Unit- 1 Introduction to Energy Studies

Structure

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Global Energy Sources

1.2.1 Pre-history and Pre-industrial energy of consumption

1.2.2 World demographic transformation

1.2.3 World Energy Outlook 2017-2050

1.3 Energy and Environment

1.3.1 Global Emissions by Gas

1.3.2 Global Emissions Trend 1900-2016

1.4 Climate Change Science and Policy

1.4.1 Definition of Climate Change

1.4.2 Observed Temperature Rise over long period

1.4.3 Sea Level Rise

1.5 Introduction to Renewable Energy Sources

1.6 Summary

1.7 Check Your Progress

1.8 Question and Exercises

1.9 Check Your Progress: Answers

1.10 Key Terms

1.11 Recommended Readings

Learning Objective

 To become familiar with the structure and content of Sustainable Energy Management
Unit
 To understand energy as the basis of modern industrial society and its impact on
everyday life
 To understand the nature of the multidisciplinary area of Energy Studies
 Introduce the concept of Climate Change and their environmental issues

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1.1 Introduction
Energy is the basis of modern industrial society and impacts on almost all aspects of life.
However as concern mounts about limited resources, climate change and air pollution due to the
burning of fossil fuels, new sustainable sources of energy are being sought to replace those that
we currently use. Efforts are also being made to conserve energy through more efficient
appliances and processes as well as waste reduction in energy intensive areas such as mining
and power generation. Energy Studies is an emerging multidisciplinary area that is devoted to
finding new methods of sustainable energy production and improving the efficiency of existing
systems. It addresses issues such as the social and environmental aspects of energy use, as well
as the economic and scientific aspects of conventional and sustainable energy generation and
use. This lecture introduces the unit Sustainable Energy Management and looks at what energy
studies is.

1.2 Global Energy Sources

1.2.1 Pre-history and Pre-industrial energy of consumption

Pre-Industrial society depended primarily on muscle power and biomass for their energy needs.
Biomass consisted primarily of wood or peat and its energy delivery had a low efficiency. Amory
Lovins, an expert on energy, states, "Most of the energy generated by wood or peat went up in
the chimneys rather than into the room or cooking pot of pre-industrial societies."
Animal power in the form of horse mills, wind power in the form of windmills, and water power
with the use of a water wheel were major energy sources harnessed until the 19th century;
especially for "industrial uses." Wood and charcoal were the main fuels for cooking, heating, and
other domestic uses, but coal and oil were available as well. In the Middle East crude oils have
been known for millennia from natural seepage and pools, but they were used only rarely as
fuels, and more frequently as protective coatings. Coal has its origin in "the lithification of peats
produced by accumulations of dead plant matter in wetlands. Difference in original vegetation
and, more importantly, in magnitudes of durations of transforming temperatures and pressures,
have produced a large variety of coals. n the 1600's, England experienced an energy crisis due to
a shortage of wood and began using coal as a substitute fuel source for domestic purposes. Even
in the 1700's, wood was the major fuel source in colonial America.

During the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels seemed to be the ideal energy source. Steam
locomotives, the quintessential machines of the Industrial Revolution, used coal as a fuel source
from early on to compensate for a lack of firewood and charcoal. Not only was a seemingly
inexhaustible supply of coal available from easily exploited seams near the surface, but it could
be used in its natural form. Japanese governments in the Meiji era (1868-1912), realizing that the
use of coal was synonymous with industrialization, encouraged the development of coal
mines.
 


Since the modest beginnings of the oil industry in the mid-19th century, petroleum has risen to
global prominence. Initially, kerosene, used for lighting and heating, was the principal product
derived from petroleum. However, the development of drilling technology for oil wells in mid-19th

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century America put the petroleum industry on a new footing, leading to mass-consumption of
petroleum as a highly versatile fuel powering transportation in the form of automobiles, ships,
airplanes and so on, applied to generate electricity, used for heating and to provide hot water
supplies.
 The usage of fossil fuels has been increasing in step with economic growth. Fossil
fuels were prerequisites for the birth of a new industrial civilization that transformed our world.

1.2.2 World demographic transformation

A picture of the world population in the very long-run shows extremely rapid growth. Indeed, for a
long time the world population grew at an increasing rate. However, if we focus on the last couple
of decades, we see that this pattern no longer holds, as the annual rate of population growth has
been recently going down. 1962 saw the growth rate peak at 2.1%, and it has since fallen to
almost half. A long historical period of accelerated growth has thus come to an end.

Based on these observations, world history can be divided into three periods marked by distinct
trends in population growth. The first period, pre-modernity, was a very long age of very slow
population growth. The second period, beginning with the onset of modernity—which was
characterized by rising standards of living and improving health—had an increasing growth rate
that continued to rise through 1962. Today, the second period is over, and the third period is
unfolding; the population growth rate is falling and will likely continue to fall, leading to an end of
population growth towards the end of this century.

Beginning in the late 1700s, something remarkable happened: death rates declined. With new
technologies in agriculture and production, and advancements in health and sanitation, a greater
number of people lived through their adolescent years, increasing the average life expectancy
and creating a new trajectory for population growth. This sudden change created a shift in
understanding the correlation between birth and death rates, which up to that point had both been
relatively equal, regardless of location. Over the past 300 years, population demographics have
continued to evolve as a result of the relationship between the birth and death rates within a
country.

Population in the world is currently (2017) growing at a rate of around 1.12% per year (down from
1.14% in 2016). The current average population increase is estimated at 83 million people per
year.

Annual growth rate reached its peak in the late 1960s, when it was at around 2%. The rate of
increase has nearly halved since then, and will continue to decline in the coming years. It is
estimated to reach 1% by 2023, less than 0.5% by 2052, and 0.25% in 2076 (a yearly addition of
27 million people to a population of 10.7 billion). In 2100, it should be only 0.09%, or an addition
of only 10 million people to a total population of 11.2 billion.

1.2.3 World Energy Outlook 2017-2050

Total energy consumption increases by 5% between 2016 and 2040.
• Because a significant portion of energy consumption is related to economic activity, energy

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consumption is projected to increase by approximately 11% in the High Economic Growth case
and to remain nearly flat in the Low Economic Growth case.
• Although the Oil and Gas Resource and Technology cases affect the production of energy,
the impact on domestic energy consumption is less significant.
• In all AEO cases, the electric power sector remains the largest consumer of primary energy.
• Projections of total energy consumption (and supply) are sensitive to the conversions
used to represent the primary energy content of non-combustible energy resources. AEO2017
uses fossil-equivalence to represent the energy content of renewable fuels.

1.3 Energy and Environment

1.3.1 Global Emissions by Gas

Source: IPCC (2014)based on global emissions from 2010. Details about the sources included in
these estimates can be found in the Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

At the global scale, the key greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are:
• Carbon dioxide (CO2): Fossil fuel use is the primary source of CO2. CO2 can also be emitted
from direct human-induced impacts on forestry and other land use, such as through
deforestation, land clearing for agriculture, and degradation of soils. Likewise, land can
also remove CO2 from the atmosphere through reforestation, improvement of soils, and
other activities.
• Methane (CH4): Agricultural activities, waste management, energy use, and biomass burning
all contribute to CH4 emissions.
• Nitrous oxide (N2O): Agricultural activities, such as fertilizer use, are the primary source of
N2O emissions. Fossil fuel combustion also generates N2O.
• Fluorinated gases (F-gases): Industrial processes, refrigeration, and the use of a variety of
consumer products contribute to emissions of F-gases, which include hydrofluorocarbons
(HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

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Black carbon is a solid particle or aerosol, not a gas, but it also contributes to warming of the
atmosphere.

1.3.2 Global Emissions Trend 1900-2016

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900. Since 1970,
CO2 emissions have increased by about 90%, with emissions from fossil fuel combustion and
industrial processes contributing about 78% of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase from
1970 to 2011. Agriculture, deforestation, and other land-use changes have been the second-
largest contributors.
Emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases have also increased significantly since 1900.

In 2014, the top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters were China, the United States, the European
Union, India, the Russian Federation, and Japan. These data include CO2 emissions from fossil
fuel combustion, as well as cement manufacturing and gas flaring. Together, these sources
represent a large proportion of total global CO2 emissions.
Emissions and sinks related to changes in land use are not included in these estimates. However,
changes in land use can be important: estimates indicate that net global greenhouse gas
emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land use were over 8 billion metric tons of
CO2 equivalent, or about 24% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. In areas such as the
United States and Europe, changes in land use associated with human activities have the net
effect of absorbing CO2, partially offsetting the emissions from deforestation in other regions.

1.4 Climate Change Science and Policy

1.4.1 Definition of Climate Change

Climate change in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) usage refers to a change
in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the
mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically
decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability
or as a result of human activity. This usage differs from that in the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where climate change refers to a change of climate
that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global
atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time
periods.

Is very important to understand the difference between climate change and climate variability.

Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics (such as standard
deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales
beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes
within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external
forcing (external variability).

What Is the Difference Between Weather and Climate?
 Weather is the short-term changes
we see in temperature, clouds, precipitation, humidity and wind in a region or a city. Weather can
vary greatly from one day to the next, or even within the same day. In the morning the weather

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may be cloudy and cool. But by afternoon it may be sunny and warm.

The climate of a region or city is its weather averaged over many years. This is usually different
for different seasons. For example, a region or city may tend to be warm and humid during
summer. But it may tend to be cold and snowy during winter.

The climate of a city, region or the entire planet changes very slowly. These changes take place
on the scale of tens, hundreds and thousands of years.

Natural and anthropogenic substances and processes that alter the Earth’s energy budget are
physical drivers of climate change. Radiative forcing quantifies the perturbation of energy into the
Earth system caused by these drivers. Radiative forcings larger than zero lead to a near-surface
warming, and radiative forcings smaller than zero lead to a cooling. Radiative forcing is estimated
based on in-situ and remote observations, properties of GHGs and aerosols, and calculations
using numerical models. The ‘Other Anthropogenic’ group is principally comprised of cooling
effects from aerosol changes, with smaller contributions from ozone changes, land use
reflectance changes and other minor terms.

1.4.2 Observed Temperature Rise over long period

Temperatures measured on land and at sea for more than a century show that Earth's globally
averaged surface temperature is rising. Since 1970, global surface temperature rose at an
average rate of about 0.17°C (around 0.3° Fahrenheit) per decade—more than twice as fast as
the 0.07°C per decade increase observed for the entire period of recorded observations (1880-
2015). The average global temperature for 2016 was 0.94°C (1.69°F) above the 20th century
average of 13.9°C (57.0°F), surpassing the previous record warmth of 2015 by 0.04°C (0.07°F).

Change over time

Though warming has not been uniform across the planet, the upward trend in the globally
averaged temperature shows that more areas are warming than cooling. Since 1880, surface
temperature has risen at an average pace of 0.13°F (0.07°C) every 10 years for a net warming of
1.69°F (0.94°C) through 2016. Over this 137-year period, average temperature over land areas
has warmed faster than ocean temperatures: 0.18 F (0,10°C) per decade. The last year with a
temperature cooler than the twentieth-century average was 1976.

According to the official NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information Report,
[2016] marks the fifth time in the 21st century a new record high annual temperature has been set
(along with 2005, 2010, 2014, and 2015) and also marks the 40th consecutive year (since 1977)
that the annual temperature has been above the 20th century average. To date, all 16 years of the
21st century rank among the seventeen warmest on record (1998 is currently the eighth warmest.)
The five warmest years have all occurred since 2010.

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1.4.3 Sea Level Rise
Ocean thermal expansion and glacier melting have been the dominant contributors to 20th
century global mean sea level rise. Observations since 1971 indicate that thermal expansion and
glaciers (excluding Antarctic glaciers peripheral to the ice sheet) explain 75% of the observed rise
(high confidence). The contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has increased since
the early 1990s, partly from increased outflow induced by warming of the immediately adjacent
ocean. Natural and human-induced land water storage changes have made only a small
contribution; the rate of ground- water depletion has increased and now exceeds the rate of
reservoir impoundment. Since 1993, when observations of all sea level components are available,
the sum of contributions equals the observed global mean sea level rise within uncertainties (high
confidence).

The First IPCC Assessment Report (FAR) laid the groundwork for much of our current
understanding of sea level change (Warrick and Oerlemans, 1990). This included the recognition
that sea level had risen during the 20th century, that the rate of rise had increased compared to
the 19th century, that ocean thermal expansion and the mass loss from glaciers were the main
contributors to the 20th century rise, that during the 21st century the rate of rise was projected to
be faster than during the 20th century, that sea level will not rise uniformly around the world, and
that sea level would continue to rise well after GHG emissions are reduced.

1.5 Introduction to Renewable Energy Sources

Renewable energy sources derive their energy from existing flows of energy from on- going
natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal
heat flows. A general definition of renewable energy sources is that renewable energy is captured
from an energy resource that is replaced rapidly by a natural process such as power generated
from the sun or from the wind. Currently, the most promising (economically most feasible)
alternative energy sources include wind power, solar power, and hydroelectric power. Other
renewable sources include geothermal and ocean energies, as well as biomass and ethanol as
renewable fuels.

During this course we will analyze and discuss from the technical, environmental and economic
point of view all the renewable energy sources, presenting several case study and ongoing
research projects around the world.

1.6 Summary
This lecture is entire dedicated to explore the basic concept of energy sources (renewable and
non-renewable) the relationship between population growth and energy demand and supply and
all the environmental impacts caused by burning of fossil fuels. As concern mounts about limited
resources, climate change and air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels, new sustainable
sources of energy are being sought to replace those that we currently use. Efforts are also being
made to conserve energy through more efficient appliances and processes as well as waste
reduction in energy intensive areas such as mining and power generation. The aim of this
multidisciplinary course is devoted to finding new methods of sustainable energy production and
improving the efficiency of existing systems. It addresses issues such as the social and
environmental aspects of energy use, as well as the economic and scientific aspects of
conventional and sustainable energy generation and use.

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1.7 Check Your Progress
1 Which is the best description of demographic transition

a) The projected rise in world population

b) Very rapid demographic change in most countries around the world
c) Trends in the total fertility rate by region
d) Trends in the total mortality levels

2 Fossil fuel use is the primary source of

a) Nitrous Oxide NO2

b) Carbon Dioxide CO2
c) Phosphorous P
d) Hydrofluorocarbons HFCs

3 Peak oil is based on the assumption that the price of petrol reached maximum level
a) the means by which oil reserve is declining
b) the petrol demand is rising minimum level
c) the OPEC reduce the supply

4 Climate change is observed over long period such as

a) 1000 years
b) 300 years
c) 30 years
d) 10 years

5 Weather can be defined as changes in:

a) short-term
b) medium-term
c) long-term

6 Climate variability refers to variations in

a) temperature trend over very short period observation
b) temperature median observation
c) the mean state and other statistics of the climate
d) mean temperature over long period observation

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7 The global warming is caused by the emissions of greenhouses gas, where the 65% is
represented by
a) Nitrous oxide (N20)
b) Methane (CH4)
c) Carbon dioxide (CO2)
d) Fluorinated gases

8 Sea level rise can change with:

a) when water is added at global level

b) when locally tectonic movement happens
c) greater storm surge flooding

1.8 Questions and Exercises

1. Why can energy be considered the basis of modern industrial society?
2. What factors are driving the search for new sustainable sources of energy and reduction in
energy use?
3. What is the difference between climate variability and climate change?
4. How we can reduce our dependency from fossil fuels and reduce C02 emissions?

1.9 Check Your Progress: Answers

1 b Very rapid demographic change in most countries around the world
2 b Carbon Dioxide CO2
3 b Petrol reserves reached minimum level
4 c 30 years
5 a Short-term
6 c The mean state and other statistics of the climate
7 c Carbon dioxide (CO2)
8 a When water is added at global level

1.10 Key Terms

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
 A naturally occurring gas, also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and
biomass, as well as from land-use changes and other industrial processes. It is the principal
anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects the Earth's
 radiative balance.
Climate
 Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the "average weather," or more
rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities
over a period of time ranging from months to thousands of years. The classical period is 3
decades, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These quantities are most
often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is

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the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.
Greenhouse Gas
Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and
anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of
infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and clouds. This property
causes the greenhouse effect. Water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O),
methane (CH4), and ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
Moreover, there are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing substances which are dealt
with under the Montreal Protocol. Beside CO2, N2O, and CH4, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the
greenhouse gases sulfur hexaflouride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons
(PFCs).
Sea-Level Rise
An increase in the mean level of the ocean. Eustatic sea-level rise is a change in global average
sea level brought about by an alteration to the volume of the world ocean. Relative sea-level rise
occurs where there is a net increase in the level of the ocean relative to local land movements.
Climate modelers largely concentrate on estimating eustatic sea-level change. Impact
researchers focus on relative sea-level change.

1.11 Recommended Readings

1) World Population: Past, Present, and Future

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

2) Energy Information Administration Annual Energy Outlook 2017

https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/0383(2017).pdf

3) Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change - IPCC
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg2/index.php?idp=663

4) Climate Change: Global Temperature, NOAA

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature

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