Why do you need to think about energy?
We cannot help finding the extreme weather more serious through the hot weather and heavy rains we experienced this summer. The cause of this extreme weather is global warming. Emissions of greenhouse gasses, or carbon dioxide, which cause global warming, are a global problem. The main source of greenhouse gas emissions is power generation using fossil fuels.
In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we need to think about our power supply which depends on fossil fuels or energy issues.
Necessity of renewable energy
Energy is essential for our daily living and social activities. However, Japan is a country with a low energy self-sufficiency ratio because most of the fossil fuels rely on imports.
In the near future energy consumption all over the world will increase greatly. There is a possibility that a stable supply of electric power will be difficult to sustain.
Therefore, we must consider the use of renewable energy sources that take advantage of the local climate and natural features, such as solar power generation, for power generation. In other words, we need to aim for ‘local production for local consumption of energy’.
The efforts of raising energy self-sufficiency ratio
Which energy sources would be suitable? The following table compares the advantages and disadvantages of energy sources.
Renewable energy is environmentally friendly energy that doesn’t emit carbon dioxide when used for electric generation.
Our city, Hamamatsu, has adopted solar power generation more than other cities in Japan because of its long hours of sunlight.
However, solar power generation has some problems. It is affected by weather and sunlight conditions and cannot provide a stable supply of electricity. Besides, it has low conversion efficiency.
Surprisingly, although the use of renewable energy sources seems to have been tested and is becoming more widespread, our energy self-sufficiency ratio hasn’t changed at all and we still depend on fossil fuels. This means that thermal power plants must continue to operate to support the unstable supply of electricity from renewable energy sources.
Conclusion
It is essential to reduce thermal power generation and increase power generation from renewable energy sources. However, we must not only encourage the development of one type of energy, such as solar power, but also increase the combination of various renewable energies. The energy mix is critical. Furthermore, we should also focus on storage batteries. The biggest problem in the use of renewable energy is the stable supply of electricity, and storage batteries could lead to a solution to this problem.
Our proposal
We believe that there are things that need to be done in each country according to its circumstances. For technologically advanced countries, this means creating new technologies, such as developing storage batteries that will enable a stable supply of electricity from renewable energy sources, without relying on resources and energy from other regions.
On the other hand, emerging countries should try to create new cities based on good energy supply plan and other environmentally friendly urban development without being preoccupied with immediate profits.
We also suggest that all people around the world should always be aware of the importance of energy and proceed from what we can do, such as saving electricity.
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