Kitchen
Global Climate
Change
Lecture Outline
Chapter 9
The Energy Crisis
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The Energy Crisis
• Energy consumption:
– Per capita consumption of power is high in
the developed world and highest in the
United States. In marked contrast, in the
developing world, energy poverty is a
growing problem.
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The Energy Crisis
• Greenhouse gas emissions:
– There is a close relationship between
greenhouse gas emissions and a country’s
gross domestic product.
– The level of emissions in
the United States is
higher than in other
countries with equivalent
levels of GDP.
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The Energy Crisis
• Greenhouse gas emissions:
– The growth of GHG emissions is greatest in the
rapidly growing economies of India and China.
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The Energy Crisis
• Energy consumption:
– Global energy consumption is rising rapidly.
Energy consumption is rising most rapidly in the
developing (non-OECD) countries.
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The Energy Crisis
• Primary fuels:
– Most of the growth in demand for energy use is
met by burning fossil fuels, which release
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
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The Energy Crisis
• Coal:
– Coal is cheap, abundant, and widely available.
– Coal is also dirty, its mining causes
destruction, and it pollutes the atmosphere.
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The Energy Crisis
• Coal:
– China has relied on cheap coal to meet its
demand for energy as the population and
economy have expanded rapidly.
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The Energy Crisis
• Coal:
– The production of electricity
from coal is inefficient.
– Burning coal at higher
temperatures is more efficient,
but it is technologically
demanding and expensive to
implement.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Coal:
– Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
coal-fired stations can increase the efficiency of
electricity production.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Coal:
– If coal is necessary to meet the growing demand for
electrical power, carbon sequestration and storage
must be a priority.
– There are many ways
that carbon dioxide
can be stored safely,
but each adds to the
cost of the energy
produced.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Natural gas:
– Natural gas is a cleaner fuel than coal and
produces much less carbon dioxide when
burned.
– The use of natural gas to
generate electricity and
supply the needs of transport
is expected to increase in
both the developed world
and the developing world.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Natural gas:
– Vast reserves of shale gas can be recovered through
formation fracturing (“fracking”).
– This new and cheaper gas has the potential to
replace coal as the main fuel for electricity
generation.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Natural gas:
– Potential gas reserves have increased
significantly with the discovery of new shale gas
formations, but how much of this gas can be
extracted economically is still uncertain.
– Known reserves are still enough to supply needs
well beyond the end of this century.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– Oil is the primary fuel for transport.
– Since 1980, most growth in the use of oil in the
United States has been in the transport sector.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– Conventional oil reserves have passed peak
production and will decline rapidly with increasing
demand from India and China.
– The discovery of commercial tar sand reserves may
extend the time horizon of oil, but the
extraction of liquid petroleum
from oil sands is expensive
and harmful to the natural
environment.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– As much oil is available from oil sands as from
conventional reserves.
– Canada is set to become the Saudi Arabia of the
north, one of the main reasons it withdrew from
the Kyoto Protocol.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– Growth in the demand for oil from the developing
world will increase competition for known
reserves and create strategic tensions between
nations.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– Much of the growth in demand for oil in China is
driven by the growth in demand for personal
transport and the transport of goods by road.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– The demand for oil can be reduced significantly
with the introduction of new higher vehicle
mileage standards.
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The Energy Crisis
• Oil:
– The introduction of a new generation of electric
and hybrid cars will reduce the demand for oil and
the overall level of greenhouse gas emissions.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Nuclear power:
– Many people fear nuclear power, even though it
has one of the best safety records of all energy
sources.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Nuclear power:
• France has produced most of its energy from
nuclear power since the oil crisis of the 1970s. It has
had no serious incidents and is now a net exporter
of electrical power.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Nuclear power:
– The Fukushima disaster in Japan caused many
governments to rethink their commitment to nuclear
power, but without some resurgence of nuclear
power, it is unlikely that the world can meet essential
emissions targets by 2050.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Renewable energy:
– Rapid growth in the use of alternative energy seems
impressive, but the overall increase in the demand for
power, and the use of fossil fuels, means that the
percentage contribution of renewable energy is growing
very slowly.
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The Energy Crisis
• Renewable energy:
– Wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal power still
account for less than 1% of global power generation.
– This is not enough to prevent a rapid rise in global
emissions.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Hydroelectric power:
– Most large rivers with hydroelectric power
potential are now in use.
– Small local hydroelectric power generators have
more future potential.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Geothermal power:
– Geothermal power is not available only in hot zones
like Iceland.
– Normal geothermal
gradients can be used
to heat water in the
winter and cool in the
summer.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Wind energy:
– Wind energy is free, clean, and
plentiful.
– We need a away to store energy for
times when the wind is not blowing.
– We need to get energy to places
where the wind does not blow
strongly.
– We need a modern energy
infrastructure.
– Offshore arrays have great potential.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Concentrated solar towers:
– Concentrated solar towers have great future potential.
– We need to get energy from sunny places to places
where energy is needed.
– We need a modern energy
infrastructure.
– We need ways to store energy
for nighttime energy demands.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Photovoltaic cells:
– Photovoltaic (PV) cells are becoming much less
expensive and more accessible.
– PV cells have potential for domestic and commercial use.
– For many consumers, it takes too long to see a return
on investment with PV cells.
– Large arrays in the desert have great future potential.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Solar updraft towers:
– Solar updraft towers make use of thermal updraft.
– They produce power at night but less than in the
daytime.
– Heat collectors cover a
large surface area for
the power generated.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Tidal and wave power:
–
–
–
–
Tidal and wave power have great potential globally.
They provide reliable and sustainable power.
The technology is new and relatively untested.
Power generated at the coast
needs to be transported inland,
so more modern infrastructure
is needed.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Bioethanol:
– Bioethanol is a clean, sustainable source
of fuel.
– The use of corn as a fuel
source elevated food prices.
– Other sources of fuel are
available that will not
inflate food prices.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Algal bioreactors:
– Algae have much higher oil content than crops
such as corn, canola, and soy.
– The production of algal reactors
can be enhanced using CO2 from
power station exhaust.
– Year-round production can be
achieved with algal bioreactors.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• Hydrogen:
– Hydrogen is a clean fuel with potential but faces
many technological problems.
– Electrical energy is required to produce hydrogen.
– Hydrogen is clean if produced
using renewable energy.
– Hydrogen burns to produce
energy and water.
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Energy Crisis
• From the light that escapes into space, we can
see how much energy is used in the developed
world and how little energy is used in the
developing world.
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Looking Ahead
• The expansion of the global population is
placing ever-increasing demands on energy to
feed economic growth.
• The prospects of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions to a level that will avoid the damaging
impact of climate change seem increasingly
remote unless we take rapid action very soon.
• Chapter 10 considers some of the options for
such action and the political and social contexts
that will determine their success or failure.
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