Renewable Energy Within Scotland And Onshore Wind Farms

Most of the energy that we use comes from fossil fuels like petroleum and coal that provide electricity and gas to power our growing energy needs. These fossil fuels, currently providing most of our home energy needs are finite resources, which mean that, they will eventually run out. Furthermore, the world’s population is growing rapidly. Countries are becoming more industrialised and are using notable amount of energy. Individuals are consuming nearly twice as much as energy as they were using 30 years ago. In Australia itself, the total amount of energy consumed by households has increased over the past two decades and is forecast to increase. This could be due to the dependence of our standard of living on easily available energy. Between

The stage for a deeper integration of Renewable Energies in the UK was set by a number of these policies which has evolved over the years. These policies however were not delivering maximum efficiency when compared to other policies in other European countries. For instance, the inefficiency of some of the policy mechanisms when compared to those obtainable in Germany had been severally argued. The Energy White Paper 2003 was largely a response to the future of the UK Energy industry drawing from the failures of these past policy implementations.

Global warming and climate change is one of the most pressing issues in the contemporary society given its continued impacts on human life and the world’s ecosystem. The considerable effects of this issue have raised huge concerns among policymakers, governments, and the public. As a result, various initiatives have been developed in attempts to lessen global warming or climate change, especially those related to reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere. Governments across the globe including the United Kingdom government have adopted various policies that focus on dealing with the issue. There are various policies that help in dealing with the issue including lessening greenhouse gases emissions, adapting to the effects of climate change, and geo-engineering of the climate system. The attempts by the UK government to address this problem require an understanding of the increasing energy demands and its future impact and use of suitable renewable energy sources.

GREENER - Improve Scotland's natural and built environment and the sustainable use and enjoyment of it.” Scottish government (2007)

It has recently come to light that Glasgow and the West of Scotland have been using a great deal of our earth’s precious finite resources. To combat this we must take advantage of our valuable surroundings and look for long term replacements such as solar, wind and tidal power as well as geothermal and hydroelectric sources. In the interest of our planets wellbeing and our country’s economy, the engineers at SECC have created the following report. Our aim is to help you realise the potential of these alternative sources and push for them to replace the power plants burning through our finite resources.

With the increasing Australia’s population the demand for reliable energy to support our power needs now and into the future is escalating, with majority of the Australia’s energy depending solely on coal power with concerns arising on whether this is the best option for Australia’s future or focus more on harnessing green renewable energy. This essay will argue that green energy is the best option over coal power, for the world and Australia’s future, such as solar and wind. The biggest challenge though will be finding a way in being able to harness the resources nature provides to support the growing demand.

Just as there are positive benefits from utilizing this renewable source, there are also some key disadvantages associated with wind energy generation which should be considered. Firstly, the effect of visual impacts depends not only upon the outward appearance of the turbines, but also the individual's personal attitudes to their presence (G.M Shafiullah, 2012). Similarly, a study conducted by Gourlay (2008) showed that the majority of the UK population (approximately 70%) had displayed a positive outlook

In “Wind Power is Now Cheaper Than Nuclear - the Energy Revolution is Happening”, John Sauven analyzes the benefits of offshore wind energy. Alongside bringing in more investments from external nations, switching to offshore wind power will establish more jobs. Sauven compares the cost of nuclear power to the cost of offshore wind power; wind power naturally being cheaper and better for the environment. Sauven articulates that many nations and organisms will benefit from the offshore wind power finance.

Fossil fuels are finite resources and once those are used up we need a way to continue living regularly, as our lives are built upon the ability to harness energy and produce electricity. As technology increases, alternative types of energy have become more and more enticing. Renewable energy is a very controversial topic today and has been around since the industrial revolution. Prior to the Revolution, which started in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing products was often done through the use of hand tools or basic machines in people’s homes. From the 18th to 19th centuries industrialization marked a shift to powered, specialty machinery, factories and mass production, all of which are used today to help with the processing of renewables.

There are many opportunities for energy extraction in Australia, which may or may not be currently being benefited from. The issue of energy today is what the current situation of energy in Australia is and how it will improve or decline in the coming years. The subjects which are contributing factors are the current exploitation of non-renewable energy sources, how renewable sources are being used in Australia and what the Government’s energy policy is and also what the RET is.

In conclusion, Australia must move away from coal to renewable energies, in order to meet the renewable energy target to control the climate change and also to generate electricity more efficient. Despite the fact that closing coal power stations would be a significant disadvantage for Australia, as coal is one of the biggest potential that Australia has. However, renewable energies such as solar, wave and geothermal would bring their own advantages, such as cost, environmental benefits and the job opportunities, which are more necessary that using the coal potential. Therefore, the coal power stations must be closed immediately.

Global warming is a phenomenon leading to climate change. Human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels releases large amounts of greenhouse gases. These gases absorb infrared radiation and cover the atmosphere. More and more infrared radiation is inside the Earth, which becomes warmer. This process is called global warming (Houghton, 2005). Australia is one of the countries, which is suffering from climate change. The average temperature of Australia has increased by 0.7°C since the past century. Average precipitation in the southwest and southeast in Australia will decrease in future decades, while northwest regions will increase in precipitation. Moreover, Australia’s coastlines will suffer from erosion and inundation because it is estimated that there will be an 8–88 cm increasing global sea level (Preston and Jones, 2006). Owing to climate change, Australia’s biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural habitats are destroyed. For example, the habitat of the Great Barrier Reef and coral communities are disappearing (Preston and Jones, 2006). Owing to the effects and it is energy crisis in the future, exploring the renewable energy source feasibility and sustainable development is necessary. Therefore, in the long term, the potential of wind energy and solar energy could be the answer to global warming in Australia and determine the current barriers to renewable energy in terms of the energy industry and the locations in Australia.

One other environmental factor regarding wind turbines, especially the wind farms, is that “erecting and maintaining wind turbines can also necessitate clearing land: ridgeline installations often require a fair amount of deforestation, and then there's the associated clearing for access roads, maintenance facilities, and the like”. (7) Although we are trying to help the environment by creating a safer and cleaner source of energy, the actions of clearing our forests, and whatever ecosystem that lived in that forest, in order to save the environment appears to be an oxymoron. “But there are also now a great many turbines situated on farmland, where the fields around their bases are still actively farmed”. (8)

The topic of this literature review is wind power and hydropower. The purpose is discovering how wind power and hydropower influences the world and our lives.“Environmental science is the study of the interaction of the living and nonliving components of the environment with special emphasis on the impact of humans on these components. (Hartwick, What is Environmental Science?)

Fossil fuels are having great impacts toward nature such as global warming and greenhouse effect. Plus, the depletion of it contributes to the rising price of petroleum. Therefore, wind power rise as it is a source of clean, non-polluting renewable energy (Nash, 2008). This type of energy generation provides us with loads of benefits environmentally and economically.