Energy Crisis For Important Sustainability Issue

Selection and explanation of Important Sustainability Issue (Energy Crisis)

Discuss about the Energy Crisis for Important Sustainability Issue.

Energy Crisis is one of the major sustainability issue faced on a global scale. Energy is vital for performing all sorts of activities like production of food, transportation, and other economic development (Qureshi et al. 2016). Presently the major source of energy is limited to utilization of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. These are non-renewable in nature and likely to exhaust with passage of time. Moreover the reserves are limited unlike the solar or tidal source of power generation. The excessive dependence on these limited sources of energy has led to shortage of energy in many parts of the world.

The environmental elements or factors responsible for energy crisis are exhaustible nature of energy sources and affect of natural calamities. The major source of energy that are been utilized presently are coal and petroleum (Hannigan 2014). These are the decayed parts of the body of plant and animals that have been deposited in the inner layers of the earth over the years. The carbon content in the tissues of those body parts are utilized for energy production with the help of combustion. The deposited layer of the coal and petroleum is limited in nature. Constant utilization of them would result in exhaustion of the sources over the years.

Figure 1: Utilization of sources of energy

(Source: Tie and Tan 2013, pp-95)

It has been estimated that the coal and petroleum deposit at the current rate of utilization would get completely used up very soon (Hurt et al. 2013). Sometimes due to earthquake and plate movement in the earth, the deposits of the coal and petrol gets subdued to magma layer of the earth. Hence, they become inevitable for use by humans. During the volcanic eruptions, these layers get distorted and wasted. The crisis of the energy is result of these natural calamities and exhaustive nature of the resources used by the human result.

The social elements and factors that result in energy crisis are the overconsumption of the energy sources and the overpopulation (Ozturk et al. 2013). The energy reserves are limited in nature and not equally distributed over the globe. Some parts of the world are heavy populated so they require more energy to meet the needs of the people. It has been observed that the population of the world is constantly increasing at an alarming rate. So there has been massive increase in the demand of the power source and fuel. For every activity of the people, some energy is been utilized and consumed.

Environmental Elements of Energy Crisis

Figure 2: Causes of Energy Crisis

(Source: Ozturk et al. 2013, pp-74)

Modern technology and production in industries and factories require considerably large amount of energy and fuel for its overall activities. Hence the areas that are dominated by the industrial activities and excess technological development exhaust maximum amount of energy. Wastage of energy is another major reason behind the energy crisis. It has been seen that people wastes more energy than they utilize for their needs. In most of the places of the world the people are unaware of energy crisis. They waste the energy supply lavishly without realizing the upcoming problems that they would have to face in the near future.

The economic elements or factors that result in the energy crisis are cost of utilizing the renewable sources of energy, delay in establishing new power plants or reserves and poor infrastructure for power generation. The sources of energy that are used are non-renewable in (Hein 2015). The utilization of renewable sources of energy like solar or tidal requires modernized tools and techniques. Presently, the prices of these tools and instruments are very high that led to considerable increase in the overall cost of power generation. Maximum drainage of energy from current reserves and power plants has led to inefficiency of the power plant and reserves (Dicaire and Tezel 2013). It can be solved by making a substitute power plant in addition to the existing power plant. The delay in establishing the power plant and reserves would lead to energy crisis in the plant.

The infrastructure that is used for power generation is a crucial factor for efficient production of power from the resources. It has been seen that most of the power generation firm continue to use old tools to reduce the expense of the production. These old tools are not capable for working with 100% efficiency and waste some part of the energy resources (Festus and Ogoegbunam 2015). It is one of the main reasons behind the shortage of energy and restriction of the production capacity of the firm.

Energy crisis has affected almost all the activities of the world as it is needed for every activity. The energy crisis affects the world in economic development, providing financial support, in the industrial and agriculture sector and social life of the people. The fundamental problem of the energy crisis is hindering and ceasing the process of the production in different industries. In domestic usage energy crisis would lead to issues with the process of cooking and water stipulation.

Social Elements of Energy Crisis

Figure 3: Social effect of energy crisis

(Source: Jacquet and Stedman 2014 pp-1293)

Unemployment and Poverty are the two major ethical issues caused by the energy crisis. Employment plays an important role for an individual in achieving his/her daily needs. Poverty is relational condition of earning less money than the required money to fulfill the basic requirements. Unemployment and Poverty both result in defoliating the financial conditions that is caused by the energy crisis. Energy crisis is responsible for load shedding. Load shedding is the condition when the supply of power to a place in disturbed due to shortage. It results in causing unrest and sense of frustration among the people. Sometimes this frustration leads to a protest against the active government body.

The major ethical issues caused by energy crisis are unemployment and poverty. The economic condition of any organization depends on the production and sale of the goods. A huge amount of energy is utilized for production of the goods and fuel is used for providing transport facilities to the organization (Williams et al. 2013). Hence in absence of energy all the critical processing would cease and it would affect the economic condition of the organization. The organization would not be able to sale the goods in the lack of transport facilities if the fuel is not available. Hence it would have to cut the expenses for maintaining the organization. The organization would close its industrial units that would lead to unemployment of many workers (Hein 2015). It would also result in decreasing the opportunity for new employment. The condition of unemployment in major parts of a country is termed as the Recession period for the state.

Poverty is the defined as the most evil state of any person or country. There is a limit of per capita income of an individual set (Rosenow et al. 2013). If the annual income of any individual is less than the limited per capita income in the country, then the individual is kept below the poverty line. It is measured statistically. The energy crisis has indirect affect on the poverty. It results in the decline of the economic growth of the country. If the production of energy is low in any country, then it would need to ask for energy supply from some other country (Jacquet and Stedman 2014). The economy of the country would decline resulting in increasing poverty. The energy crisis would result in lowering the production capacity of agriculture and industries. The low productivity of agricultural products and the constrained growth of the industries would lead to an increase in the poverty.

Economical Elements of Energy Crisis

The energy crisis has adverse affect on all activities of human and economic conditions. Every industry is dependent on the energy supply for carrying out their activities actively. The energy crisis provides scope for the power supply companies to increase the rate of power supply. The company or the organization that generates and supply power can utilize this opportunity for earning more profit. If the demand of the object is more, it is possible that the supplier can increase the charges of supply (Festus and Ogoegbunam 2015). The company can be benefitted from the government policies in favor to the energy crisis.

The economic condition of the power supply companies and organization would increase. It provides opportunity of realization of the expected financial returns with the help of investments in new initiatives of efficient energy plans (Rosenow et al. 2013). It would provide opportunity for the organization to develop new contracts with its customers. The organization can be benefitted by using the energy crisis as an opportunity for developing new improved energy efficient methods of generating energy. The energy resources are tangible and exhaustive in nature. So it is possible that the resources can be tired out due to continuous use.

The energy crisis is responsible for decreasing the production of vital tools and technologies used for production of the energy. It would result in increasing the prices of those tools and instruments (Rosenow et al. 2013). Hence the power generation organization would have to buy them at higher costs that would lead to decrease of GDP of the company. Inflation is another important component that would decrease the annual income of the organization caused by the energy crisis. During energy crisis, utilization of substitute energy sources would increase and it would lead to decrease in the.

Energy crisis is one of the biggest problems faced by the people. It results in hindrance to the economy, social life, politics, and environment. The development of the solution for overcoming the situation is by using renewable sources of energy generation. Renewable sources of energy are those sources of energy that can be regenerated over time. It is non exhaustible in nature. Solar, Tidal and wind are the renewable sources of energy.

Figure 4: Renewable energy sources

(Source: Apergis and Payne 2012, pp-735)

The main reason behind the non-sustainability of the fossil energy is its exhaustive nature (Apergis and Payne 2012). The sources of coal and petroleum are limited and extensive uses of them would lead to the complete depletion of their source. However, the sources of solar, tidal and wind energy are not limited. Hence if these sources of energy are utilized for power generation, the energy crisis could be checked and stopped.

Ethical Dilemmas because of Energy Crisis

The generation of power using these renewable sources of energy is economically costly. The total amount that would be required to spent for generation of power from these sources are relatively high in compare to the cost of power generation using fossil fuels as the source (Edenhofer et al. 2013). However if the design is made favorable for generation power with less costing, these renewable energy can replace the traditional process of energy generation in the future. The renewable energy is cheaper than other sources of energy.

The technology used for generation of tidal or solar or wind energy is available in the market and it requires modification for generating huge amount of energy (Quaschning 2016). If the capacity of the energy generated by the tools and techniques is increased, then the usage of the fossil fuels can be reduced. The renewable sources of energy is reliable in nature and the manufacturing of the energy sources are economically stable and non vulnerable.

The renewable sources of energy are environmental friendly and produces very low greenhouse emission. The power generation using the natural resources produces no toxic waste and does not pollute the air. The energy prices of the non renewable energy are unstable. However, the prices of the natural resources are stable and do not require profound pricing.

Wind energy is the best source of energy for the places that are prone to wind velocity (Beurskens and Brand 2016). The windmills can be used for generating electricity by rotating the turbines of the motor. It requires simple technology for energy generation and is clean and eco friendly.

Figure 5: Wind energy generation

(Source: Hsu et al. 2014, pp-472)

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References

Apergis, N. and Payne, J.E., 2012. Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-growth nexus: Evidence from a panel error correction model.Energy Economics, 34(3), pp.733-738.

Beurskens, H.J.M. and Brand, A.J., 2016. Wind Energy. Wind Energy, 2015, p.2014.

Edenhofer, O., Hirth, L., Knopf, B., Pahle, M., Schlömer, S., Schmid, E. and Ueckerdt, F., 2013. On the economics of renewable energy sources. Energy Economics, 40, pp.S12-S23.

Festus, M.O. and Ogoegbunam, O.B., 2015. Energy Crisis And Its Effects On National Development: The Need For Environmental Education In Nigeria. British Journal of Education,3(1), pp.21-37.

Hannigan, J., 2014. Environmental sociology. Routledge.

Hsu, M.C., Akkerman, I. and Bazilevs, Y., 2014. Finite element simulation of wind turbine aerodynamics: validation study using NREL Phase VI experiment. Wind Energy, 17(3), pp.461-481.

Hurt, M.R., Borton, D.J., Choi, H.J. and Kenttämaa, H.I., 2013. Comparison of the structures of molecules in coal and petroleum asphaltenes by using mass spectrometry. Energy & Fuels, 27(7), pp.3653-3658.

Jacquet, J.B. and Stedman, R.C., 2014. The risk of social-psychological disruption as an impact of energy development and environmental change.Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 57(9), pp.1285-1304.

Ozturk, S., Sozdemir, A. and Ulger, O., 2013. The real crisis waiting for the world: Oil problem and energy security. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 3, p.74.

Quaschning, V., 2016. Understanding renewable energy systems. Routledge.

Qureshi, M.I., Rasli, A.M. and Zaman, K., 2016. Energy crisis, greenhouse gas emissions and sectoral growth reforms: Repairing the fabricated mosaic.Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.3657-3666.

Rosenow, J., Platt, R. and Flanagan, B., 2013. Fuel poverty and energy efficiency obligations–A critical assessment of the supplier obligation in the UK. Energy Policy, 62, pp.1194-1203.

Tie, S.F. and Tan, C.W., 2013. A review of energy sources and energy management system in electric vehicles. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 20, pp.82-102.

Williams, F.A., Oppenheim, A.K., Olfe, D.B. and Lapp, M. eds., 2013.Modern Developments in Energy, Combustion and Spectroscopy: In Honor of SS Penner. Elsevier.

Hein, E., 2015. Causes and Consequences of the Financial Crisis and the Implications for a More Resilient Financial and Economic System: Synthesis of FESSUD Work Package 3 (No. wpaper128).

Dicaire, D. and Tezel, F.H., 2013. Use of adsorbents for thermal energy storage of solar or excess heat: improvement of energy density. International Journal of Energy Research, 37(9), pp.1059-1068.