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The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy industry is a crucial part of the infrastructure and maintenance of society in almost all countries. In particular, the energy industry comprises:
Production and consumption of energy resources is very important to the global economy. All economic activity requires energy resources, whether to manufacture goods, provide transportation, run computers and other machines. |
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management of energy
Energy management is the art and science of optimum use of energy to maximise profits (minimise costs) and thereby improve the economic competiveness. The energy should be used efficiently, economically and optimally. Energy management can also be defined as the science involving planning, directing, controlling the supply and consumption of energy to maximise productivity and comforts and minimise the energy costs and pollution with conscious, judicious and effective use of energy. Since the cost of energy has become a significant factor in the performance of economy of societies, management of energy resources has become very crucial. Energy management involves utilizing the available energy resources more effectively that is with minimum incremental costs. Many times it is possible to save expenditure on energy without incorporating fresh technology by simple management techniques.Most often energy management is the practice of using energy more efficiently by eliminating energy wastage or to balance justifiable energy demand with appropriate energy supply. The process couples energy awareness with energy conservation. Energy management includes planning and operation of energy production and energy consumption units. Objectives are resource conservation, climate protection and cost savings, while the users have permanent access to the energy they need. It is connected closely to environmental management, production management, logistics and other established business functions. The VDI-Guideline 4602 released a definition which includes the economic dimension: “Energy management is the proactive, organized and systematic coordination of procurement, conversion, distribution and use of energy to meet the requirements, taking into account environmental and economic objectives. Government encouragement in the form of subsidies and tax incentives for energy-conservation efforts has increasingly fostered the view of conservation as a major function of the energy industry: saving an amount of energy provides economic benefits almost identical to generating that same amount of energy. |
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Energy security
Energy security is the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price (IEA, 2018) or, put another way, a particular aspect of energy security is assuring access to a ready supply of energy (US DOE, 2017). Thus energy security has many dimensions: long-term energy security mainly deals with timely investments to supply energy in line with economic developments and sustainable environmental needs. Short-term energy security focuses on the ability of the energy system to react promptly to sudden changes within the supply-demand balance. Lack of energy security is thus linked to the negative economic and social impacts of either physical unavailability of energy, or prices that are not competitive or are overly volatile (US DOE, 2017). Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led to significant vulnerabilities. International energy relations have contributed to the globalization of the world leading to energy security and energy vulnerability at the same time. Energy security is the intersection of national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Since now energy plays an essential role in industrial societies, the ownership and control of energy resources plays an increasing role in politics. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led to significant vulnerabilities. Threats to energy security include the political instability of several energy producing countries, the manipulation of energy supplies, the competition over energy sources, attacks on supply infrastructure, as well as accidents, natural disasters, the funding to foreign dictators, rising terrorism, and dominant countries reliance to the foreign oil supply. The limited supplies, uneven distribution, and rising costs of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, create a need to change to more sustainable energy sources in the foreseeable future. Energy security has become one of the leading issues in the world today as oil and other resources have become as vital to the world’s people. However, with oil production rates decreasing and oil production peak nearing the world has come to protect what resources we have left in the world. With new advancements in renewable resources less pressure has been put on companies that produce the world’s oil, these resources are, geothermal, solar power, wind power and hydro-electric. Although these are not all the current and possible future options for the world to turn to as the oil depletes the most important issue is protecting these vital resources from future threats. These new resources will become more useful as the price of exporting and importing oil will increase due to increase of demand. |
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Energy Sources
Primary energy sources take many forms, including nuclear energy, fossil energy — like oil, coal and natural gas — and renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower. These primary sources are converted to electricity, a secondary energy source, which flows through power lines and other transmission infrastructure to your home and business. Energy sources are classified as renewable or nonrenewable. Renewable and nonrenewable energy can be used as primary energy sources and converted into secondary energy sources such as electricity and hydrogen. Nonrenewable energy sources Nonrenewable energy sources include coal, natural gas, petroleum made from crude oil and natural gas liquids, and uranium. These energy sources are called nonrenewable because their supplies are limited and take a very long time to form. Coal, crude oil, and natural gas formed from the remains of plants buried underground millions of years ago. Renewable energy sources Renewable energy sources include biomass, geothermal energy, hydropower, solar energy, and wind energy. They are called renewable because they are naturally replenished in a short period of time. Day after day, the sun shines, the wind blows, and rivers flow.The term “renewable” is generally applied to those energy resources and technologies whose common characteristic is that they are non-depletable or naturally replenishable. Renewable resources include solar energy, wind, falling water, the heat of the earth (geothermal), plant materials (biomass), waves, ocean currents, temperature differences in the oceans and the energy of the tides. Renewable energy technologies produce power, heat or mechanical energy by converting those resources either to electricity or to motive power. The policy maker concerned with development of the national grid system will focus on those resources that have established themselves commercially and are cost effective for on-grid applications. Such commercial technologies include hydroelectric power, solar energy, fuels derived from biomass, wind energy and geothermal energy. Wave, ocean current, ocean thermal and other technologies that are in the research or early commercial stage, as well as non-electric renewable energy technologies, such as solar water heaters and geothermal heat pumps, are also based on renewable resources, but outside the scope of this Manual. Renewable Energy on the other hand uses renewable energy sources that are continually replenished by Mother nature producing a usable energy that can not be used up faster that it is consumed. These energy sources created mainly by the Sun shinning on the Earth are converted into different forms, such as: solar radiation to wind or water based energy which is distributed over the Earth and atmosphere, the Earth’s geothermal heat, and plants in the form of biomass. Renewable energy technologies turn these fuels into usable forms of energy, most often electricity, but also heat, chemicals, or mechanical power. So what are renewable resources. Solar Energy as a Renewable Energy Source This is the original renewable energy source as the sun gives us heat and light. There are two types of solar energy: “Passive” and “Active”. The first simply involves making use of the position, intensity and duration of the suns rays throughout the day to best advantage, using it to heat our homes or induce an air flow by convection from one room to another, without the use of extra technology beyond what is needed to store the energy.The second type involves using mechanical and electrical technology such as photovoltaic solar panels or solar thermal panels to capture, convert and store the suns energy either in batteries or hot water tanks for later use. Active solar hot water systems use pumps to move the heated water around. There are many types of solar power and renewable energy systems available for harnessing the suns power in the home. Wind Energy as a Renewable Energy Source The force of the wind has been used as a renewable energy source for many hundreds of years to power sailing ships that sail the oceans and windmills that grind the corn. These days however, wind power involves not one or two windmills dedicated to grinding wheat and flour, but many wind turbines arranged to capture large amount of power at once converting it into electricity and feeding it into the utility grid. Thus windmills transform wind energy into electricity.These large wind turbines are amassed together on a hill side or offshore in the sea to exploit the kinetic energy of the wind. These vast collections of wind turbines together are known as “wind farms” and are becoming an increasingly common part of the countryside. Wind energy is a clean and renewable technology that does not release pollutants, emissions or by-products into the atmosphere during operation since there are no chemical processes involved in its electrical generation. Hydro Energy as a Renewable Energy Source Hydro Energy is another renewable energy resource in which the energy is derived from the power of moving water. The energy from the Sun heats large masses of water such as the sea, oceans and lakes, turning it into water vapour which rises forming clouds high in the sky. The cold air above the clouds condenses this water vapour which then falls back to Earth as rain or snow in the hills and mountains. Then hydro energy uses renewable energy sources. Hydro Energy is a clean, green technology which produces no pollution and part of the beauty of hydro energy lies in its simplicity. Rivers and streams generate currents of water because the water in them is moving downhill, even if only slightly, flowing downwards by the pull of gravity. This water contains large amounts of kinetic energy that can be extracted and used to spin a turbine or waterwheel (mechanical energy), which drives a generator (electrical energy). Even a small stream can produce enough kinetic energy to turn a wheel. Biomass as a Renewable Energy Source Biomass and Bioenergy are the terms used for any kind of non-fossil fuel material that is classified as being organic, biological or made of plant matter, and which can be converted into a usable energy source. Biomass is considered to be a vital resource that we can use on the Earth to the point of being called a “Bio-renewable Resource”. Biomass energy production involves converting biological material or wastes into substances that can be used as fuel for heating, transportation or power generation. Biomass has many advantages as a bioenergy fuel, reducing landfill wastes and emissions. Biomass uses a variety of different crops supporting farmers, producing new cleaner and renewable alternatives to crude oil and conventional fossil fuels. But biomass also has its disadvantages, biomass is only renewable as long as it is not consumed faster than it can be replaced, solid biomass fuels have a much lower energy content than fossil fuels, fossil fuels are consumed to produce bioenergy fuels and large amounts of land are required to grow the trees and crops decreasing the amount of land available for agriculture and food production. “Biomass” and “Bioenergy” are available in the there basic forms of a solid, a liquid or a gas. Ocean Energy as a Renewable Energy Source The planets oceans and seas offer many promising sources of power and all renewable energy sources at that. Tidal power involves capturing the kinetic energy of the incoming and outgoing tides, as well as capturing the potential energy trapped in the local differences between high tide and low tide. Tides are caused by the gravitational forces of the moon and the sun, which vary throughout the year due to their elliptical orbits and thus cause the oceans to rise and fall in a continuous and predictable cycle. This rise and fall of the oceans water results in coastal areas having two high tides and two low tides within slightly more than 24 hours. Then we can use tides as an alternative energy source. Similarly, there is energy in the continuous wave action in the oceans. As the wind passes over the surface of the oceans, a portion of the winds kinetic energy is transferred to the water below, generating waves. Wave power converts the periodic up-and-down movement of the oceans waves into electricity by placing equipment on the surface of the oceans that captures the energy produced by the wave movement and converts this mechanical energy into electrical power.The Earth itself offers many promising sources of power but as we have seen there is a difference between alternative energy, and renewable energy. Alternative energy refers to any form of energy which is an alternative to the traditional fossil fuels of oil, natural gas and coal. Renewable energy are the forms of alternative energy that are renewed by the natural processes of the Earth, such as sunlight from the sun or wind from the air, and so are environmentally friendly. Renewable Energy Sources are about sustainability, they are a clean, inexhaustible and locally available energy source that maintains a balance between the energy being consumed and the new potential energy sources being created allowing for local energy independence. Tidal Energy Generation Since the position of the earth and the moon with respect to the sun changes throughout the year, we can utilise the potential energy of the water contained in the daily movement of the rising and falling sea levels to generate electricity. The generation of electricity from tides is similar in many ways to hydro-electric generation we looked at in the hydro energy tutorials. The difference this time is that the water flows in and out of the turbines in both directions instead of in just one forward direction. Tidal energy, just like hydro energy transforms water in motion into a clean energy. The motion of the tidal water, driven by the pull of gravity, contains large amounts of kinetic energy in the form of strong tidal currents called tidal streams. The daily ebbing and flowing, back and forth of the oceans tides along a coastline and into and out of small inlets, bays or coastal basins, is little different to the water flowing down a river or stream. |
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