Is Natural gas better than the so called clean and green renewables? We all know that global energy use has increased promptly over the preceding century, as a consequence of population expansion and increasing affluence. The global demand has increased on all the energy sources including oil, coal, gas, nuclear energy and especially all renewables. This reflects the idea that we are getting higher living standards, longer livelihood, and getting rid of poverty (Newell et al., 2020). But it is not true. Actually, we are creating bad environmental conditions for us, and most importantly the sever climatic changes at global scale which is not an evidence of increased living standards and life, and all this is due to the use of excessive fossil fuels for energy production. We all love green energy solutions that improve our life. To deal with these issues, the conventional media, luminaries, and a large segment of researchers recommended us to cuddle power efficient ways like solar energy and wind. They ask that we acknowledge renewable energy as a marvel choice that can satisfy worldwide energy needs in a spotless and green manner (Jayaraj, 2020).
Energy demand and contribution of renewables in world’s energy:
In global energy outlook 2020’s report, it is mentioned that the world might be on the border of its first evident energy progress. And it is reported on the base of intensification in the use of renewables and decline in consumption of fossil fuels. Wind and solar energy, are proposed to be leading source in new power generation setups (Newell et al., 2020).
The Global Wind Energy Council delivered its 15th report in 2019, and energetically flaunting that the use of wind power is expanding in worldwide marketplace by leaps and bounds since previous 20 years. In this report it is also mentioned that wind energy is turning into an ordinary source of clean, cost effective energy at global scale. It was indicated that 60.4 Gigawatts of wind power was produced by the installation of wind turbines in worldwide market in 2019 and it was 19% higher than the previous year. 2019 was reported to be the second best year for wind energy and it was expected that 2020 will the highest on record year for wind energy with 78 GW of new capacity (GWEC, 2019).
The proclamations, stories and pictures of wind turbines on any news media website, on BBC or air terminal advert about energy, create impressions in our mind that energy from the wind has a huge commitment to global energy supply these days. But, you are not right and your mind is diverted into false direction. Its involvement in energy sector is almost stagnant, even after many years of advancement, in consequence to the point of insignificance. Can you guess How many (%) of the global energy was produced by the wind energy in the year 2014? It was not 20%, 18%, or even 5%, it was zero percent which indicates that there is no wind energy on earth till now (Ridley, 2017; Jayaraj, 2020).
Indeed even wind and photovoltaic solar are providing not more than 1% of overall power demand across the world. International energy agency IEA revealed in its 2016 outline about the significant drifts in use of renewables, which indicates that energy supply from wind in 2014 was only 0.46 percent of energy consumption across the world. While solar and tidal powers together account for 0.35 percent. Keep in mind that it is not all about electricity it is related to the use of total energy.
Such statistics are not elusive, yet they are not obviously mentioned in announced outlines on power got from the unreliable campaign i.e. wind and solar energy. Their deluge is used to conceal the true figure behind the statements such as nearly 14 percent of global energy is renewable. In fact three quarters (75%) is biomass that is predominately wood, and an enormous portion of that is ‘conventional biomass’ such as and sticks, tree branches and manure that is really common source of energy for the poor families that they use for cooking. Those poor’s require that conventional power, but they suffer a lot by paying huge amount in medical conditions brought about by smoke inhalation.
Even in developed countries in addition to subsidized wind and solar energy, a massive energy in these countries comes from the reliable renewables such as from biomass and hydropower. Meanwhile, global energy demand has been rising approximately 2 percent annually for virtually 40 years. International Energy Agency statistics revealed that energy demand increased by nearly 2,000 TWh between 2013 and 2014.
As recommended by many scientists’ renewables like wind energy should be used, then how much wind turbines are needed to meet energy demand for the period of one year? The answer is round about three lac and fifty thousand, as a 2 MW turbine can generate approximately 0.005 TWh per year. On average 50 acres of land is required for a typical wind farm for each megawatt production. It means for more production we need more turbines that would entail a piece of land larger than the British Isles, containing Ireland, annually. If these turbines can be used for up to 50 years then wind turbines will cover the area equal to the size of Russia. And that ought to be enough to satisfy the novel energy requirements but it could not to relocate the massive prevailing energy stock from fossil fuels, which presently meet 80 percent of total energy demands (Ridley, 2017).
Ineffectual and unreliable:
If we consider the efficiency of wind turbines, it can be 35-45 percent efficient according to Betz limit. Even modern and best design will be efficient no more than 59 percent. So don’t believe on the notion that wind turbines could turn out to be more efficient. It’s all due to the limit that how much energy turbines can extract from the moving wind. Actually, turbines extract energy very slowly so that to be 100% efficient turbines need to stop the wind which is impossible. The effectiveness of the wind turbines is calculating by considering how much wind is accessible and it fluctuates time to time and it’s a big issue and we can’t change that (RUEK, n.d.).
Likewise use of solar energy limits due to the variations in the availability of sunlight and it also varies according to the changing weather conditions. And its efficiency is only 15-22 percent depending on the location, orientation and weather conditions (Vourvoulias, 2020).
Renewables are neither clean nor green:
Renewables are considered clean and green sources of energy due to its reduced environmental impacts. But actually it is not right. They are not clean and green.
Wind turbines are bad enough to have direct impact on the birds and habitats — killing birds and bats, sinking solid establishments profound into wild terrains etc. It consider clean because during production of electricity it generates zero emissions. But out of sight and out of mind is the grimy contamination produced during the mining of raw materials needed for the construction of turbines. It creates radioactive and toxic waste on a massive scale. The turbine’s blades are made up of steel and its base with concrete. Both steel and cement are made up of coal which is a fossil fuel, and it is greatest wind turbine problem it would not be wrong to say that the heavy machines of renewable is the product of fossil fuels finance. A 2 MW wind turbine weigh up to 250 tonnes, comprising the tower, nacelle, rotor and sharp blades. Almost half ton of coal is needed to mould a ton of steel and additional 25 tons is necessary for the cement production. Roughly we are using 150 tons of coal per turbine. According our present needs It is needed to shape three lac and fifty thosand wind turbines in one year, which will entail 50 million tons of coal a year. Due to this, the expression ‘clean and green energy’ is quite debilitated joke and priests must be embarrassed each time when we talk about it. The other issue associated with it is that decommissioned wind turbines are rushed into the mass landfills as they unable to recycle.
Likewise, solar energy is problematic due to its environmental impacts such as land use and habitat damage, and the water usage and harmful constituents in development of solar panels. In case of biomass, smoke produced during combustion is the greatest environmental problem. It pollute air and cause sever health issues. The conventional media don’t divulge that renewables are dirty. It is rare that they address the demonstrated toxicity of raw materials used in the assembling of solar and wind energy based units (Union of concerned scientists, 2008; Ridley, 2017).
The impression and claims that the “renewables are clean and source of energy” is nothing more than a global myth. And the claims that renewables are reliable source of energy production and can easily replace fossil fuels is only a misconception (Jayaraj, 2020).
Natural gas is better than renewables:
The purpose to discuss these numbers is to reveal that wind and solar power are not significant contributor to the world energy supply and are not enough to reduce emissions without demolishing the planet. The reality is that, if you wish to provide civilization power with lesser greenhouse gas production, then the focus point must be natural gas for energy generation, heat and transportation purposes. Its economically recoverable resources are significantly more abundant then we dreamed they could be. Greenhouse gas production during extraction and use of natural gas is much lower than the other fossil fuels while it boost up our economy (Ridley, 2017).
References:
Ridley, M., (2017, May 13). More gas, less wind. The Spectator. Retrieved from: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/more-gas-less-wind
C., Rotter, (2019, Jan 10). Wind turbines are neither clean nor green and they provide zero global energy. Watts Up With That? Retrieved from: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/01/10/wind-turbines-are-neither-clean-nor-green-and-they-provide-zero-global-energy/
Global wind energy council GWEC, 2019. Global wind energy report. Retrieved from: https://gwec.net/global-wind-report-2019/
Jayaraj, V., (2020, Oct 26). The Myth of Glorious Renewables. Watts Up With That? Retrieved from: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/26/the-myth-of-glorious-renewables/
Newell, R. G., Raimi, D., Villanueva, S., Prest, B., 2020. Global Energy Outlook 2020: Energy Transition or Energy Addition? Resource for the future. Retrieved from: https://media.rff.org/documents/GEO_2020_Report.pdf
RUEK, (n.d.). Betz limit. Retrieved from: http://www.reuk.co.uk/wordpress/wind/betz-limit/
Vourvoulias, A., (2020, Dec 10). How Efficient Are Solar Panels? Greenmatch. Retrieved from: https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2014/11/how-efficient-are-solar-panels
Union of concerned scientists, 2008. Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Technologies. Retrieved from: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-renewable-energy-technologies