The world is making good progress in accessing electricity and improving energy efficiency. But, many parts of the world still suffer from huge energy crises. We all are aware that a lot of people still lack access to clean and affordable energy such as cooking fuels and electricity. Such deficiencies can affect world progress. To overcome this, goal 7 is established by UNDP which says that everyone should have access to clean and affordable energy.
Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. There are many goals for the Sustainable development but in this article we will be mainly focusing on the "AFFORDABLE and CLEAN ENERGY".
Why is it important? Following issues can be resolved by supporting in achievement of goal 7:
(according to the figures stated by UNDP in India)
⮚ Can help to provide good facilities for everyone: One in every 7 people living in rural areas still lacks electricity.
⮚ Help in reducing climate issues: Energy contributes to about 60% of total greenhouse gases production.
⮚ Can reduce energy consumptions: Industry and energy consumption can be reduced by about 14% by proper energy efficiency standards.
⮚ Help in increasing standard of living:3 billion which makes more than 30% of the world population pollute their foods by using unhealthy fuels.
⮚ Promote use of Renewable sources of energy: As of 2015, only about 20% of power is generated through renewable sources.
Increase employment: Renewable energy sector could employ more than 10.3 million people in 2017.
Action taken by India to achieve the goal:
One World One World One Grid (OSOWOG): The Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE) is planning to connect countries through a common grid which will help to transfer solar energy. The vision behind the OSOWOG mantra is “the Sun never sets” and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time. The plan considering India as a central hub includes eastern countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia and the middle east and African region in the west.
The plan is divided into three phases: the first phase will connect the Indian grid with the Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asian grids to share solar and other renewable energy resources. The second phase will connect the first phase nations with the African pool of renewable sources. The third phase will be the concluding step of global interconnection, said MNRE.
Apart from this the MNRE is also implementing a program for deployment of medium sized bio-gas plants in the rural and semi-urban areas of the country. The program could help in the power generation from about 3kW to 250kW. Also, the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana is a big support towards the goal. This scheme helps in production of ethanol using damaged and surplus food grains. It supports the integrated Bioethanol projects which uses lignocellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock to set up the second-generation ethanol projects across the country.
Sustainable Energy and Sources :
Our everyday life needs clean and affordable energy to function and run our processes smoothly. So to have a smooth running life we need to switch to the Sustainable energy from the electricity because the electricity is mainly produced by burning the fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas and this produces a large amount of greenhouse gases that causes the climate change, global warming and mainly harmful chemicals are released in the environment which impacts the well being of the humans. To stay healthy and live a longer life on earth it is becoming very essential to implement sustainable energy into our day-to-day lives. Small changes can really make a big difference in saving the environment.
As switching to sustainable energy has become important, to start with we can use the energy which can be produced from the organic materials, (biomass) derived from plants or animals which are naturally available in the environment (without affecting the environment ) i.e the “BioEnergy”.
Bioenergy - The Agent of New Generation Sustainable Energy :
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) defines bioenergy as a renewable form of energy. The IEA (International Energy Agency) defines bioenergy as the most important source of renewable energy today. Bioenergy is the most widely used renewable energy in the world, providing around 10% of the world's primary energy supplies, mostly as thermal energy for heating and cooking. Bioenergy can be traced back to energy from sunlight which is produced by the process of photosynthesis, which makes it a major renewable energy source all around and it is another type of renewable energy that can help us in reducing carbon emission.
Biomass can be considered as nature “solar batteries” which is a storage house of bioenergy. Biomass is any organic material which can absorb sunlight and later store it in the form of chemical energy, examples include wood, energy crops and waste from forests, yards, or farms. When these are used s biomass then they are called as “feedstocks”
How is Bioenergy produced and how will it be used to generate electricity?
Bioenergy is mainly created from many processes like : combustion, pyrolysis, gasification, anaerobic digestion, fermentation and the most common method of generating electricity is through direct combustion.
1. Combustion: Most common process where it uses excess of air to create heat. The first part of the process involves the creation of vapours that can combust from the biomass, it burns like flame. The residual material, i.e charcoal is then burnt while a forced-air supply helps to create more heat. The gases then pass through a heat exchanger where they produce steam, hot air or hot water which helps in spinning the turbines.
2. Pyrolysis: Is a process which entails burning of biomass and waste food products at excessive temperatures in absence of oxygen, this causes formation of latest molecules and in return changes the traits of the waste material after which ensures that a huge quantity of energy may be produced. Thus, thermal decomposition of biomass creates products referred to as biochar, bio-oil and quite a number gases.
3. Gasification: It is a thermal process where it converts plant matter into several gases that are combustible in nature.
4. Anaerobic Digestion: It is a process where microorganisms are used to break down the biomass which results in producing the gas that consists of methane and carbon dioxide.
5. Fermentation: it is a process in which the biomass is broken down anaerobically and the series of chemicals are possible to use in vehicles .
Why to use Bioenergy?
- Better air quality
- Biofuels re biodegradable
- Regional and rural economic development and employment opportunities
- Supporting agricultural and food-processing industries
- Cost saving
- Less landfills
- Energy reliability and security
- A growing range of technologies and applications
- Alternatives to prescribed forest burning
- Environmental benefits from growing certain bioenergy crops.
Is Bioenergy Sustainable and good for the environment?
Bioenergy enhances regional energy access and reduces the dependency on fossil fuels. It has the potential to stimulate the forestry and agriculture sectors and supports increased use of renewable resources as feedstocks for a range of industrial processes. It can contribute to our global climate change improvement goals as well as other social and environmental objectives.Hence, does not disturbs the carbon cycle
As opposed to fossil fuel combustion, the carbon dioxide released on burning biomass amounts to the same absorbed from the environment and hence does not disturb the carbon cycle. It can be said that the energy efficiency of Bioenergy is much better than that of other combustible sources,keeping note that the sustainability and environmental benefits still depend on the feedstocks that are being used for the production.
To conclude –
We can say that :
Most of the bioenergy delivers heat in buildings and industry, but bioenergy is also expected to account for 3% of electricity production and around 4% of transport energy demand in 2023 in accordance with International Energy Agency, 2018 and Any use of bioenergy as a substitute for fossil fuels should result in a significant reduction of emissions over the short time periods (years rather than decades) that matter for climate impacts.
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