Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Implications for Their Use

Global Energy Issues

Every year we use 35 billion barrels of oil which means if we keep using it the Earth will pollute. The scientist said we had used 40% of the Earth’s fossil fuels and we use all up about 50 years later and 1 century for coal. So what should we do? There are ways to solve this problem for example water, sunlight and wind, these are called renewable energy. It can use continuously. But only 13% of energy is renewable energy and rest of it is fossil fuels. But why we won’t change all to renewable energy? If we do that, the world pollution will be solve. The reason why we can’t do that is the renewable energy is extremely expensive and some country can’t buy.

Renewable energy sources are energy originally that are always beings refilled. Then can never be use up. Some examples of renewable energy sources are solar energy, wind energy hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass energy. These type of energy of energy sources are different from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. These are nonrenewable energy sources, which means that if we use them all up, we can never get more during our lifetime.

So this problem will last for long time. But the great news is that our technology is already advanced enough to capture all that energy from renewables and there’s an enough supply. The Sun continuously radiates about 173 quadrillion watts of solar energy at the Earth, which is almost 10,000 time our present needs. It’s been estimated that a surface that spans about hundred thousand kilometers would be needed to power humanity at our present usage levels.

So why don’t we build that? Because there are other fence in the way, like efficiency and energy transportation. To maximize efficiency solar plants must be located in areas with lots of sunshine year round, like desert. But it’s far away from the populated regions where energy demand is high. So it will cost huge amount of money to connect the electricity from desert to cities. Other ways we can do hydro electric, geothermal energy, wind energy, biofuels and biomasses But these also should be available for the location.

Japan’s Energy Issues

Japan is poor in resources such as oil and natural gas. The energy self-sufficiency ratio of Japan in 2016 was 8.0% which was a low level even compared to other OECD countries. Japan depends on fossil fuels such as oil/coal/natural gas (LNG) mostly imported from abroad. Dependency increased to 88% (based on the composition of power sources) in FY 2014, close to 93% during the first oil shock started from 1973.

Comparison of Primary Energy Self-Sufficiency Ratio of Major Countries

Japan used to proactively promote nuclear power. This situation, however, completely flipped after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the following disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster. Before 2011 Japan was try to build a lot of nuclear power plant because it is very cheap and it produces dozen amount of energy easily. But in 2011 it had almost change everything.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had meltdown and the neighbours had destroyed and the radioactivity.Nuclear power, which had justify for around 30% of all generated power until that point, was forced to a standstill, and public opposition to nuclear power generation quickly strengthened. All of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down from September 2013 to August 2015 in the after the Fukushima disaster. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to shutdown of nuclear power plants, LNG-based thermal power plants generated more electric power for stable electric power supply. Therefore, a large amount of LNG was additionally imported.

The Japanese government will aim to make renewable energy Japan’s main source of power by 2050 and a policy to proactively tackle introduction and expansion of renewables. The government is tweaking the financial incentives to invest in renewable energy. Japan introduced a Feed In-Tariff (FIT) in 2012 that guarantees a return to investors in renewable energy. The FIT has drawn large amount of renewables capacity into the power sector. The most of this investment has flowed into solar power plant. As of 2016, the renewable energy ratio in the generated electric power amount of Japan is 15% It seems low compared to major countries, so expanding further is required.

In July 2018, the government of Japan formulated the Strategic Energy Plan in order to show the public the basic direction of Japan’s energy policy. The plan set the goal to raise Japan’s future energy policy self-sufficiency rate from about 8% in 2016 to 24% in 2030. It seems Japan has to concentrate on the development and spread of renewable energy. However, according to the plan, the government aims to use renewable energy set at 22-24% as the major power source by 2030. But at the same time, the plan also attempt to restore nuclear energy and raise its share to 20-22%.

It indicates Japan still continues to have a contradiction between the cost of electricity and the crisis of Japan’s energy security. The 2030 targets, however, have been left unamended, with the energy mix set at 20% to 22% nuclear power, 22% to 24% renewable energy, and 56% thermal power.

After while Japan was planned that reoperate the nuclear power plant but citizen

Implications for Using Renewable Sources

There are environmental implication for using the renewable source. For example of hydroelectric power which is created by massive hydroelectric dams and small run-of-the-river plants. The one of the problem are land use. Hydroelectric facilities also have a major impact on aquatic ecosystems. For example, though there are a diversity of methods to minimize the impact including fish ladders and intake screens, fish and other organisms can be injured and killed by turbine blades. In addition, reservoir water is typically low in dissolved oxygen and colder than normal river water. When this water is released, it could have negative impacts on downstream plants and animals.

There are social implication for using the renewable source. For example of improved public health. The air and water pollution discharge by coal and natural gas plants is linked with breathing problems, neurological harm, heart attacks, cancer, premature death, and a host of other serious problems. The pollution affects everyone: one Harvard University study calculated the life cycle costs and public health effects of coal to be an estimated $74.6 billion every year. By using renewable energy, Most of these negative health impacts come from air and water pollution that renewable energy simply don’t produce.

Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no connected air pollution emissions. Geothermal and biomass systems emit some air pollutants much lower than those of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. In addition, wind and solar energy do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other important water needs because they require essentially no water to control and consequently.