Sustainable Energy — without the hot air

The Future of Sustainable Energy: The Green Transigion for europe's regions. What are the obstacles, chalenges and opportunities?, 2018

With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations. We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited. There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire. A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies. A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter. Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy. Why look into sustainable energy? With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations. We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited. How come renewable energies are still so marginally used at a European level? There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire. A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies. A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter. Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy. What can be done about it? To overcome these obstacles, European nations must set ambitious policy targets and create real incentives to encourage the transition to sustainable energy. Ultimately the solution to the green transition is both social and political. It is about strengthening democracy and political systems, and making the process a truly inclusive and participatory one, allowing all voices and concerns to be heard. So that sustainable energy solutions are found at the local level and adapted to local contexts.

Centre for Alternative Technology, www. …, 2007

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2007

d.toke(at)bham.ac.uk 0044 (0)121 415 8616 Editor: Miguel Mendonç ca Researcher and Campaigner World Future Council miguel(at)@ @ worldfuturecouncil.org 0044 (0)117 377 4315 World Future Council (UK office

UK Energy Research …, 2009

Meeting global energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way is one of the grand challenges of our time. While the use of energy based on fossil fuels has enabled great advances and an increase in the standard of living, it has also brought us to the brink of an environmental catastrophe. As a society, we will need to develop strategies that integrate renewable and sustainable energy sources. We must also engage and partner with policy makers in order to articulate an energy policy that is not only scientifically and technically sound, but also one that the global society will accept. The energy challenge is the type of problem that we, as a global society, have never faced before and we need decisive scientific and political leadership to address it. We must accept the challenge and insist that our leaders articulate a global energy policy capable of meeting such a challenge. (Image created by Alice Muhlback and used with permission.) E nergy: its mere sound evokes a broad range of reactions depending on our experience, education, political affiliation , and many other factors. The word is part of our everyday lexicon in terms of the cost of energy (when we actually mean the cost of fuel), global availability of energy and the inevitable geo-political analysis, the environmental consequences of energy use, carbon footprint, global warming, emerging economies, population growth...you get the idea. Energy is part of virtually every aspect of our lives, local and global. Energy is also a subject of big numbers such as "quads" (quadrillion BTUs), Terawatt-years, and gigatons (usually of generated CO 2). As chemists, actually as citizens (better yet, as informed citizens), we need to grapple with these concepts and the magnitude of these numbers to get a realistic assessment of what they mean and how our collective behavior affects them and the future of our planet. (See Figure 1.) Energy availability, in a reliable and inexpensive way, has been key to technological advances and innovation, which, in turn, have enhanced our standard of living. One can readily identify and acknowledge that developments such as the steam engine, the incandescent lamp, the internal combustion engine and the computer, just to name a few, have transformed the way we live and interact with each other. All of them have a common thread of depending on an energy source, albeit different in each case, to accomplish a particular function. This brings us to the description of energy in terms closer to those associated with thermodynamics, mainly as the ability to do work. So the question is, how are all of these issues interrelated, and what role do we, collectively, play?

Energy is a basic human need and without it, everything would come to a standstill. It is a necessary factor in fostering human development and economic growth in a secure, affordable, reliable, clean, and sustainable energy supply. Presently, we face monumental challenges: global warming, the waning of natural resources, explosions in population growth, increasing energy demand, rising energy prices, and unequal distribution of energy sources. These factors contribute to the urgent need to transform the energy sector -which primarily relies on fossil fuels to alternative energy sources (i.e.-to one that uses renewable energies and energy efficient measures).

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Purpose -.To show that (a) the observed strong link between global economic output and primary energy use will continue in future, and (b) neither attempts to replace fossil fuels with alternative energy sources nor geoengineering approaches can provide the level of clean energy that economic growth needs. Global economic growth therefore cannot continue for much longer. Design/methodology/approach -.The paper uses historical and recent global data (2012) for energy output from various sources, economic output, and CO 2 , emissions to make its case. Findings -.Alternative energy output is growing too slowly, and faces too many problems, to significantly change the energy mix in the coming decades. Continued use of fossil fuels requires either massive CO 2 removal/sequestration or global solar radiation management. The first is too expensive and would take decades to be significant, the second carries risks, some already known and possibly also unknown ones. Practical implications -. The paper makes the case that technical fixes such as alternative fuels, energy efficiency improvements, carbon dioxide capture and solar radiation management will not be sufficient to prevent global climate change. Social implications -.Social change, rather than reliance on technical fixes, is needed for ecologically sustainable economies. Originality/value -.Most research argues that global energy intensity and carbon intensity will continue to fall. In contrast, we argue that the strong link observed between global economic output and primary energy use will continue.

Sustaining our Environment for Better Future, 2019

This research tries to highlight what is needed to be done for us and our future generations to create a sustainable mechanism that is green, scalable, and secure for the way we develop and obtain energy from a purely economic perspective. The debate today is about yields when it comes to solar, wind, and hydro-and geothermal paths in producing energy, a fact that is counterbalanced by nuclear energy and the traditional coal-based energy, which still have a better economic positioning and financial output than the renewable solutions. The authors will try to introduce also the states involvement in the process, from institutional, ideological, political, and pragmatic perspective. Regarding the outcome of this research, the emphasis will be on how the standard of living will be improved, not only for our generations but also for future ones.