Energy in the future

About 80 percent of the energy we use in the world today comes from burning coal, oil, and gas - fossil fuels. Will this still be the case in 10, 50, or 100 years? There are problems with the way we get our energy right now. Firstly, burning fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. It is one of the biggest factors leading to Earth’s rising temperatures: global warming.

Burning fossil fuels also causes air pollution. Fossil fuel-related air pollution causes illness, and about 1 in 5 deaths globally every year. Finally, fossil fuels will eventually run out - they are finite. If we keep using fossil fuels at the rate we are now, we could run out in just 50 years… How can we supply the growing global population with enough energy and address these problems? The answer is by using different sources of energy that are better for our planet and won’t run out: renewable energy.

We use some sources of renewable energy already…. Solar power, for example. Energy from the sun creates no harmful emissions. But there’s the problem of storing solar energy so we still have power when the sun isn’t shining, like at night or on cloudy days. Plus we need ways to transport solar energy from where it is captured to where people need it.

This costs a lot of money, and requires planning and collaboration. Nobody said this would be easy! What about other sources of renewable energy we currently use? Wind power and hydropower, like solar power, don't release harmful emissions and they never run out -- but they too are hard to store and transport. Then there's nuclear power.

It doesn't release harmful emissions, but it does leave behind radioactive waste. So in the future, which one should we use? Well, we need to combine many sources of energy to try to find the cleanest and most efficient combination. We may even need to look beyond the renewable energy sources we already use… Scientists are working on extracting power from the ocean: tidal energy. This energy generates no emissions and is much more predictable than the wind and the sun.

More research is needed though, as some types of turbines negatively impact sealife. We may even use nuclear waste as an energy source in the future! Scientists are currently exploring how nuclear waste can fuel a new type of reactor. There’s also a high energy gas that can be produced from decomposing sewage and food waste: biogas. When biogas was first being explored as an energy source, people grew crops specifically to be wasted.

But that took away from good farmland that could be used for growing food! Now, the focus is on extracting biogas from animal manure and true waste. In the future, your own food waste could become the biogas that fuels your car! And algae - yes, algae! - might be a power source for the future. Scientists are studying how algae convert sunlight into energy and store it as oil.

This oil can then be refined and used as a replacement for petroleum-based fuels. But algae requires lots of water and fertiliser to do this process. - Currently, the process may use more energy than it produces. These new energy options are still in development, and for now they make up very small parts of the global energy mix. There is no ‘perfect’ solution to our future energy needs, but with continued research, investment, and government support... ...we could rely almost 100% on renewable energy within the next 50 years...