The energy requirements - Essay Example

 The energy requirements of the world are increasing day by day. The reserves of traditional energy resources like fossil fuels are rapidly depleting. In order to meet the ever increasing energy demands of the world, effort needs to put in to research alternatives to the fossil fuels. This paper would talk about the conversion of one form of energy to another and what alternatives to fossil fuels can we use to meet our energy requirements. According to the law of conservation of energy, energy can neither be created nor be destroyed but it can be converted from one form to another. There are many forms of energy, like the kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy and we see conversions from one form to another fairly frequently in our lives. An iron makes use of electrical energy and converts it to heat energy. The potential energy of an apple hanging on a tree is converted into kinetic energy when it falls down. The kinetic energy of moving water is converted into electrical energy by the generators and turbines installed in a hydroelectric power station. It is however important to note that none of the above conversions of energy are not hundred percent efficient and energy is lost during the process. This does not mean that the energy is not conserved; the amount of energy that is being converted is always equal to the other form of energy and the energy that is lost during the process of conversion. Fossil fuels are the remains of the living organisms that inhabited this world millions of years ago. The dead bodies of these organisms were buried deep down under the rocks where lack of oxygen prevented the decay. After about a period of millions of years, these corpses have converted into fossil fuel on exposure to extreme conditions of heat and pressure. Examples of fossil fuels include coal and oil. Fossil fuels have been used since ages as a fuel to power the industries and with the advent of electricity, they began to be utilized as an important source of energy. The reason why fossil fuels are considered as attractive sources of energy is because they have a high carbon content which can easily burn in air to provide great amount of heat energy per unit weight which in turn can be used to run generators to produce electricity (Hodge, 2009). Since the reserves of fossil fuels are rapidly running out due to extreme commercial and industrial use, the world is pitting its hopes in finding alternative sources of energy. Two of the most promising of such sources are the nuclear power and the solar power. The metals that have a very high atomic mass are unstable and hence they disintegrate ejecting subatomic particles. These subatomic particles can be used to harness energy in two ways. The first one is nuclear fission in which a ‘heavy’ atom disintegrates into two lighter atoms generating energy in the process. The other is nuclear fusion in which a lot of energy is first provided to fuse together light atoms of two elements to form one ‘heavy’ atom releasing substantial amount of energy in the process. Compared to fossil fuels, these sources of nuclear energy are very efficient and produce huge amount of energy. One ton of Uranium can produce the same amount of energy as produced by 16000 tons of coal (Hodge, 2009). Nuclear energy is also friendly to the atmosphere since there is no release of harmful gases or pollutants into the air. Harnessing energy from fossil fuels is however easier when compared to nuclear power since construction of a nuclear plant is very expensive and even though there is no release of gaseous pollutants, the solid nuclear waste needs to be disposed off safely since it remains toxic for more than thousand years, which is a big problem and a major disadvantage when it comes to using nuclear fuels as an energy resource. Another alternative to fossil fuels is the solar energy which has a lot of potential to develop into the fuel of the future. The light and heat energy from the sun is converted into electrical energy either through the use of solar cells or by using the heat and focusing it onto one region to drive a generator. In contrast to the fossil fuels, solar energy is a very green source of energy since the process does not produce any pollutants. Also once the plants are installed, the process is continuous and automated and hence the cost of running it is very low (Hodge, 2009). On the contrary, the initial costs are very high and energy production is very limited when compared to a power plant which burns fossil fuels. Hence a lot of research needs to be done on the alternative sources of energy so that the world is fully prepared if there are any sort of energy crisis. Works Cited Hodge, B. K. (2009). Alternative Energy Systems. Wiley. Read More