There are billions of species are living in this planet earth, in all those species humans are the most intelligent creation of God that’s for sure. The things that makes humans different from all other species in the world is that they always try to find ways to make their life better, which results they always observing things with innovative and creative perspective and make their life easier with the help of creative and innovative mind set. Due to the ability of innovation and discoveries humans have completely changed and advanced their life with some extraordinary and amazing invention like Engine, Wheel, Edison’s bulb and the Electricity. Electricity is considered to be one of the greatest inventions of humans in the history of mankind.
In the late 18th century the supply of electricity for the household usage began when Thomas Edison Illuminating company flipped the switch on his power station to provide electricity in some areas of Manhattan city of America so this is considered to be the beginning of electricity supply on residential basis. As we talk about electricity here how can we forget about Sir Nikola Tesla he was the scientist who invented the AC current which is mostly used in the world whether its our home appliances or industrial electrical accessories, in the field of electricity.
In the early 18th century Coal is used as a major source of electricity production during industrial revolution period. As we all know that the earliest engines also used coal as fuel to generate steam and that’s why they called steam engines.
In 1859 when the first oil well was dug, the oil began to replace coal as a fuel for electricity generation. Natural gas or methane gas is also a major source of power generation however all these resources of fuel are considered as fossil fuels and they all are burned to generate power for us, and that is the problem which we are facing right now in all over the world, wait let me clear to you as I mentioned that the above resources of power generation coal, oil and natural gas are generated power in the same manner as these fuels are burned to convert heat energy into electrical energy so when these fossil fuels are burned huge amount air pollutants are emits which are very harmful to both environment and public health and also harmful to the life of other species in the world. These burning fuels emits greenhouse gases like CO2, CH4, N2O etc, which are badly affects the ozone layer and also earths atmosphere which results a huge problem like global warming and we all seen the impact of global warming in our home in the form of heatwaves coming continuously in all over the world which is very alarming situation for all of us.
Now the thing which is also noticeable is that the demand of energy is also increasing day by day as the population of the world also increasing day by day. To fulfil this increasing demand of energy we do not take fossil fuels as the source of power generation because we cannot bear more harmful effects in our world like global warming. So, we need to take some precautionary measures to eliminate this risk, and for that purpose we must eliminates all the methods of power generation (fossil fuels, nuclear reactor) which are badly affected our environment.
The only solution is found to overcome this crisis yet is to replace non-renewable energy with renewable energy. Renewable energy is also called the clean energy because there is not any harmful effects of this energy to our environment. Renewable energy mainly consists of solar, wind and hydroelectric power (Dams). Hydroelectric power is also a major source for electricity generation and its also considered as clean method for power generation but there are some restrictions in this also, because hydropower is consists on dams which are highly expensive to be built and also have proper dam location, so it is not easy to build dams for power generation for every country in the world especially for third world countries or poor countries, however hydropower generated 16.6% of the worlds total power and almost 70% of renewable energy which are highly appreciable numbers.
The remaining sources of renewable power are solar and wind energy which we have seen that widely used energy resources in all over the world especially solar energy which is very good sign, Solar power is generating electricity from sun light when the photons of sun light strikes on to the Photovoltaic plate the electrons of semiconductor inside the plate absorbs this energy and convert it into electricity, that’s why this method is also clean or harmless for power generation.
In recent pass years we have seen that the solar power trend continuously rising day by day for industrial purposes as well as residential purpose. However, it’s still very less as compared to the total worlds power generation only 5 to 6% percent of electricity comes from solar of the worlds total which is not good this percentage should be increase to 15 to 20% at least. But I think these stats will be increased rapidly in next few years because as an electronic engineer I also installed lots of residential solar projects and I have observed that peoples have understands the importance of the solar energy because it’s not only good for our environment but also good in terms of reducing’s the bills of electricity.
Thankfully in recent past years we have seen that the government of the countries and states from all over the world also taking some good initiatives about solar and wind power generation to prevent the global issues like global warming and greenhouse effects. The governments of some states proposed such laws in which an industry have to be replaced their 30% percent of electrical need to solar or wind power energy, which is highly appreciated steps from the higher authorities.
Another major source of electricity generation is wind energy which is also consider as clean energy because as name suggests in this method wind is used to produce electricity. large fan or propeller is placed in a high windy area (typically farming lands) so the wind force to rotate fan and fan is attached to the turbine engine so this engine converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, but it is obvious that wind energy is only produced in highly windy areas so this method is typically used in industries not for residential usage. Wind energy producing 5% of global electricity which is also need to extent further.
Conclusion: According to latest surveys Renewable energy produce 28% percent of the world’s total electricity, while on the other hand coal and gas are still produce 60% percent of the world’s total power. However, the good thing is that the percentage of renewable power is rapidly increasing in just one year from 26% in 2019 to almost 29% in 2020 which clearly shows the rising trend of the renewable energy which is very good to overcome on the upcoming crises in the forms of acid rains and global warming.