Energy is what drives humanity. Civilisations have developed over the years governed by a transition from burning wood for fire to enormous amount of energy produced by the fission of atomic nuclei. One of the most important goals, under the Sustainable Development Goals, laid by the UN is the research and development of renewable and carbon free sources of energy.
The race to sustainability entails the 3-A rule :- Availability, Affordability and Accessibility of resources. So, how are sustainable energy sources going to solve issues faced by humanity? Lets have a look around our niche and count the number of devices and machines surrounding us(as per Rancho in 3-Idiots:- those things that makes life easy for human beings). How do they operate? Obviously using electricity (energy). So, the standard of livelihood is actually managed by a proper electricity supply. Food, healthcare, transportation sectors etc. that run this perplexing yet satisfactory world of humans are an essential part of high standard of life and all of these require a constant supply of energy.
The prime issue with the third world and developing countries is poverty. For alleviation of poverty, economic growth and better living standard (survival of the fittest), access to electricity is crucial.
As of 2018 about 10.411% of the world's population do not have access to electricity.
To achieve a universal accessibility of energy we need to first make it affordable. How is the price tag of energy decided? It is done by the availability factor of fuel used for production of this energy.
World total primary energy consumption by fuel in 2018:-
As per the data, the primary fuels used are fossil fuels which are exhaustible sources of energy. These reserves are declining day by day, as a result their economic values are increasing. And this makes universal affordability of energy from such sources difficult. For a better solution we have to develop some sustainable sources which requires:-
-less fuel consumption or not at all
-easily engineered operational technique
-less carbon emission
-less radioactive wastes(in case of fission energy).
There are already some renewable technologies in application such as solar, wind, hydro and bio-gas.In this the advancement in technology for capturing energy from such resources is more essential than availability of fuels.And in recent years there has been several developments in this sector with governments planning to implement these more and more.
Apart from these there is Nuclear Energy initiated as the Atomic bombs for putting an end to WWII has now become the energy source in which humanity can depend for several decades which will take on to come with innovative techs. Nuclear fission is currently widely used with large reserves of radioactive and fissile like Uranium and Plutonium. Again such elements are also limited. Till now Nuclear fission is the most safest and cleanest source of energy utilized by humans for power generation. But we can rely on the big brother of nuclear fission -Nuclear fusion for carbon free and radioactive waste free energy source, D-T in experimental usage lately has better prospects than other fuels. And this is obtained from water which is renewable and we have a very large reverse of water in our oceans. So, it has potentially unlimited fuel supply, waste free energy production but the issue is this technology is now under development with the largest research reactor set up at ITER, France.
Solar and Nuclear Fusion energy are going to be the holy grail of energy for future. Engineering and research on proper setup of such plants for commercial operation needs to be paced up. The SDGs, set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030, are part of UN Resolution 70/1, the 2030 Agenda.
Achieving sustainability in energy sources will eventually support other SDG's to develop around it. So, Energy production and consumption is one of the most essential sector that needs the attention of scientists and engineers around the world for achieving targets within required time.
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