Improve Australia renewable energy project - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Improve Australia renewable energy project. Answer: Introduction Renewable power sources have the potentiality to augment and supply the electricity generating systems based on the nuclear power and fossil fuels. According to Martin and Rice (2015), renewable energy is generally associated with the technologies that are designed to acquire the required energy from the different source. These sources are inexhaustible on the human timescales, such as solar energy, hydro energy, bio-energy, and geothermal energy. It is evident that electricity accounts for almost 40% of the total primary sources of energy. The annual growth rate is up to 2.7%, which indicates that the demands for electricity grow faster than any other energy sources (Aph.gov.au, 2017). The debate regarding the demands of renewable energy is never ending. However, the study would develop the argumentative contexts based on the preferences for renewable energy and coal-fired power stations. The comparisons between these two energy sources would be presented in this study to make the i nsightful ideas about the future energy prospects. Analysis of Renewable Energy Countries like Australia is well endowed with the various ranges of the renewable energy resources, especially tidal in the north, wind in the south, solar system, and the geothermal in the centre. The report obtained from Energy Strategies for the Clean Energy Future Groups study highlights that the renewable energies collected from the various sources could supply over half of the Australian electricity by 2040 (Lenzen et al., 2016). In fact, it reduces almost 80% of the CO2 emissions from the generation of electricity. If it is calculated for the long term basis, it is notable that the renewable energy could supply almost 100% of the entire grid electricity. The use of the renewable energy is one of the hottest debates in Australian parliament. It is stated that the technological improvement in current era helped in generating more energy sources to produce the renewable energy and prevent the waste (Warren, Christoff Green, 2016). The renewable energy is sustainable and it accel erates development for future. On the other hand, in Australia, the rapid growth in the wind power electricity. The following graph would show the growth of the wind power electricity worldwide. Graph 1: Growth of Wind Power Electricity (Source: Science.org.au. 2009) The above graph is providing the insights about the considerable growth in wind power electricity generation. It is noticeable that the wind turbine market in Australia derives more benefits from the new push for sustainable energy. Therefore, it can be expected that such wind energy would provide the largest share of the targeted 20% of the entire renewable energy by the year of 2020. Benefits of Selecting Renewable Energy over Coal-fired Power Stations The extensive research on the renewable energy sources reflects that it has many positive impacts on the humans. The technological advancements have improved the environmental, economic, and health aspects by producing more energy resources. This section of the study would out forward the ideas of the considerable benefits derived from solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass energy. Lesser level of the Global Warming It has been observed that the environment or the atmosphere is highly affected by the huge emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. As a result, the global warming is considerably increasing day by day. It is reported that about 29% of the global warming emission caused from the electricity centre in US (Parvareh et al., 2014). This emission was produced mostly from the natural gas and coals. On the contrary, renewable energies do not produce the global warming gas. In fact, it is even reported that the during the life cycle emissions of clean energy, for instance during the manufacturing, decommissioning, installation, and operation, renewable energy create the minimal emission of global warming gas. However, Hosseini and Wahid (2016) argued that renewable electricity generated from biomass can have the higher level of global warming emissions if the resources are not sustainably sourced or harvested (Su, Wang Roh, 2014). The following chart highlights the various sources of the energy can produce the global warming gases. Graph 2: Various Energy Sources producing global warming gases (Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017) The obtained ideas from the above graph indicate that the various sources of the renewable energy create pollution and increasing the level of global warming to some extent. However, the effect is comparatively lower than the other sources of energy, such as fossil fuel. The increasing supply of the renewable energy enables the replacement of the carbon-intensive energy sources that helps in reducing US global warming emissions. Improvement of the Public health It is noticed that the emissions of the natural gas and coals pollute the air and water and lead to several medical issues, such as heart attack, breathing problem, premature death, cancer, and so on. The research conducted by Harvard University reported that the pollutants like coals and life cycle costs affected the human health in a significant way. It was estimated that almost $74.6 billion lives have been affected by the emissions of huge amount of natural gas and coals every year (Buonocore et al., 2016). This amount is equivalent to 4.36 cents per kilowatt-hour of produced electricity (Butterworth, Subramaniam Phang, 2015). This amount is enough for causing health damage. In fact, it is exclaimed that most of the negative health impacts are sourced from the water and air pollution. On the contrary, the electricity produced from the hydroelectric system, thermal power, wind and solar system are pollution free and do not create damage to human health in compare to other resourc es. It is notable that the solar and wind energy do not require any water to operate due to which it is free from the pollution. It is anticipated that with the use of the biomass and geothermal sources, the withdrawal and water consumptions would decrease much significantly in future. In exhaustible energy Ellabban, Abu-Rub and Blaabjerg (2014) explained that sunny skies, strong winds, heat from the earth, abundant plant matter, and fast-moving water can supply the constant and vast replenished energy resources. Therefore, it can be predicted that the appropriate use of these resources would supply the required electricity and energy services in future whenever in crisis. It can even provide the significant electricity needs in spite of accounting some of the potential constraints. Economic Benefits As far as the comparison between the fossil fuel and renewable energy is concerned, the latter accounts for more labor intensive approach. On the other hand, it is also recognizable that producing the fossil fuel technologies is more capital and mechanized intensive than the renewable sources. The solar panel installation depends on the efforts of human whereas the wind farms need skilled technicians for the maintenance purposes. Hence, it depicts the idea that individuals have more job opportunities by generating renewable sources than the production of fossil fuels. In countries like United States, Australia, and UK, the jobs related to the renewable energy extraction are much significant (Newell, Sandstrm Sderholm, 2017). In addition to this, renewable energy contributes commendably in increasing rate of the employment opportunities. It is assumed that generation of the renewable energy can contribute a significant rise to the employment opportunities as well as equivalent amount of electricity by the year of 2025. On the contrary, the entire coal industry hired almost 160,000 people in the year of 2016 (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017). Stable pricing structure of the energy resources Renewable energy has been remarkably offering the affordable electricity all across the country. This affordability is quite beneficial in stabilizing the energy prices in future. Weitemeyer et al., (2015) mentioned that in spite of the higher upfront investment in building the renewable facilities, it can be operated at very lower costs. Therefore, it is predicted that the prices of the renewable energy would be stable in the upcoming future. On the other hand, it is noticed that the costs of the technologies used for producing renewable energy have declined in a steady way and projected to drop more as well. For instance, between the years of 2010 to 2017, the average price of the solar installation technology dropped more than 70% whereas the costs of generating the electricity from wind dropped almost 66% between the years of 2009 to 2016 (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017). It is anticipated that the costs would even decline more in future and the companies would take the cons iderable advantages of economies of scale. However, on the contrary, it is even noticed that the price of the fossil fuels can vary in diverse ways. The substantial price swings are expected in this aspect. The following graph would highlight the rapid increase and rapid fall of the coal prices Graph 3: Rise and fall of Coal Prices (Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017) The above graph clearly portrays that due to the increasing global demand in the year of 2008, the coal prices in US experienced a rapid increase. Even shortly after 2008, this increased coal price faced the rapid fall after the declines in the global demands. Similarly, the prices of the natural gas also fluctuated in a significant way. Therefore, it can be stated that the renewable energy is quite significant for the future prospects even more than the energy produced from the fossil fuels or coals. Conclusion The study generates provides the insights of the effectiveness of using renewable energy. The extensive research on the subject area highlights that the coal-fired power station is one of the major sources for energy generation, but the availability is uncertain. On the other hand, despite of few disadvantages, the renewable energy generation is significantly sustainable. In fact, the renewable energy generation is quite opportune for increasing the employment rate in future. On the contrary, the coal-fired power station creates more pollution that affects the environment, human health, and economic growth as well. Hence, it is predicted that the future should be linked to renewable energy. Recommendation In spite of benefits derived from the renewable energy generation, it has been observed that some of the risks are also signified as the major area of concerns. Therefore, the following recommendations can be taken into consideration to ensure more productive approach for the future. The policy makers need to develop more sound approaches to generate the renewable energy from the wind power. It is anticipated that taking a long-term approach to the technological development would facilitate more solar electric generation within a shorter time. The use of the photovoltaic (PV) facilities is much significant in terms of generating most of the solar energy. Therefore, it is essential to prepare for much greater penetration of generating PV facilities. The establishment of the efficient subsidies for the solar deployment is also recommended. References Aph.gov.au, (2017). 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