All the renewable energy they are making an increasingly broad and defined path in the world. Large global corporations are investing in developing innovative renewable energy techniques to make them more efficient and competitive. A world that runs solely on renewable energy would be ideal to combat the effects of climate change and improve the climate and conditions of the planet. But is it possible that the whole world can work only from renewable sources?
Avelino Corma is a chemist and academic of the Royal Academy of Engineering and ensures that the operation of a world based only on renewable energy is possible, as long as we have clean water and energy sources. Corma has received the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research in 2014 and is also a member of the London Royal Society for the Advancement of Natural Science.
In an interview, Corma explained that as long as we have solar and wind energy enough we can have cheap hydrogen that can be used as fuel. He considers that hydrocarbons must be rationed and in the best possible way to make them last as long as possible. If the use of these hydrocarbons is necessary, biomass could be used as a source of CO2.
Avelino Corma, chemist and academic of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Currently there is a social and political commitment that is based on favoring technological evolution as fast as possible in the face of climate change and resource depletion. Fossil fuels should be seen and considered as an aid in time to be able to achieve the green objectives. Corma has also indicated that global energy needs will continue to grow until about the year 2035 due to the inevitable increase in the world population. Thanks to the development of clean energy and increased energy efficiency, the increase in the use of fossil fuels will not be proportional to population growth. If so, the effects of global warming would be accentuated and would make this planet every time a less livable place.
The most important renewable energies in the world are and will be wind, solar and biomass, although geothermal will also be developed. In order to achieve sustainable goals and steer the planet towards an economy based on clean energy, the laws should focus on providing ourselves with more and more a greater percentage of clean energy. The new legislation that is developed in the near future will affect sectors of the economy such as transport. The consumption of fossil fuels today by transport is still too high, so greenhouse gas emissions continue to have a very negative effect on the atmosphere and air quality. Electric vehicles must increase and spread, and the most important thing is that their electrical load comes from clean energy, since if you want less CO2 emissions, the main source of energy must be renewable.
The use of fossil fuels must be ended
To guarantee a stable and sufficient supply, it will be necessary in the future to modify the electrical network to be able to provide it with greater capacity and connection, even between continents. One of the drawbacks that today prevents moving away from fossil fuels in the short term is the difficulty of storing renewable energy. There are lines of research that study how to be able to store wind and solar energy efficiently and solve the problem of energy storage. Among these studies is the use of automotive batteries that allow greater capacity, less weight and volume and that can be recharged as quickly as possible. That is, have your vehicle ready for use as quickly as possible.
Another line of research is to develop Photo-voltaic cells that generate electricity at the moment, although this field is still hardly developed, since the energy efficiency achieved is below the current achieved by the rest of alternative energies.