New Energy Resources

Advantages of Alternative Energy Resources

In November 2021, almost 200 nations met at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. After a fortnight's negotiations, the attending countries agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce their use of coal, favouring alternative energy resources instead.

Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas. They occur naturally in the Earth's crust, and are extracted and burned to produce energy.

Why are Alternative Energy Resources Preferable to Fossil Fuels?

• Renewable: unlike fossil fuels, many alternative energy resources replenish themselves. They cannot be depleted by human exploitation.

• Increased Efficiency: burning fossil fuels to produce power is an inefficient form of energy generations. Coal power stations have an efficiency of just 29% of its original energy value. In contrast, wind energy has an efficiency of 50%.

• Cleaner: burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Furthermore, fossil fuel combustion releases harmful pollutants that impact human health and the environment. Alternative energy resources don't emit greenhouse gases or harmful pollutants.

Figure 1 – Coal power stations release a variety of hazardous air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide. Source: unsplash.com

• Economic Development: the alternative energy industry provides jobs and income for millions of people worldwide. Additionally, alternative energy can be utilised in remote areas, far from the National Grid.

Nuclear Power and Renewable Energy

New energy resources are split into two categories: nuclear power and renewable energy.

Nuclear Power

There are three types of nuclear power generation:

• Fission reactions – splitting atoms of certain elements (usually uranium and plutonium) to produce energy. The energy is used to heat water into steam, where it drives turbines which power a generator. The vast majority of nuclear power stations produce energy using fission reactions.

• Fusion reactions – fusing atomic nuclei to make one larger nucleus produces vast amounts of energy. Nuclear fusion takes place in the Sun, providing heat and light to planets millions of miles away. This is still an underdeveloped form of nuclear power but more information on that lower down!

• Nuclear decay – the decay of radioactive products is utilised in niche applications, such as generating electricity in space probes.

Figure 2 – Nuclear power plants are usually built near coastlines or estuaries. This is because the plants need large amounts of water for cooling systems. Source: unsplash.com

Since the first commercial nuclear power stations began operating in the 1950s, nuclear power has grown in popularity, now producing around 10% of the world's electricity. It's a clean, carbon-free method of generating power.

Renewable Energy

Usually, renewable energy resources are considered sustainable because they replenish themselves and do not rely on finite resources, like fossil fuels and nuclear power.

New Energy Resources: Examples

Even though new energy resources have an edge on fossil fuels, they're not perfect. All have their advantages and disadvantages, which are summarised in this table.

New Energy Sources for the Future

A few decades ago, modern-day energy technology like offshore wind seemed futuristic and impossible. What are the impossibles of today, that may become probable as technology improves?

Nuclear Fusion

The majority of nuclear power stations generate electricity using fission reactions, but what about fusion reactions?

The main challenge in fusion research is creating temperatures high enough to enable nuclei fusion. Two strategies are being tested:

• Confining and heating hydrogen fuel inside a strong magnetic field

• Shooting hydrogen fuel pellets with powerful laser beams

If suitable technology is developed, nuclear fusion could be groundbreaking. It provides over four times as much energy as uranium fission, and it produces no radioactive waste.

Hydrogen Fuels

Hydrogen gas is highly flammable, but when burned, only produces water as a by-product.

Scientists have begun incorporating hydrogen into fuel cells. They're three times as efficient as a petrol combustion engine, and don't release harmful pollutants.

Figure 3 – This car could be the future of transport. Showcased in Tokyo, this Toyota vehicle is powered by solely by hydrogen fuel cells. Source: unsplash.com

The main challenges in developing hydrogen fuels are:

• Compressing and storing hydrogen in vehicles

• Finding a renewable source of hydrogen

• Explosion risk

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

The concept of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) exploits the temperature difference between warm surface waters of tropical oceans and cold deep waters below.

An offshore power plant that works like a reverse refrigerator could use the temperature difference to drive turbines that generate electricity. OTEC power plants would produce a renewable, clean source of energy, and they can be placed offshore on floating platforms. But developing feasible OTEC power plants faces some challenges:

• More expensive to build than other types of power plants

• Only suitable in tropical latitudes

• The best sites are often far from densely populated areas

Solar Fuels

Common substances like water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide could be synthesised into liquid hydrocarbon fuels using solar energy. The fuels would be sustainable, storable, and portable.

The main challenges facing the development of solar fuels are:

• Unpredictability of incoming solar radiation

• High costs

• Materials and system design

Space-based Solar Power

By far the most outlandish future technology is space-based solar power. Giant mirrors in space direct solar radiation onto solar panels, where it is converted to electricity. The energy is beamed back to Earth via microwaves or lasers, then converted back into electricity on Earth.

Space-based solar power could generate vast amounts of power 24/7, with no greenhouse gases or waste products.

Not surprisingly, there have been a few challenges in its development, including:

• Development and transport costs

• Risk of damage to solar panels in space

• Expensive and complex technological demands

I hope that this article has explained new energy resources to you. Remember that new energy resources are sources of electricity that don't rely on fossil fuels. They are often cleaner and more efficient sources of electricity, but they are not without their drawbacks.

^{1. Adam Vaughan, COP26: World agrees to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce coal, New Scientist, 2021}

^{2. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Fact Sheet: Offshore Wind Energy, 2010}

^{3. Gemma N. Thomas, Low carbon and renewable energy economy, UK: 2020, Office for National Statistics, 2022}

^{4. Green Match, Space-Based Solar Power: The Future Source of Energy?, 2022}

^{5. Greg Hatala, Glimpse of History: Hindenburg turns heads in New Brunswick, NJ Advance Media, 2013}

^{6. Hannah Ritchie, Renewable Energy, Our World in Data, 2022}

^{7. Hemanth Kumar, The top ten nuclear energy-producing countries in 2021, Power Technology, 2021}

^{8. Phoenix Energy: Renewable Energy: What’s the Most Efficient Energy Source?, 2020}

^{9. Project Solar, The History of Renewable Energy: Where It All Began, 2018}

^{10. Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, Facts about Future Energy Resources, 2020}

^{11. World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Power in the World Today, 2022}