coal was in ample supply. It very quickly made industrial and economic sense to use coal to supply the rapidly increasing energy demand.
Since coal and other fossil fuels still to be discovered, seemed to exist in infinite supplies, human progress and achievement centered around the exploitation of these resources. Not only had we learned to use fire to meet our energy demands, but we had become dependent on fossil fuels to supply the fire.
Oil and Natural Gas
The fossil fuels oil and natural gas combined currently provide 60 percent of the U.S. energy needs. Although they have been used in some form for thousands of years, massive consumption did not start until the late 1800s and early 1900s following their discovery in large quantities in shallow oil reservoirs. In the U.S., the discovery that sparked the oil boom was in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859 when Edwin L. Drake drilled the world’s first oil well that launched the modern petroleum industry. This high-energy fuel set the stage for the expansion of industry and also led to the development of the automobile. Few considered the non-renewable nature of these fossil fuels and the amounts that would be used in the future.
The Prediction that Startled the World
It wasn’t until M. King Hubbert predicted in 1949 that the fossil fuel era would be very short-lived, that we began to realize we would one day soon have to rely on other energy sources. Though Hubbert startled the world with his calculated assessment, he followed it in 1956 with the prediction that U.S. oil production would peak around 1970 and decline thereafter. This peak period of world oil discovery and exploitation has become known as Hubbert’s Peak.
Indeed, U.S. oil production began to decline in 1971. Since then, world energy use has risen almost 70 percent. Today, the U.S. imports 58 percent of oil consumed, from other nations. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. dependence on imported oil will reach 64 percent by 2020. World oil use will continue to grow exponentially, particularly as developing countries become more industrialized.
In the late 1990s, renowned geophysicist Kenneth S. Deffeyes — Professor Emeritus at Princeton University — predicted world oil production decline would occur by 2005; however, many scientists believe the actual decline of oil is now 2020-2040, with the U.S. using 2015 as the projected start of the decline.
By the time the world began to heed Hubbert’s prediction, the use of fossil fuels had become so firmly interwoven into human progress and economy, that changing this energy system would drastically alter the very way we have lived our lives. Certainly, the production and consumption costs of changing our energy systems have greatly discouraged the development and use of alternate energy resources.
We are all aware of the impending depletion of our primary fossil fuel reserves — and we would like to see renewable and cleaner energy sources take their place. But alternative energy will be challenged to take over as a primary energy supplier for human consumption by the end of this century. It is also widely believed that we will not see alternative fuels become mainstream until fossil fuels become too expensive to produce and consume. That will happen in the relative near term! The immediate importance of renewables is that their use extends the life of the fossil fuels and provides cleaner alternatives to the fossil fuels.
The good news is that energy abounds all around us, and we now have a natural mandate to begin developing them before the fossil fuels disappear. One thing for sure, the human race will not just one day start living in the dark and without power because we used the last drop of oil or lump of coal. And scientists are working on it in ways you probably haven’t even considered.
Understanding Energy
Energy and potential energy exist in everything. Energy is without form and cannot be seen, but we see and feel its effects. Electricity is not energy, but rather it is created from energy. Energy captured from the sun, the burning of fossil fuels, water currents and wind is used to create electricity and provide power for our homes, businesses and transportation. The release of energy from the burning of wood or other combustible materials causes the heat and fire used to help meet today’s power requirements.
Energy is motion, the force created through the movement of the tiniest particles of matter as well as the very largest objects in the universe. Light from the sun is made up of tiny submicroscopic particles called photons — which means visible-light particles – when moving, create energy. These particles travel in waves at different frequencies or wavelengths, to create what is called radiant energy, a.k.a. electromagnetic energy. Radiant energy also exists in non-visible forms such as infrared and ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays.
What about heat? Heat is created by the kinetic energy — or motion — of all the tiny atoms and molecules in a gas, liquid or solid (yes, molecules can even move about in solids). The motion of any object possesses kinetic energy, and the larger and faster the motion of the object, the more kinetic energy it possesses.
Energy Dynamics and Environmental Health
By understanding the secret lives of energy — how it exists, how it is created, how it acts and even where it can be found, we can better understand how to tap the world of energy available to meet our continuously increasing energy demands.
The issues really aren’t about energy at all, but about how we try to get it and use it. The specific issues concern the fuels we use to create energy. All fuels have to go through either a chemical or physical change to create energy, whether it’s the burning of oil (chemical) or the boiling of water (physical).
Yet, while using fuels such as fossil fuels as energy resources, not only is their kinetic energy potential released, but the carbon molecules that make these fuels release powerful energy. The end result is pollution; pollution that not only causes health problems but also directly contributes to today’s global warming trends. The costs of these side-effects cannot be calculated, but can only be measured in terms of the costs of lives and quality of living, environmental health, and climatic change.
A Global Perspective
The world is making progress in tapping alternative forms of energy from solar, wind and water, to nuclear, biomass, geothermal and even new forms of fossil fuels. Currently, hydroelectric energy — which is the kinetic energy of falling or moving water, is the world’s largest source of renewable energy. Over 80 percent of the world’s renewable energy is hydroelectric. Hydroelectric is followed by wind, biomass, geothermal and solar energy in that order.
But let’s put this in its proper perspective. According to 2011 data supplied by the International Energy Agency (IEA), fossil fuels currently provide 66.1 percent of the U.S. primary energy supplies. Biomass and other combustible renewables and waste account for 5.5 percent, and nuclear energy accounts for 19.4 percent. Hydro (moving water) alone accounts for 9 percent with all other renewable resources meeting 5.5 percent of the country’s total energy appetite.
Total world electricity demand still depends primarily on fossil fuels. Hydro and other renewable energy sources account for almost 20 percent of the world’s total electricity needs, while nuclear energy supplies 15.2 percent of the world’s electricity.
The Alternatives
Renewable energy is the ultimate replacement for any non-renewable source.
Despite nuclear energy’s role as a significant power supply source, it is highly unlikely it will survive past the 21st century, especially since the recent Japanese disaster. Many people are against it, storage of its highly radioactive wastes is difficult and costly. There are not enough ores available to maintain continued production of nuclear energy, and most of today’s nuclear plants will reach the end of their life span within the next 50 years.
Hydro-electric power Source: EIA
While hydro, solar, wind, geothermal are currently our most promising forms of renewable energy to develop for future use, there are sources that many scientists classify in the “surprise category” that theoretically hold great promise. These sources range from the mining of methane hydrates and hydrogen fusion to sources we have yet to discover. The potential of hydrogen fusion is so great that there is a global initiative to study whether it’s feasible to develop and use what is known as fusion energy.
And yes, there are other fossil fuels that some scientists believe may be able to help contribute to the current energy pressures, but these forms have a low net energy yield, are difficult to process and have serious pollution side effects. They are oil shale and tar sands. Still, it appears unlikely that these forms will ever be used as significant sources of energy.
The Sun is a natural fusion reactor. Source: NASA
The Sun holds the greatest potential to meet the world’s energy demands. But it will take a change in the technological, political and economic landscape for it to be realized. Still, the most plausible answer for our indefinite energy needs lies in a cohesive, sensible and ecologically sustainable combination of the resources available to us. The incentives must be there to be successful — political, economic and human intelligence — and success can be achieved only through the use of renewable energy in ways that will ensure the healthy sustainability of Earth’s life systems. As Nobel Laureate Sir George Porter so eloquently said in the late 1960s, “I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s energy. If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”
Point taken!
Did You Know?
- Sunlight is made up of tiny particles of energy called photons. The amount of this energy hitting the Earth’s surface in one year is equivalent to the energy provided by 935 trillion barrels of oil. The current annual world consumption of oil equals about 26 billion barrels!
- In 2006, 5,370 metric tons of hard coal were produced to help meet world energy demands. That is an 8.8 percent increase over the previous year and 92 percent growth over the past 25 years.
- Reservoirs of hot liquid with temperatures greater than about 350 F are the most common type of geothermal energy sources.
- To lock up the eight billion tons of carbon released into the atmosphere each year would require planting a forest four times the area of the United States.
