Sustainable energy - is it a dream

Nowadays everyone talks about sustainable energy. I asked couple of my friends what do you mean by sustainable energy. One said it is the energy that would last for generations. I was not satisfied with the answer. Others were very vague. So I thought I should define first what is sustainable energy before we even talk about how we should get it.

I came up with these following five criteria to call any energy source as a sustainable energy source:

1. It should be perpetually available. (such as solar)

2. It should be adequate to meet the demand in its current application. For example, if hydro is meant for generating electricity, can it meet the demand of electricity.

3. It should be affordable, i.e. it should be inexpensive. If I can get it fee, that is best.

4. It should be secure. In the sense, that nobody should use this as a weapon and twist my arms. If I am importing crude from abroad, obviously crude is not a sustainable energy source for me.

5. It should be environment and ecology friendly, (of course, it should meet the human safety and health aspects too.)

I put to test all the energy sources that we currently use, namely, solar, nuclear, crude oil, natural gas, coal etc to these 5 criteria and none of them met all the criteria.

So it becomes obvious that there is no single energy source that can meet the sustainable energy criteria. Rather it is necessary to come up with an energy portfolio that is sustainable. 

 Solar is one energy source that can be part of sustainable energy portfolio but it alone cannot meet the world energy requirements because Solar is available only to countries located near the equator and is available only between 10 am to 5 pm, not 24x7.

We are using coal and petroleum to many of our energy requirements like never before. Even after taking into account the commitments made by countries in the COP 2015 Paris meet, we still will be using fossil fuels extensively. In their current use, they can last for several decades. There are several millions of people across the globe engaged in exploration, mining, transportation and distribution of these energy sources. We will not be able to remove their livelihood without giving them alternate employment. 

The only criterion that these energy sources do not comply, is that these are not environment friendly and use of these fuels lead to accelerated global warming. So it becomes obvious that if we can capture the carbon dioxide emitted from use of these gases, liquefy and store them in safe cavities, they fulfill all the five criteria. Also we would not require to dismantle existing infrastructure of these energy sources.

Besides, on the demand side, there is lot that can be done to improve energy efficiency. So, in my opinion, the following is the sustainable energy portfolio: i. renewables such as solar, ii. fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) and iii. improved energy efficiency.

This was the essence of my one hour presentation in the western region Energy auditors' and energy managers' meet at Ahmedabad on 9th June.

I would like to hear your comments.

Thanks

R.Muthukrishnan