Sunday, October 4, 2009

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE WITH GLOBAL COOPERATION- CHALLENGES & SOLUTION

Energy plays an important role in the natural security of any given country as it is a fuel to power their economic engine. Whenever we talk about energy we think of non-renewable energy i.e. that energy which will eventually dwindle within a short span of time like the fossil fuels. Today, more than 80% of the global energy needs are met by fossil fuels. The word independence means not depending such as oil, gas and coal. But unfortunately they are restricted in reserves. Thus, when we amalgamate these two words we get “energy independence” which means access to cheap energy. But due to the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries, the critical need for energy has called global cooperation in this context. We are living in a time where we have huge dependence on fossil fuels but the irony is that it is depleting at a fast rate. Hence, the time has arrived when innovation and support for the development of new technologies is absolutely critical.
As a matter of fact there are over 1.6 billion people around the world who do not have access to electricity and if the population grows at this same rate the electricity demand will double worldwide over the next 25 years. Hence, meeting this demand will require a significant investment globally in infrastructure over this time frame. I believe the time has come when free and competitive market for trading of energy and investment in this context has become essential. Though, today we have identified a myriad of energy sources from fossil fuels to nuclear fusion, but our demand on energy globally has also changed due to improvement in life style, industrialization. Today, Energy has become the sine qua non of development and with countries like India and China progressing at an agile rate unlimited access to energy is required. As the whole world majorly depends on oil and gas to fulfill their energy demand but according to a forecast by IEA predicts the time to depletion of oil nearly 40 to 60 years and for gas nearly a 100 years. This has caused fear in the minds of many nations as these nation rely heavily on imports for their oil and gas needs which has hence put a question mark regarding their security for future energy. Hence, globally nations has to make strong strategic decisions to improve their energy independence condition by:-
· Exploaiting new fossil fuel reserves,
· Going for renewable source of energy,
· Reducing overall demand through energy conservation measures,
· Substantially increasing methods of energy efficiency,
· Using more of clean fuel,
· Development of technology,
· Discovering other sources of energy like gas hydrates, coal bed methane.


CHALLENGES:-
1. The economic diversity, the foreign policies of different nations and the competition between developed and developing countries are the main barriers to develop a cooperative movement globally. Hence, it is difficult to develop a common platform where energy can be traded. We only think global cooperation in the field of money, health, literacy or nuclear proliferation but we feel less comfortable when the turn comes to think of global cooperation to promote energy security.
2. Also while in the path of development, environment can pose a serious challenge. Though there is Kyoto protocol which regulates the pollution level worldwide but the top notch countries which are producing carbon emission are still not under its vicinity.
3. The world’s population consumes about 15 terawatts of power which makes it a business of $ 6 trillion a year which is only 1/10th of world’s economic output. By 2050 estimated power consumption will rise to 30 terawatts. So, it is the biggest challenge globally to fulfill this demand.
SOLUTIONS:- Here are some suggestions:-
a) Replace the demarcation of countries according to development but assign countries according to their energy demands.
b) Put a thrust on E and P activities on reserves which have the probability of oil and gas but yet unexplored.
c) Increasing the usage of renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, tidal, geothermal which possess a huge capability to provide energy.
d) Emphasizing on energy conservation by regularly influencing the common man to understand the need of saving energy, reduce distribution losses and by using fuel efficient vehicles.
e) Using electrical appliances certified by BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficieny) like using more of CFL’s instead of bulbs which saves energy nearly by 50%.
f) Using more of clean fuels like biodiesel, natural gas and nuclear fuel.
g) By developing technology i.e. with the existing technology we are just able to recover almost 60%, hence by improving technology the most of the remaining oil and gas can be recovered which will nullify some portion of our demand.

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