Zusammenfassung der Ressource
3.3 - How can demand for
energy be managed sustainably
- India
- Muppandal wind farms
- Asia's largest turbine -
can power 190,000
energy saving light bulb
- 3500 wind turbines - 1600
megawatts - power 1 million homes
- 1 turbine = US$1.5
million - very expensive
- To overcome costs - 100% depreciation -
energy costs nothing to companies that
invest - do this instead of pay taxes
- A country cannot supply all of its
energy from one form - wind
unpredictable in India
- Solar plans - 20 megawatts by 2020
- Current usage - 80%
thermal, 2% nuclear,
16% hydro, 2% solar
- Biogas
- Cattle manure produces methane
- can be burnt for cooking
- Cleaner than wood stoves
- very smokey + less
deforestation
- Relatively cheap to
make + easy to build
- Can be built and
maintained by locals
- Meets 57% of
national demand
- Reduces chronic
diseases e.g. respiratory
illnesses
- Bi-product 'slurry' nutrient rich +
can be returned to fields as short
term fertiliser
- Improved subsistence,
increased food security and
increased income
- Demand
expected to
grow 4.6%
- Three Gorges Dam, China
- Opportunities created
- Economic
- Provides electricity to support
rising demand
- Provides 18,200 MW
of HEP (20% of overall
HEP)
- Millions of
jobs created
- Improves
navigation on
Yangtze River
- Flood Control
- Reduces risk of flooding
in lower Yangtze River
- 660km long reservoir can
store 100 yr flood event
- Protects 15 million
people +1.5
million ha of land
- Sustainability and
climate control
- HEP is clean, renewable energy
- Gain will be wiped
out by China's
investment into coal
power stations
- Problems
- Resettlement of indigenous people
- 1.2 - 1.9 million forcibly
displaced during creation of
reservoir
- Govt promised cash
compensation + new
homes - not delivered
- Fraud and corruption
among local officials
- Forced to live in poorer conditions
- Environmental degradation
- Reservoir water flow
too slow to wash out
pollutants
- Declining water quality
- habitat loss
- Social + cultural
- Flooding = loss of
cultural, archaeological
and historic sites
- Destroy natural
beauty of 3 Gorges -
popular tourist site
- Economic
- Loss of 30,000
ha of productive
farmland
- No floods = no natural
fertilisation = reliance on
chemical fertilisers
- Reduction in minerals at mouth
= inshore fish catches fallen by
1 million tonnes/yr
- Industrial activities (Coal + metal ore
mines) lost from river banks from
flooding
- Carbon Trading
- Set up 2007
- Quotas on how much
carbon countries can
produce
- Large carbon-producing
companies given 'carbon credits'
- If production reduced -
they can sell credits to
other companies = profit
- If a company goes
over quota - fined
- Problem?
- Lots of companies reduce - surplus
of credits - lose value = less
incentive to cut
- Energy conservation
- Earthship Brighton
- Project aiming to
create a model low
carbon house
- Off-grid, self sufficient 'green' buildings
- Constructed using
waste car tyres +
other recyclables
- Collect own water +
use plants to treat
sewage
- Rain = Free water,
wind = free power,
sun = power + heat
- Why?
- Economic
- Fuel costs
- over £65 million/
yr in UK
- Enivornmental
- Pollutants (CO2 emissions)
- Social
- Jobs created
- Easier + cheaper
to run homes
- Important for people
with low incomes
- Politcal
- Energy security
- Brazil biofuels
- Runs many of their cars
from ethanol produced by
sugar cane
- 20% less carbon emissions
- Working network of
petrol stations
supplying biofuels
- Land reforms
- Govt gives landless
farmers land for biofuel
production
- HOWEVER - Multinationals buy the land
- Food production reduces
- Brazilian
production of rice +
beans fall by 15% over last 20yrs
- Peasant farmers
unable to buy
land
- Employ few people - less benefits
- Biodiesel nearly doubled
- Jatropha
- 1/4 of US maize crop will go to fuel
- Requires 14
million ha of
land
- Disadvantages
- Food prices rising due to
refocus on biofuels
- 10% rise in food price means poverty
for people in India
- Led to local farmers' crops
replaced - now relying on food
handouts
- Increased food security
- Reports of
farmers
being thrown
off land
- Arrested for
uprooting
jatropha crop
- Move to biofuels =
displacement of people,
hunger, poverty, inability to
grow food for themselves
- MEDCs suffer much less than
LEDCs - TNCs/ globalisation
- Biofuels for rich countries
mustn't come at the expense of
food for poor countries
- Advantages
- 20% of diesel to come
from these crops in
8yrs time
- Provides an income
- Can be grown on inhabitable
land for normal crops
- Can be grown on outskirts of
other crops