The Need for Alternative Energy Resource in the UK - Case Study Example

Introduction The pace of economic growth has been unprecedented during last fifty years as the industrial development of the world at large accelerated to a huge extent. The increase in population of the world also increased the demand for goods and services which required a faster exploitation of the available resources of the world to meet the aggregate demand. Since last 100 years Developed countries have been utilizing the cheap fuel resources and with the emphasis of the Western Governments for economic growth, the existing pace of economic growth has resulted into enormous exploitation of existing resources. The industrial growth as well as the increase in the output levels however required constant supply of energy resources that were considered as necessary to fuel the economy. The increasing use of energy resources especially oil however put extra pressure on the available reserves of the world thus making a case for the development of alternative energy. (Karakosta, 2009) The need for renewable alternative energy sources is therefore critical in the sense that they can not only help to conserve the existing traditional resources such as oil but also provide more cleaner and less environmentally damaging energy resources. However, the use of alternative energy resources such as bio-fuel is also not as clean as it is considered not entirely economic and as damaging to the environment. Nuclear energy is therefore again considered as one of the most important aspects of using energy more cheaply and in relatively environment friendly manner. (Ryland, 2002) This report will therefore look at the various ways different alternative energy resources can be utilized with special emphasis on the nuclear power as the major source to be used as alternative energy resource for UK in next 30 years. Renewable Alternative Energy Renewable alternative energy is the energy that has been generated from general resources of the earth however they are renewable in nature. As discussed above that the existing traditional energy resources of the world are not renewable in nature and their existing stock is depleting with the passage of time. In order to fuel the economy, the renewable alternative energy resources therefore are considered as one of the main resources to fuel the economy. Fossil fuel is another critical source of energy that can be obtained from the natural decomposition of buried and dead creatures and can also serve as an alternative energy resource with relatively cheap cost and durability. (Mikkila & Heinimo, 2009) There can be different sources of renewable alternative energy including wind, sunlight, geothermal heat, sea tides etc. these resources are not only renewable in nature but are also abundant in energy that can support the world economic growth for thousands of years to come. It was also because of this reason that the investment into the renewable alternative energy projects increased by manifolds in the recent past as more and more companies are preferring to use this source of energy in order to not only become environmentally compliant entities but also achieve efficiency by utilizing the cheap alternative resources of energy. (Heinimo & Ojanen, 2008) The Need for Alternative Energy Resource For over last 100 years, the economic growth has been substantiated by the cheap supply of the traditional sources of the energy comprising mainly of oil and coal. Advanced countries therefore in order to achieve the economic growth and maintained that momentum continued to explored oil based cheap energy resources. Utilitarian approaches of justice indicate that the governments must take actions that can produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Based on such ethical foundation, most of the Western countries therefore committed themselves to achieve the sustained level of economic growth as ability to consume more is often linked with the achievement of maximum happiness for all. It is within this perspective that the many governments as well as firms are encouraging the use of alternative energy resources to achieve the cleaner environment that can improve the standards of the life of the citizens. Alternative energy resources though incur high start up costs however their recurring costs are low therefore they serve as the cheaper alternative sources with low social and environmental costs as compared to other means of energy such as oil based energy resources. The use of alternative energy sources is also considered as one of the most effective methods of the energy conservations and governments emphasis on their use to achieve self sufficiency in the energy conservation. The use of alternative energy resources is also critical due to the fact that the sustainability issues associated with the use of traditional means of energy have econ-centric, techno- centric as well as socio-centric concerns. It is because of this reason that governments are now considering their ethical duty to utilized bio-energy to its maximum effect. (Fellows, 2006) There are various reasons as to why the governments are emphasizing on the greater use of bio-energy as the major source of energy consumption. Main reasons include increasing prices of the oil which put extra economic pressures on the poor States to foot heavy oil bills thus leaving fewer funds for the spending on development of their infrastructure. Secondly, oil producing countries are political destabilized i.e. Iraq, Iran, Russian States, therefore the dependence of advanced countries on such oil producers make it more uncertain to ensure that the oil supplies will be continued to support the economic growth of developed countries. Further rural development and diversification of the farm activities is another critical issue that is of concern for the governments to handle in order to ensure that the supply of traditional sources of energy is constant regardless of above situations. During last ten years, UK government however put in lesser effort to energy conservation at the individual level and as such there was no effort to teach the citizens to use alternative energy resources to achieve the energy conservation. Though some firms attempted to use alternative energy resources however give the high cost of such set up it was discouraged to apply such alternative energy resources but was not taken seriously. This despite of the fact that UK possesses one of the largest untapped resources that can produce alternative energy at relatively cheaper costs. Though The renewable alternative energy sources are considered as essential for achieving cleaner environment however according to James Lovelock, inventor and scientist, claim that the actual environment damaging impacts of the green energy resources will be noticed around 2050 when the real impact of the alternative energy sources can be effectively measured. The renewable energy resources are also land sensitive and as such their overall impact can be enormous. For example, the power density of the tides in Scotland is considered as sufficient however, its overall destructive power is more critical to the environment and society than its overall benefit. Lovelock also advocates the use of nuclear energy as the major source because the overall probability of the destructive powers of the nuclear power on the environment as well as on the animals is negligible as compared to other sources. The only incidents that have been witnessed failed to create any real damage for the livestock as well as the nature as a whole thus nuclear power , according to Lovelock, shall be the priority of the governments to obtain for meeting their alternative energy requirements. However, before discussing and making the case for nuclear power, it is critical that the other renewable energy resources shall also be discussed. Following section will therefore discuss the alternative energy resources in greater detail: Other Options Solar Energy Sun is considered as the most powerful energy producer in the whole of the universe and as such solar energy is most powerful and freely available source to be utilized. However, despite such importance, the avenues for the solar energy have not been tapped to their fullest extent. Solar energy however, has few of the lacunas that need to be concerned as the existing technological base in not considered as efficient to achieve the required objectives. Solar technologies are both active and passive in nature as their use is dependant upon how they capture the energy. There are various uses of the solar energy and as such the different technologies and their relative architecture is mostly dependent upon the relative use of the energy. For example the technologies for converting solar energy into electrical energy are different than using the solar energy for some other purposes. The technologies are easy to develop however they are expensive as compared to the conventional sources of energy. What is also critical to understand that the solar energy technologies still lack the relative sophistication necessary for generating large scale energy? Thus the use of solar energy has been limited with limited future potential for using the solar energy for heavy industrial purposes. Wind Energy Wind Power is another critical source of energy that utilizes the wind energy into the power energy to generate alternative forms of energy. The current estimated indicate that the wind energy is only fulfilling 1.5% 1of the world electricity requirements thus showing the relative limitations of this energy to serve as the mass energy producing mean. However, the recent trends indicate that the world capacity to generate the wind energy is increasing with the passage of time and it is now being tapped as one of the most critical energy sources given the fact that one third of the world is covered with water and coastal areas can serve as the best locations to generate and utilize the wind energy. US and China are the two of the largest economies in the world that are effectively using the wind energy as the alternative source of energy. What is also however, critical to note that China is specially perusing different policy initiatives to increase their capacity? (Sawin, 2009). However, not every country can be self sufficient in generating the wind energy as land locked countries may face shortages of such energy and as such their reliance on the external world may increase. Geo-Thermal Energy Geothermal energy is another critical source of energy that can be used to generate the energy sources. Though goe-thermal energy is considered as cost effective, reliable as well as less environmentally damaging fuel however its extraction is limited to certain areas only. Thus to generate the geothermal energy a country has to possess certain natural characteristics in order to take benefits of this. The recent trends show increasing activity especially in terms of technological advancement as new technologies have been successful in increasing the capacity of the economies to generate the geothermal energy. What is also critical to note that the constructions of plants for geothermal energy production can produce land destabilization as well as can trigger earthquakes if used for sustained level. Bio- Fuel Bio fuel is one of the most important and in demand alternative energy source that is being used at commercial level. Derived from plants etc, bio-fuel and its development has largely been due to the unprecendant hike in the oil prices. Technology is become less costly and as such bio-fuels are now mixed with gasoline to be sold as mix of fuel for transportation purposes. The electricity generating capabilities of bio-fuel are less known as ethanol- major bio-fuel is used mainly in cars. The trends however, indicate that the ethanol may become one of the leading alternative energy resources however, bio-fuel are less known for their renewability. Other fuels Hydro energy as well as tidal energy are other important sources however, their supply is largely constrained on the availability of natural resources and can create significant ecological issues specially in case of construction of large dams that can destroy the ecology of the surrounding areas at much faster rates. Recommendations The above discussions indicate that the development of alternative energy resources is dependent upon the specific natural characteristics of a nation. This therefore limit the possibility of the mass scale development of such technologies that can than be used for the purpose of using at large commercial as well as individual level. Since the uses of energy are diversified in nature it is therefore critical that the nuclear energy shall be utilized as the major source of alternative energy to achieve the economic growth. Nuclear power is critical because of the fact that it can be helpful in generating mass scale energy sources that can be used for large commercial purposes whereas its impacts on the ecological system are also negligible in nature as nuclear energy is generally handled with extreme care. This report therefore recommends the development and use of nuclear power for meeting the energy requirements of UK for next 30 years. Conclusion UK requires more energy resources to fuel its economic growth in future however due to constraints on the regular supply of oil based fuel. In such scenario the development of the alternative fuel is of tantamount importance as alternative energy resources are not only renewable in nature but are also cheap. Different alternative energy fuels are efficient however they have their limitations and mainly based on the natural resources of that country. In such situation development and use of nuclear power therefore is of critical importance as it can offer mass scale energy resources for mass scale consumption at relatively low cost. Bibliography 1. Fellows, R. (2006). Sustainability: a matter of energy? Property Management , 24 (2), 116-131. 2. Heinimo, J., & Ojanen, V. (2008). Views on the international market for energy biomass in 2020: results from a scenario study. International Journal of Energy Sector Management , 2 (4), 547 - 569. 3. Karakosta, C. (2009). Shaping sustainable development strategies in Chile through CDM. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management , 1 (4), 382 - 399. 4. Mikkila, M., & Heinimo, J. (2009). Evaluation of sustainability schemes for international bioenergy flows. International Journal of Energy Sector Management , 3 (4), 359-382. 5. Ryland, D. (2002). The future of nuclear energy in Europe: questions, problems and perceptions. Managerial Law , 44 (4), 91 - 111. 6. Sawin, J. L. (2009). Wind Power Increase in 2008 Exceeds 10-year Average. Retrieved January 23, 2010, from World Watch Institute: http://vitalsigns.worldwatch.org/vs-trend/wind-power-increase-2008-exceeds-10-year-average Read More