Energy
This is not as hard as it sounds.
This page is about energy in 2 main forms: fuel and electricity.
Energy supply
The majority of energy comes from fossil fuels, which are the main cause of climate change.
What about other energy sources?
Energy Source
|
Main Limitation
|
|---|---|
| Hydro | Geography |
| Nuclear | Needs uranium-235 which is too scarce* |
| Solar | Too many rare metals needed* |
| Wind | Geography |
| Biofuel | Causes deforestation and global hunger |
| Waste | Limited supply |
| Geothermal | Geography. In most parts of the world, it's only suited for heating and cooling. |
Solar and wind are also limited by energy storage.*
*Limitations marked with an asterisk (*) are possible to overcome with the right innovations.
More details are found on the wikipage of each energy source. Links are in the table.
Energy demand
What is energy mainly used for? Here are some basic categories:
Note:You can disregard the rightmost section "non-energy use of fuels". It's there only because of the datasets used in making the graphic.
Most of the world is currently living in poverty. Suppose every country was as developed as western countries: Global energy demand could be more than double:
This is far beyond today's green energy capacity.
Transportation sector
Energy demand would be different if vehicles didn't run on gasoline or diesel. In general, we'd need less energy to power the vehicles but more energy to manufacture them (and later recycle them at their end of life). Overall, total energy demand would be slightly less. See this chart.
There are currently some serious roadblocks to making this happen. Read the page on electric vehicles to see how they could maybe be overcome.
It's quite possible that there's no good solution for electric vehicles, and the only way to make transportation sustainable is for people to drive less. This goes against suburban culture, but it isn't as hard as it sounds:
Reducing energy demand
Note: These actions are mostly targeted at "first-world" countries.
In other parts of the world, consumption doesn't necessarily have to be reduced.
Transport
Some things that would help:
- Walkability - organizing neighborhoods so things are in optimal locations, so people don't have to drive as far as often.
- Public transit done right. Yes, there are plenty of ways for it to be done wrong!
- Working from home - only suited for some types of work, of course.
- Carpooling - yes, this takes some effort and coordination.
Home
Most energy is used for heating - or in some warmer parts of the world, cooling. Energy-saving solutions haven't been added to this wiki yet.[RESEARCH needed]
A common misconception is that "saving energy" is all about turning off lights, turning off computers, etc. Those actions are worthwhile but don't actually make a big difference. Other personal lifestyle choices do:
Consumerism
More than half of energy demandcommercial vehicles + industrial/manufacturing + some commercial spaces is affected by what people buy, and how much of it.
More information on this soon.