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Did you know that if humans consume fossil fuel at the current rate, in the next 42years coal supplies will be exhausted forever? In the next 12 years we will most likely run out of indium, which is used in the production of touch screens and antimony which is used in the making of almost everything from drugs to fire retardants. There will be shortages in minerals like phosphorus, which is kind of a fertilizer for plant and shortage of such minerals could cause huge impact to our food supply. Every Human today is dependent on one or another non-renewable resource directly or indirectly and most of them don’t even realise it and that is what the big concern is. So what are the alternatives that can avoid the extinction of such precious non-renewable resources? The future lies is alternate renewable resources. The two very important renewable resources, solar power and hydropower are being utilised all over the globe and it is best and most economical option for humans. (Schwartz, 2014)
The most viable option which can be switched to is solar energy. Solar power is available in abundance. It will be available to man as long as the sun is alive and the sun is alive for almost the next 5 billion years (Nasa, 2019). The use and potential of solar energy is unimaginable .The sun radiates 120,000 terawatts of solar energy to the surface of the earth, that is 20,000 times more than what the entire earth consumes now. Only if humans could harvest all that energy today the scenario would be different. Solar power for sure is abundant but the important thing is that it also a very sustainable source of energy meaning, it is impossible for humans to overuse it. This energy source is available in such abundance that it can meet the needs of today’s generation without compromising the future of the coming generations. The process of harnessing solar energy is mostly clean. In other words it does not cause pollution or harm the environment in any way. This does not mean that harnessing this is one hundred percent clean. There are some down falls like the emission of some harmful byproduct while manufacturing of solar panels and also the emission caused during the transportation is something that is unavoidable but, it is nothing compared to the most common energy sources today. The use of solar energy reduces human’s dependencies on non-renewable resources which is an important step which should be taken now. In order to take advantage of solar energy there is no specific location or area. Solar energy is something that is available in abundance all around the globe and that is what makes it such a viable option. No matter what country or part of the world it is, use of solar energy turns out to be economical. It reduces the cost of electricity that is consumed. Lastly solar energy is one of the most silent sources of energy. What that means is that harnessing solar energy does not require any moving part of machinery which would be associated with sound (Maehlum, 2018). These are just some factors which make solar energy important apart from the increasing use and ease of availability of solar panel that have made it the most go to option today (Bliss, 2019).
Another great alternate resource which is emerging fairly quickly and which is being used by many countries as a viable option is hydropower or hydroelectricity. The number of hydroelectricity projects in the past years has grown considerably. Hydropower has been adapted to generate electricity not many years ago. Before, it was used to turn large wheels of machinery to perform various mechanical tasks in the early industries. Today hydroelectricity accounts to almost seventeen percent of the entire electricity produced in the world. Rise in the use of hydro power is directly associated with the switch to renewable resources which are available in abundance and little to none emission than the tradition fossil fuels. Like solar panels hydropower is not one hundred percent clean as the only pollution occur is during the construction of the huge hydropower plants. How hydroelectric plants exactly work? So the simplest explanation that can be given is that, by moving water. There is no consumption of water in the process but, it rather generates electricity by the kinetic movement of the flowing water. Once the hydropower plant is operational, these plants can produce a large amount of electricity and are reliable and adjustable. To adjust the output of the energy, the flow of water can be increased or decreased accordingly. One of the most important advantages of hydropower is that the electricity generated in the plant can be sent to grid and used instantly. This can very useful in cases of huge power outbreaks. The nations who already have hydropower plants setup use these are the primary and base source of electricity. Hydropower cannot be built anywhere as it needs specific geographical condition. Hence each country can have their own hydropower plant independently. These Hydropower plant offer the countries control over flood control water supply and irrigation in that area. The production of electricity from these plant are not dependent on the weather conditions or the time of the day unlike solar energy or wind energy. The cost of producing electricity from these plants is also considerably less. The cost for initial construction of the hydroelectricity plant maybe high but it also last for almost 50 to 100 years which makes it very economical (Evans, 2018).
As fast as the human race is consuming these non-renewable resources today, it is going to simply inevitable but to turn alternate resources. Clean reliable sources like solar energy and hydro energy are the most viable option to switch to and are very literally the future. This is not something that could be done by a group of people but should be collective global effort. The use if of non-renewable resources should be done very sparingly and other hand the implementation of alternate resources should done vigorously.
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