The Business of Green Technology
Energy Overview
India's Green Future
Addressing India's future energy and water needs requires servicing five interrelated industrial sectors; agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, buildings and shelter, and waste management. In all these areas, green technology and high technology, working together, will provide answers. Solutions will embrace traditional practices as much as adopt scientific breakthroughs, and working synergistically within all these dimensions is necessary to quicken progress. It should be a source of inspiration that India can complete the process of industrialization today, leapfrogging obsolete legacy technologies that often hamper innovation in the west...
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China's Energy Outlook
China and India both have over a billion citizens. Each of these colossal countries by itself holds nearly a fifth of all humanity within its borders. But although India and China are nearly equal in their massive populations, China's economy is more than twice that of India's. China's economic clout in the world is being felt as never before, and right behind China is India - together nearly 2.5 billion people! The combined energy consumption of China and India is raising the ante for energy producers to the tune of ten quadrillion BTUs every few years. These rapidly industrializing, massive nations are turning the global energy economy on its ears......
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India's Energy Future
Diversity and a democratic heritage in India distinguish her from many other rapidly emerging nations, and these attributes will hopefully be a source of strength, adaptability and peaceful growth as she addresses her energy challenges for the new century. But this is not a certainty. Democracy and diversity are valuable assets only if there is a shared national will and national vision embracing inspiration over demogoguery, creativity over conformity, inclusiveness over tribalism, ecumenicalism over extremism, and participation and leadership from the grassroots to the top......
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The World Rankings: CO2, BTU, GNP, POP
You've heard the claims, now see how the nations really size up in terms of CO2 emissions and BTU energy consumption, both total and per capita, plus EcoWorld crunched the numbers to produce a fascinating table showing their relation to GNP...
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World Energy Consumption: The Good, The Bad, and the BTUs
To speak exclusively of conservation," said U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, "is to duck tough issues." It's hard to argue with that statement, whether or not you agree with anything else Cheney may have to say about energy. The tough issue is that energy production must increase, and conservation will only slow that increase but can't stop it. Energy production is a global issue, and in a world where populations are increasing and economies are industrializing, the idea that global energy usage can remain flat through conservation is ridiculous..."
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 Global Energy Supply and Demand
Oil, Coal and Natural Gas are non-renewable energy sources and are therefore of a limited supply on the planet Earth. Coal in particular has a relatively low energy density and coal mining can literally require "mountain removal" which is extremely disruptive to watersheds and water quality, not to mention ecosystem integrity. Every few years the U.S. Dept of Energy produces its International Energy Outlook, which estimates current global supplies, or reserves, and forecasts global use of these non-renewable sources...
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A Review of Energy Sources:
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Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas provide over 80% of the energy produced commercially. Fossil fuels are named such because they are developed from the fossilized remains of prehistoric plants.
The problem with fossil fuels, aside from air pollution, is they are a limited resource. As our worldwide requirement for fossil fuel continues to double every twenty years or so, we are assured to eventually run out.
Energy sources most used in the world today are, fossil fuels, water power, and nuclear energy. To a certain extent wood, solar, wind, tidal, chemical, and geothermal sources also provide energy. The future of energy is diverse and may include fuel cells, solid and liquid wastes, hydrogen, and, who knows(!), even MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) generators which produce power from the motion of electrically conductive liquids in magnetic and electrical fields. |
 Currently petroleum furnishes about 40 percent of the commercial energy used for transportation and heating. Coal provides about 26 percent of all the commercial energy used in the world, and is used mainly to produce steam for generators and steam engines and turbines. Natural gas accounts for about 21 percent of the energy used in the world. The most widespread use of natural gas is to generate steam for electric power or steam engines, to heat buildings, to cook with and other uses in various household appliances.
 Most petroleum is removed from the earth as a liquid called crude oil. Coal is mined from the Earth, which is a dangerous process that can cause respiratory diseases in miners. Natural gas comes from deposits in the earth also. Natural gas is a relatively clean source of energy compared to other fossil fuels and requires no further refining once mined from the Earth. Burning fossil fuel produces CO2 and other atmospheric pollutants such as sulfur. In an effort to reduce atmospheric pollutants many companies have installed filters and other cleaning devices at factories utilizing fossil fuel. LEARN MORE
 Water or hydropower, makes up around 7 percent of the world's commercial energy. Most water power is used to generate electric power. Since water power supplies energy without pollution and without using up the water in the process, it is widely thought to be the best source of power. The dams used to produce hydropower power, however, can cause irreversible damage to the surrounding ecosystems both up and down stream, threatening and possibly eradicating plant and animal species. There are "green dams" emerging in design that attempt to ameliorate the negative effects of dams through more extensive fish ladders, and channel and flood control architecture that optimizes the potential for existing natural wetlands to assist in water, flooding and ecosystem management.
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Nuclear fission produces vast amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel, the fission of 1 pound of uranium releases more energy than the burning of 3 million pounds (1,500 tons) of coal. Fission is the process of splitting atomic nuclei of certain elements such as uranium. This process produces hot waste water that may damage the environment and also produces waste that must be isolated to protect the environment. To reduce the thermal pollution, most new nuclear power plants have large water cooling devices. Nuclear fission power is now in its third generation of plant design and construction, with many new designs dramatically reducing the risk of a plant accident. Scientists and engineers are also working on experimental breeder reactors, which are a much more efficient version of a fission reactor because they "breed" new fuel while consuming the old fuel. The raw material for nuclear power, uranium, even with the breeder reactor, is not inexhaustible; current projections of the BTU reserves of uranium are comparable, but not demonstrably greater, than those for coal. LEARN MORE
Nuclear fusion produces the same heat and light as our Sun. Because a fusion reactor replicates the extreme gravity on the sun, allowing the full potential atomic energy to be extracted, theoretically, from any matter, fusion power could be truly the ultimate renewable energy. Replicating the environment on the sun which might trigger a sustainable fusion reaction isn't easy, however. Scientists and engineers are working on ways to control nuclear fusion reactions, but unfortunately have not yet been able to efficiently produce usable amounts of energy. LEARN MORE
Wood was once the main source of power for heat, and in many developing countries, wood is still the main source of heat energy. Most people in developed countries use wood only for aesthetic purposes or secondary heating, limited mainly to fireplaces and decorative woodstoves, although wood's value as a fuel should not be underestimated when prices of other fuels get too high.
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