Sustainable energy and sustainable energy sources

By definition sustainable energy is the provision of energy such that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. That means that sustainable energy is energy which is replenishable within a human lifetime and causes no long-term damage to the environment. From this definition it is clear that all renewable energy sources are sustainable because base energy providers for renewable energy sources are very stable and human activity can not influence those energy providers in some larger scale. For example, nuclear fusion on Sun will continue for a very long time (biofuels, solar power, wind power, wave power …), the Moon will also circle around the Earth for next couple of billions of years (tidal power), and Earth will not cool down very soon (geothermal power). Nuclear energy can be also considered as sustainable energy source because after nuclear fission era we will probably enter nuclear fusion era. Nuclear fusion is much cleaner energy source than fission and amount of fuel for fusion is practically unlimited – hydrogen and hydrogen isotopes.

Sustainable energy - sunflower (biofuels).

Fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas) are not sustainable energy sources because they are limited in quantity and they cause long-term damage to the environment. Currently we do not know how to produce new oil, coal or natural gas without using more energy than we can get from that. Because of that we will use all fossil fuels created naturally and future generations will have to come up with some new energy source to meet their energy needs. Limited quantity of fossil fuels is in some way good for future generations because maybe we will run out of oil before we ecologically mess up entire World.

Because of fossil fuels, some energy sources that are currently being considered as a sustainable energy sources may become out of reach for us. For example, if we put to many dangerous gasses into atmosphere solar energy will become useless because of simple fact – to small amount of that energy will reach the Earth. That can then have big impact on other energy sources, for example if the amount of sunlight is not enough to sustain photosynthesis all plant will vanish and with that we will lose biofuels and biomass as energy sources. But, if that happens we will have much bigger problems than producing energy…

US Clean energy sector - Long way to go

Though Obama said many times how his vision includes renewables and clean energy sector, latest report carried out by U.S. Government National Intelligence Councill showed that we will have to wait at least 25 years for this vision of his to come true. All curent renewable energy technologies are simply not adequate to replace dominant fossil fuels, and also many energy experts agree that it will take at least 30 years for these new technologies to become commercially viable.

Growing energy demand is happening worldwide and renewables still lack necessary development to compete with traditional fuels. In order to really make the difference U.S. will have to together with other countries work on solutions to speed up development of renewable energy sector to make it competitive with traditional fossil fuels. Don't get me wrong the world will still move away from oil and other fossil fuels because of fear of the climate change and global warming but this will not be done as fast as many environementalists and even Barrack Obama hope to be.

Clean energy source (photovoltaic energy).

Climate change fear will definitely urge development of renewables but this development will take time, and this is where traditinal fossil fuels will still have supremacy. Renewables takes time, and lot of funds too, so poor countries will probably stick to cheaper fossil fuels much longer than rich ones unless they get financial aid from rich countries.

World is really facing one serious dillema: On one side there is climate change problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible where many agree that only good enough solution is complete turn to renewable energy sector, and on other side there is increased energy demand that is about to grow even higher as the world's population increases and where energy is needed right away and not in some 30 years or so.

So, as you can see, Obama's vision will be put on the serious test of finding balance between turning green and satisfying energy needs. What to sascrifice, for how long, in what volume are only some questions that Obama will have to answer very soon.