Importance of Energy conservation

Energy - The importance of energy. Energy is fundamental to the quality of our lives.
Nowadays, we are totally dependent on an abundant and uninterrupted supply of energy for
living and working. It is a key ingredient in all sectors of modern economies.

The earth provides enough to satisfy every mans needs but not every
mans greed said Gandhi. Hard facts on why energy conservation is a must
are outlined below.
We use energy faster than it can be produced - Coal, oil and natural gas the most utilised sources take thousands of years for formation.
Energy resources are limited - India has approximately 1% of worlds
energy resources but it has 16% of world population.
Most of the energy sources we use cannot be reused and renewed - Non
renewable energy sources constitute 80% of the fuel use. It is said that our
energy resources may last only for another 40 years or so.
We save the country a lot of money when we save energy - About 75 per
cent of our crude oil needs are met from imports which would cost about
Rs.1, 50,000 crore a year
We save our money when we save energy - Imagine your savings if your
LPG cylinder comes for an extra week or there is a cut in your electricity
bills
We save our energy when we save energy - When we use fuel wood
efficiently, our fuel wood requirements are lower and so is our drudgery for
its collection
Energy saved is energy generated - When we save one unit of energy, it is
equivalent to 2 units of energy produced
Save energy to reduce pollution - Energy production and use account to
large proportion of air pollution and more than 83 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions
An old Indian saying describes it this way - The earth, water and the air
are not a gift to us from our parents but a loan from our children. Hence
we need to make energy conservation a habit.

Energy is one of the most fundamental parts of our universe.

We use energy to do work. Energy lights our cities. Energy powers our
vehicles, trains, planes and rockets. Energy warms our homes, cooks our food,
plays our music, gives us pictures on television. Energy powers machinery in
factories and tractors on a farm.
Energy from the sun gives us light during the day. It dries our clothes when
they're hanging outside on a clothes line. It helps plants grow. Energy stored
in plants is eaten by animals, giving them energy. And predator animals eat
their prey, which gives the predator animal energy.

Everything we do is connected to energy in one form or another.

Energy is defined as:

"the ability to do work."

When we eat, our bodies transform the energy stored in the food into energy
to do work. When we run or walk, we "burn" food energy in our bodies. When
we think or read or write, we are also doing work. Many times it's
really hard work!
Cars, planes, light bulbs, boats and machinery also transform energy into
work.
Work means moving something, lifting something, warming something,
lighting something. All these are a few of the various types of work. But where
does energy come from?
There are many sources of energy. In The Energy Story, we will look at the
energy that makes our world work. Energy is an important part of our daily
lives.
The forms of energy we will look at include:

Electricity
Biomass Energy (Alternative Energy)- energy from plants
Geothermal Energy
Fossil Fuels - Coal, Oil and Natural Gas
Hydro Power and Ocean Energy
Nuclear
Solar Energy
Wind Energy

Energy

Transportation
Energy

In a typical lightning strike, 500 megajoules

=0.13 MegaWATT-hr (A megawatt

hour (Mwh) is equal to 1,000 Kilowatt hours (Kwh). It is equal to 1,000 kilowatts of
electricity used continuously for one hour) of electric potential energy is converted into
the same amount of energy in other forms, mostly light energy,sound energy and thermal
energy

Renewable energy
It is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished
(restore) on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat

Non-renewable energy
It comes from sources that will run out or will not be replenished in our lifetimesor even in
many, many lifetimes. Most non-renewable energy sources are fossil fuels: coal,
petroleum, and natural gas. Carbon is the main element in fossil fuels.

Alternative energy
Everyday, the world produces carbon dioxide that is released to the earths
atmosphere and which will still be there in one hundred years time.
This increased content of Carbon Dioxide increases the warmth of our planet and
is the main cause of the so called Global Warming Effect. One answer to global
warming is to replace and retrofit current technologies with alternatives that
have comparable or better performance, but do not emit carbon dioxide.
We call this Alternate energy.
Alternative energy refers to energy sources that have no undesired
consequences such for example fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Alternative energy
sources are renewable and are thought to be "free" energy sources. They all
have lower carbon emissions, compared to conventional energy sources. These
include Biomass
Energy, Wind
Energy, Solar
Energy, Geothermal
Energy,Hydroelectric Energy sources. Combined with the use of recycling, the
use of clean alternative energies such as the home use of solar power systems
will help ensure man's survival into the 21st century and beyond.
By 2050, one-third of the world's energy will need to come from solar, wind, and
other renewable resources. Who says? British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell,
two of the world's largest oil companies. Climate change, population growth, and
fossil fuel depletion mean that renewables will need to play a bigger role in the
future than they do today.

Electricity or Electric energy

Electricity is a force caused by electric charge. It is a form of energy which we use to
power machines and electrical devices. When the charges are not moving, electricity is
called static electricity. When the charges are moving they are an electric current, sometimes

called 'dynamic electricity'. Lightning is the most obvious kind of electricity in nature but
sometimes static electricity causes things to stick together. You may have experienced static
electricity when you have touched your TV screen
Since the nineteenth century, electricity has been used in every part of our lives. Until then, it was
just a curiosity or a force of nature seen in a thunderstorm.

Generating electricity
Electricity is mostly generated in places called power stations. Most power stations use heat to
boil water into steam which turns a steam engine. The steam engine's turbine turns a machine
called a 'generator'. Generators have wires inside which spin inside a magnetic field.
Electromagnetic

induction causes

electricity

to

flow

through

the

wires. Michael

Faraday discovered how to do this.

There are many sources of heat which can be used to generate electricity. Heat sources can be
classified into two types: renewable energy resources in which the supply of heat energy never
runs out and non-renewable energy resources in which the supply will be eventually used up.
Sometimes a natural flow, such as wind power or water power, can be used directly to turn a
generator so no heat is needed.

Biomass Energy
The term "biomass" refers to organic matter that has stored energy through the
process of photosynthesis. It exists in one form as plants and may be transferred
through the food chain to animals' bodies and their wastes, all of which can be
converted for everyday human use through processes such as combustion, which
releases the carbon dioxide stored in the plant material. Many of the biomass
fuels used today come in the form of wood products, dried vegetation, crop
residues, and aquatic plants. Biomass has become one of the most commonly
used renewable sources of energy in the last two decades, second only to
hydropower in the generation of electricity. It is such a widely utilized source of
energy, probably due to its low cost and indigenous nature, that it accounts for
almost 15% of the world's total energy supply and as much as 35% in developing
countries, mostly for cooking and heating.
Biomass is one of the most plentiful and well-utilised sources of renewable
energy in the world. Broadly speaking, it is organic material produced by the
photosynthesis of light. The chemical material (organic compounds of carbons)
are stored and can then be used to generate energy. The most common biomass
used for energy is wood from trees. Wood has been used by humans for
producing energy for heating and cooking for a very long time.
Biomass has been converted by partial-pyrolisis to charcoal for thousands of
years. Charcoal, in turn has been used for forging metals and for light industry
for millenia. Both wood and charcoal formed part of the backbone of the early

Industrial Revolution (much northern England, Scotland and Ireland were

deforested to produce charcoal) prior to the discovery of coal for energy.
Wood is still used extensively for energy in both household situations, and in
industry, particularly in the timber, paper and pulp and other forestry-related
industries. Woody biomass accounts for over 10% of the primary energy
consumed in Austria, and it accounts for much more of the primary energy
consumed in most of the developing world, primarily for cooking and space
heating.
It is used to raise steam, which, in turn, is used as a by-product to generate
electricity. Considerable research and development work is currently underway to
develop smaller gasifiers that would produce electricity on a small-scale. For the
moment, however, biomass is used for off-grid electricity generation, but almost
exclusively on a large-, industrial-scale.
There are two issues that affect the evaluation of biomass as a viable solution to
our energy problem: the effects of the farming and production of biomass and
the effects of the factory conversion of biomass into usable energy or electricity.
There are as many environmental and economic benefits as there are detriments
to each issue, which presents a difficult challenge in evaluating the potential
success of biomass as an alternative fuel. For instance, the replacement of coal
by biomass could result in "a considerable reduction in net carbon dioxide
emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect." On the other hand, the use
of wood and other plant material for fuel may mean deforestation. We are all
aware of the problems associated with denuding forests, and widespread clear
cutting can lead to groundwater contamination and irreversible erosion patterns
that could literally change the structure of the world ecology.
Biomass has to be considered in the search for an alternative source of energy
that is abundant in a wide-scale yet non-disruptive manner, since it is capable of
being implemented at all levels of society. Although tree plantations have
"considerable promise" in supplying an energy source, "actual commercial use of
plantation-grown fuels for power generation is limited to a few isolated
experiences." Supplying the United States ' current energy needs would require
an area of one million square miles. That's roughly one-third of the area of the 48
contiguous states. There is no way that plantations could be implemented at this
scale, not to mention that soil exhaustion would eventually occur. Biomass
cannot replace our current dependence on coal, oil, and natural gas, but it can
complement other renewables such as solar and wind energy.
According to Flavin and Lenssen of the Worldwatch Institute , "If the contribution
of biomass to the world energy economy is to grow, technological innovations
will be needed, so that biomass can be converted to usable energy in ways that
are more efficient, less polluting, and at least as economical as today's
practices." When we have enough government support and have allotted enough
land for the continuous growth of energy crops for biomass-based energy, we
may have a successful form of alternative energy. But "as long as worldwide
prices of coal, oil and gas are relatively low, the establishment of plantations
dedicated to supplying electric power or other higher forms of energy will occur
only where financial subsidies or incentives exist or where other sources of
energy are not available." Although it is currently utilized across the globe,

biomass energy is clearly not capable of sustaining the world's energy needs on
its own.