Since the last couple of years there has been renewed focus on the doomsday scenario of the world running out of oil. This has lead to the search for alternative fuels like making solar power viable, bio fuels, nuclear power, oil from shale , wind power etc ( both renewal and non renewal) ,. Oil today offers an extraordinary flexibility of it being portable, easy to transport, carry and burn which has resulted in the proliferation of mass transport. It is very difficult to imagine the world without oil – every thing will come to stop and sure with the way mankind has evolved with lots of ingenuity we will overcome this problem, even though there seems no viable alternative even in the conceptualization stage.
Solar power has been around for quite a number of decades but the capital cost of production is very high even though the running costs are low, then comes the availability of power which can be harnessed only in places where the sun light is available in plenty and the last is the area required is humungous to plant the solar panels. Though there has been a lot of research to make the panels more effective but I really doubt if it can replace the existing sources though may be a good supplement. It can be a good source for small requirements. As I have read - only Israel produces any meaningful amount of electricity from Solar Power something like 5% of its total requirement.
Oil from shale seems to be a pipe dream at this point in time– there is always a cost of how much energy will have to be spent to extract new forms as regards Bio fuels the eternal debate of food security will keep coming up as more and more land is diverted towards oil producing crops, though crops like Jatropha have ignited some hope as it can be grown on arid land without much tendering and support.
Wind power seems to be more of a gimmick than any serious effort to bridge the gap. There have been theories which state that large wind farms have the ability to alter the weather patterns resulting in diverting the rains. I think of all forms of renewal energy this is the most un-reliable. Hydro electricity should be tapped as much as possible – apart from generating electricity it has the potential to store water and divert it for irrigation. China has shown the way with the 3 Gorges dam.
I remember reading some time back that George Bush had some grand plan of getting a chemical from the surface of the moon which can replace the nuclear fuels like Uranium/plutonium which has similar properties but much safer. The biggest draw back of nuclear fuel is the safeguards and the chances of being used for the wrong purpose. Chernobyl demonstrated the disastrous fallout of nuclear radiation not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In my opinion the need for energy should be classified in to two major segments – portable for the common man catering to all forms of transport and the other is for the bulk use like electricity. We have scenarios where Gas is proposed to be used for generation of electricity which should be stopped and rather alternative sources like Coal etc should be preferred. I don’t think every any aircraft will fly on coal but on Gas – definitely possible.
