Report on Renewable Energy Systems

 
Introduction
Energy has always been one of the main factors to human’s utmost aims and to his/her ideas
of a better world. In certain occasions, it is said that the humans who live in a cave began
along the path to evolution following they had employed the energy in fire to get light and to
produce heat, and the energy in their body, through the club and the bow, for food and
survival. Since that period, humans’ search for material and well-being has been connected
mostly to the controlling of diverse energy forms in different materials including petroleum,
electricity, coal, etc. In contemporary eras, humans have devised more and more complex and
effective approaches of exploring energy for more complex objectives and purposes. At
present, the hunt for the moon is made possible by reining chemical energy for the latest
rockets at Cape Kennedy; and the investigation about planets will rely heavily on harnessing
the energy in the atom’s nucleus.
But the question still is that what renewable energy is. Energy is not something humans can
always discover with the senses. If a physicist wants to define an apple to somebody who had
never seen one, the physicist might just pick an apple and place it on a table to describe, to
smell, and to taste. However, energy cannot be put by one on a table as it can be appeared in
several forms. Energy can be appeared as the energy of motion, also called kinetic energy in
science, in the heat and light form. It can also be appeared on an atomic or molecular scale in
the form of chemical energy. Energy can be appeared on a nuclear scale in one of the most
direful forms as nuclear energy. Even, energy can be appeared in an apple form, because Sir
Isaac Newton was discovered gravitation force when he was hit by an apple that had dropped
from a tree. Potential energy was released while apple dropping. If rise of civilisation is due
to the mastery of energy, so energy may also lead to the downfall of humankind. With everincreasing energy at humans’ grasp, they are capable not only of improving their everyday
lives but, regrettably, to wage battle on a well-organised and impressive scale as well.
Background
Climate Change and Global Warming
Climate change in the form of global warming is the phenomenon of increasing ocean
temperatures and the Earth's atmosphere on a global scale. In particular, it is observed on the
last 25 years. For most scientists, this warming is due primarily to humans. (Silver, 2008)
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The climate of the Earth has naturally gone through several cycles of warming and global
cooling during the last 400,000 years. The cycle is: abrupt warming and gradual cooling hot
weather and ice age. At the end of the Ice Age, it heats up again and the cycle restarts. But
then, today these natural cycles are disrupted by humans and their activities. (Silver, 2008)
The consequences of global warming are the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide,
rising temperatures (scientific projections range from +1 to +6 degrees) and the rise in the
level of the oceans and seas. Today it is difficult to accurately list all the long-term effects but
we think that in the ages to come there will be an increased risk of deforestation, storms,
droughts or flooding, ecosystem changes (appearance and disappearance of species of fauna
and flora), and that different parts of the globe, and the degrees of increase in global
temperature. (Gaughen, 2005)
One of the existing effects is the rise of the oceans. Here is a concrete example Tuvalu, a
Polynesian archipelago of nine islands inhabited by 11,000 people: according to the
calculations of scientists, these islets whose height does not exceed 3 meters above the sea
should be engulfed in a fifty years. In parallel, we note that human activity has increased the
hostile phenomena pollution due to industrial accidents, desertification, and deforestation.
(Gaughen, 2005)
Renewable Energy and Climate Change
Fossil fuels are emitting greenhouse gases when burned. Coal, the most abundant fossil fuel,
is the one that emits the most CO2. Natural gas emits 30% less than oil. This CO2, in the air,
trapping heat near the ground and prevents it from escaping into space. It plays the role of
glass in a greenhouse. It is a greenhouse gas (GHG), responsible for climate change in the
form of global warming. Therefore, we now seek to limit the use of fossil fuels. (Edenhofer,
Pichs Madruga and Sokona, 2012)
A wood fire also emits CO2, but it only returns CO2 to the atmosphere that the tree absorbed
to grow. CO2 emitted during combustion will be absorbed by the trees that have been planted
to replace it. Today, the forest is progressing in the UK and other European countries. It
covers 28% of the territory and is well exploited. Wood, a renewable resource, is an energy
that is currently experiencing a strong infatuation. (Mathiesen, Lund and Karlsson, 2011)
CO2 remains one to two centuries in