Energy and raw materials problem. Report on the topic “Energy problem of the world and ways to solve it

Introduction. Energy - Consumption Growth Problems

energy crisis - a phenomenon that occurs when the demand for energy is much higher than their supply. Its causes may lie in the area of ​​logistics, politics, or physical scarcity.

Energy consumption is a prerequisite for the existence of mankind. The availability of energy available for consumption has always been necessary to meet human needs, increase the duration and improve the conditions of his life.
The history of civilization is the history of the invention of more and more new methods of energy conversion, the development of its new sources and, ultimately, an increase in energy consumption.
The first jump in the growth of energy consumption occurred when people learned how to make fire and use it to cook and heat their homes. During this period, firewood and the muscular strength of a person served as sources of energy. The next important stage is associated with the invention of the wheel, the creation of various tools, and the development of blacksmithing. By the 15th century, medieval man, using draft animals, water and wind power, firewood and a small amount of coal, was already consuming about 10 times more than primitive man. A particularly noticeable increase in world energy consumption has occurred over the past 200 years since the beginning of the industrial era - it has increased 30 times and in 1998 reached 13.7 Gigatons of equivalent fuel per year. The man of the industrial society consumes 100 times more energy than the primitive man.
In the modern world, energy is the basis for the development of basic industries that determine the progress of social production. In all industrialized countries, the pace of development of the energy industry outpaced the pace of development of other industries.
At the same time, energy is one of the sources of adverse effects on the environment and humans. It affects the atmosphere (oxygen consumption, emissions of gases, moisture and particulate matter), hydrosphere (water consumption, creation of artificial reservoirs, discharges of polluted and heated water, liquid waste) and the lithosphere (consumption of fossil fuels, landscape change, emissions of toxic substances) .
Despite the noted factors of the negative impact of energy on the environment, the growth in energy consumption did not cause much concern among the general public. This continued until the mid-1970s, when numerous data appeared in the hands of specialists, indicating a strong anthropogenic pressure on the climate system, which poses a threat of a global catastrophe with an uncontrolled increase in energy consumption. Since then, no other scientific problem has attracted such close attention as the problem of present, and especially future, climate change.
It is believed that one of the main reasons for this change is energy. Energy is understood as any area of ​​human activity related to the production and consumption of energy. A significant part of the energy sector is provided by the consumption of energy released by the combustion of organic fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas), which, in turn, leads to the release of a huge amount of pollutants into the atmosphere.
Such a simplistic approach is already causing real harm to the world economy and can deal a mortal blow to the economies of those countries that have not yet reached the level of energy consumption necessary to complete the industrial stage of development, including Russia. In reality, everything is much more complicated. In addition to the greenhouse effect, which is partly responsible for energy, the planet's climate is influenced by a number of natural causes, the most important of which include solar activity, volcanic activity, parameters of the Earth's orbit, self-oscillations in the atmosphere-ocean system. A correct analysis of the problem is possible only taking into account all factors, while, of course, it is necessary to clarify the question of how world energy consumption will behave in the near future, whether humanity should really establish strict self-limitations in energy consumption in order to avoid the catastrophe of global warming.

Modern trends in the development of energy

The generally accepted classification divides primary energy sources into commercial and non-commercial.
Commercial sources energy includes solid (hard and brown coal, peat, oil shale, tar sands), liquid (oil and gas condensate), gaseous (natural gas) fuels and primary electricity (electricity generated by nuclear, hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, tidal and wave stations).
To non-profit include all other sources of energy (firewood, agricultural and industrial waste, the muscular strength of working livestock and humans themselves).
The world energy industry as a whole throughout the entire industrial phase of the development of society is based mainly on commercial energy resources (about 90% of the total energy consumption). Although it should be noted that there is a whole group of countries (the equatorial zone of Africa, Southeast Asia), whose large populations support their existence almost exclusively due to non-commercial energy sources.
Various forecasts of energy consumption based on data for the last 50-60 years suggest that until about 2025 the current moderate growth rate of world energy consumption is expected to remain - about 1.5% per year and the stabilization of world per capita consumption by at the level of 2.3-2.4 tons of standard fuel/(person-year). After 2030, the average world per capita energy consumption is projected to slowly decline by 2100. At the same time, total energy consumption shows a clear trend towards stabilization after 2050 and even a slight decrease towards the end of the century.
One of the most important factors taken into account when developing the forecast is the availability of resources for the world energy sector based on the combustion of fossil fuels.
Within the framework of the forecast under consideration, which certainly belongs to the category of moderate energy consumption in absolute figures, the exhaustion of explored recoverable oil and gas reserves will occur no earlier than 2050, and taking into account additional recoverable resources - after 2100. If we take into account that the explored recoverable Since coal reserves significantly exceed the reserves of oil and gas taken together, it can be argued that the development of world energy in this scenario is provided in terms of resources for more than a century.
However, there is considerable variation in the results of the projections, as can be clearly seen from a selection of some of the published projection data for 2000.

Table 5.7. Some recent energy consumption forecasts for 2000
(in brackets - the year of publication) and its actual value.

prognostic center	Primary energy consumption, Gt fuel conv./year
Institute of Atomic Energy (1987)	21.2
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (1981)	20.0
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (1981)	18.7
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) (1985)	18.3
International Commission on Climate Change (IPCC) (1992)	15.9
Laboratory of Global Energy Problems IBRAE RAN-MPEI (1990)	14.5
Actual energy consumption	14.3

The decrease in energy consumption in relation to the forecast is associated, first of all, with the transition from extensive ways of its development, from energy euphoria to an energy policy based on increasing energy efficiency and saving it in every way.
The reason for these changes was the energy crises of 1973 and 1979, the stabilization of fossil fuel reserves and the rise in the cost of their production, the desire to reduce the dependence of the economy on political instability in the world due to the export of energy resources.

At the same time, speaking about energy consumption, it should be noted that in a post-industrial society, one more fundamental task must be solved - population stabilization.
A modern society that has not solved this problem, or at least does not make efforts to solve it, cannot be considered either developed or civilized, since it is quite obvious that uncontrolled population growth poses a direct threat to the existence of man as a biological species.
Thus, per capita energy consumption in the world shows a clear trend towards stabilization. It should be noted that this process began about 25 years ago; long before the current speculation on global climate change. Such a phenomenon in peacetime is observed for the first time since the beginning of the industrial era and is associated with the mass transition of the countries of the world to a new, post-industrial stage of development, in which energy consumption per capita remains constant. This fact is very important because, as a result, the total energy consumption in the world is growing at a much slower pace. It can be argued that a serious slowdown in energy consumption growth came as a complete surprise to many forecasters.

Fuel Crisis

In the early 1970s, newspaper pages were full of headlines: “Energy Crisis!”, “How Long Will Fossil Fuel Last?”, “The End of the Oil Age!”, “Energy Chaos”. This topic is still paid much attention to all the media - print, radio, television. There are grounds for such anxiety, because humanity has entered a difficult and rather long period of powerful development of its energy base. Therefore, you should simply spend the fuel reserves known today, but expanding the scale of modern energy, look for new sources of energy and develop new ways to convert it.
There are a lot of forecasts about the development of the energy sector. Nevertheless, despite the improved forecasting methodology, forecasters are not immune from miscalculations and do not have sufficient grounds to talk about the high accuracy of their forecasts for such a time interval as 40-50 years.
Man will always strive to have as much energy as possible to move forward. Not always science and technology will give him the opportunity to receive energy in ever-increasing volumes. But, as historical development shows, new discoveries and inventions will certainly appear that will help humanity make another qualitative leap and go to new achievements with even faster steps.
However, the problem of depletion of energy resources remains. The resources that the earth possesses are divided into renewable and non-renewable. The first include solar energy, the heat of the Earth, the tides of the oceans, forests. They will not cease to exist as long as there is the Sun and the Earth. Non-renewable resources are not replenished by nature or are replenished very slowly, much more slowly than people use them. It is rather difficult to determine the rate of formation of new fossil fuels in the bowels of the Earth. In this regard, the estimates of experts differ by more than 50 times. Even if we accept the largest number, the rate of accumulation of fuel in the bowels of the Earth is still a thousand times less than the rate of its consumption. Therefore, such resources are called non-renewable. Estimation of stocks and consumption of the main ones is given in Table 5.44. The table shows potential resources. Therefore, with today's mining methods, only about half can be extracted from them. The other half remains underground. That is why, it is often argued that the reserves will last for 120-160 years. Of great concern is the impending depletion of oil and gas, which (according to available estimates) may last only 40-60 years.
Coal has its own problems. Firstly, its transportation is a very labor-intensive business. So in Russia, the main coal reserves are concentrated in the east, and the main consumption is in the European part. Secondly, the widespread use of coal is associated with serious air pollution, clogging of the earth's surface and soil deterioration.
In different countries, all these problems look different, but their solution was almost everywhere the same - the introduction of nuclear energy. Stocks of uranium raw materials are also limited. However, if we talk about modern thermal reactors of an improved type, then for them, due to their rather high efficiency, uranium reserves can be considered practically unlimited.
So why are people talking about an energy crisis, if only fossil fuels are enough for hundreds of years, and nuclear fuel is still in reserve?
The whole question is how much it costs. And it is precisely from this side that the energy problem should now be considered. there is still a lot in the bowels of the earth, but their extraction of oil and gas is becoming more and more expensive, since this energy has to be extracted from poorer and deeper layers, from poor deposits discovered in uninhabited, hard-to-reach areas. Much more has to be invested and will have to be invested in order to minimize the environmental impact of the use of fossil fuels.
Nuclear energy is being introduced now not because it is provided with fuel for centuries and millennia, but rather because of saving and saving oil and gas for the future, and also because of the possibility of reducing the environmental burden on the biosphere.
There is a widespread opinion that the cost of electricity from nuclear power plants is much lower than the cost of energy generated by coal-fired, and in the future, gas-fired power plants. But if we consider in detail the entire cycle of nuclear energy (from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of radioactive waste, including the costs of building the nuclear power plant itself), then the operation of a nuclear power plant and ensuring its safe operation turn out to be more expensive than the construction and operation of a plant of the same capacity using traditional energy sources (Table 1). 5.8 on the example of the US economy).
Therefore, in recent years, more and more emphasis has been placed on energy-saving technologies and renewable sources- such as the sun, wind, water element. For example, the European Union has set a target for 2010-2012. receive 22% of electricity from new sources. In Germany, for example, already in 2001, the energy produced from renewable sources was equivalent to the operation of 8 nuclear reactors, or 3.5% of all electricity.
Many believe that the future belongs to the gifts of the Sun. However, it turns out that everything is not so simple here. So far, the cost of generating electricity using modern solar photovoltaic cells is 100 times higher than at conventional power plants. However, experts involved in solar cells are full of optimism, and believe that they will be able to significantly reduce their cost.
The points of view of specialists on the prospects for the use of renewable energy sources are very different. The Committee on Science and Technology in England, having analyzed the prospects for the development of such energy sources, came to the conclusion that their use on the basis of modern technologies is at least two to four times more expensive than the construction of a nuclear power plant. Other specialists in various forecasts for these energy sources are already in the near future. Apparently, renewable energy sources will be used in certain areas of the world that are favorable for their efficient and economical use, but on an extremely limited scale. The main share of the energy needs of mankind should be provided by coal and nuclear energy. True, so far there is no such cheap source that would allow the development of energy at such a rapid pace as we would like.
Now and for the coming decades, the most green energy source nuclear, and then, possibly, thermonuclear editors are introduced. With their help, a person will move along the steps of technological progress. It will move until it discovers and masters some other, more convenient source of energy.
Figure 5.38 shows a graph of the growth of nuclear power plant capacity in the world and electricity production for 1971-2006, and development forecasts for 2020-30. In addition to those mentioned above, several developing countries, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan and Viet Nam, have announced the possibility of building nuclear power plants and have taken the first steps in this direction.

Fig.5.38. ( upstairs) Growth in nuclear power plant capacity and electricity generation in 1971-2006. according to the IAEA and forecasts of NPP capacity in the world for 2020-2030. ( at the bottom)

Ecological energy crisis

The main forms of energy impact on the environment are as follows.

1. Humanity still receives the bulk of energy through the use of non-renewable resources.
2. Atmospheric pollution: thermal effect, emission of gases and dust into the atmosphere.
3. 3. Pollution of the hydrosphere: thermal pollution of water bodies, emissions of pollutants.
4. Pollution of the lithosphere during the transportation of energy carriers and waste disposal, in the production of energy.
5. Pollution with radioactive and toxic wastes of the environment.
6. Changes in the hydrological regime of rivers by hydroelectric power plants and, as a result, pollution in the territory of the watercourse.
7. Creation of electromagnetic fields around power lines.

To reconcile the constant growth of energy consumption with the growth of the negative consequences of energy, given that in the near future humanity will feel the limitation of fossil fuels, it seems possible in two ways.

1. Energy saving. The degree of influence of progress on the economy of energy can be demonstrated by the example of steam engines. As you know, the efficiency of steam engines 100 years ago was 3-5%, and now it reaches 40%. The development of the world economy after the energy crisis of the 1970s also showed that humanity has significant reserves on this path. The use of resource-saving and energy-saving technologies has provided a significant reduction in the consumption of fuel and materials in developed countries.
2. Development of cleaner types of energy production. The problem can probably be solved by the development of alternative types of energy, especially those based on the use of renewable sources. However, the ways to implement this direction are not yet clear. So far, renewable sources provide no more than 20% of global energy consumption. The main contribution to this 20% comes from the use of biomass and hydropower.

Environmental problems of traditional energy

The bulk of electricity is currently produced at thermal power plants (TPPs). This is usually followed by hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) and nuclear power plants (NPPs).

Moscow State Institute of International Relations (U) MFA of Russia

Department of World Economy

Report on the topic
"Energy problem of the world and ways to solve it"

The work was completed by: a student of the 11th group of the 1st year of the Faculty of International Economic Relations
Badovskaya N.V.
Scientific adviser: Komissarova Zh.N.

Moscow
2006

All life on Earth needs energy. However, in addition to biological needs, humanity, with technological and scientific progress, is becoming increasingly vulnerable in its dependence on external energy sources necessary for the production of many goods and services. In general, energy allows people to live in changing natural conditions and conditions of high population density, as well as control their environment. The degree of such dependence is determined by many factors - starting with the climate and ending with the standard of living in a given country: it is obvious that the more comfortable a person makes his life, the more he depends on external energy sources. An excellent example of such dependence can be the United States, according to George W. Bush, "addicted to oil imported from unstable regions," and Europe, which almost entirely relies on energy supplies from Russia. New technologies make it possible to reduce energy consumption, make it more intelligent and apply the latest, most efficient ways of obtaining and using it.

But the consumption of any energy resources has limits of quantitative expansion. By the beginning of the 21st century, many issues have already reached global significance. The reserves of one of the most important minerals - oil and gas - are gradually approaching depletion, and their complete depletion may occur in the next century.

Closely related to the energy sector are also environmental problems associated with the impact of the use and processing of energy, primarily climate change.

Thus, the issue of energy is one of the most important components of a deeper and more comprehensive problem of the further development of mankind, therefore today, more than ever, the task of finding new profitable sources of energy is urgent.

Currently, fuel resources are the most widely used for energy production, providing about 75% of its world production. Much can be said about their advantages - they are relatively localized in several large clusters, easy to operate and provide cheap energy (unless, of course, pollution damage is taken into account). But there are also a number of serious drawbacks:

The stocks of fuel resources will be depleted in the foreseeable future, which will lead to dire consequences for the countries that depend on them.

Mining becomes more difficult, expensive and dangerous as we use the most accessible pools.

Oil dependence has led to de facto monopolization, wars and social and political destabilization.

Mining causes severe environmental problems.

One of the promising areas of energy is nuclear power.

In nuclear power plants, electricity is generated by nuclear fission reactions, which produce a huge amount of energy when a relatively small amount of fuel is burned. At this level of consumption, the explored uranium deposits will be enough for more than 5,000,000,000 years - during this time even our Sun will have time to burn out.

The likelihood of catastrophes and accidents at nuclear power plants somewhat hinders the development of this industry, causing public distrust in nuclear energy. However, in a historical perspective, accidents at thermal and hydroelectric power plants have caused the death of a much larger number of people, not to mention environmental damage.

Another way to obtain energy that has been exciting the minds of scientists for more than a decade is nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion releases hundreds of times more energy than fission, and fuel reserves for such reactors will last for many billions of years. However, such a reaction has not yet been brought under control, and the appearance of the first such installations is expected no earlier than 2050.

An alternative to these types of energy resources may be renewable sources: hydropower, wind and tidal wave energy, solar, geothermal, thermal ocean water energy and bioenergy.

Before the industrial revolution, renewable resources were the main source of energy. Solid biofuels, such as wood, are still important to the poor in developing countries.

Biomass (combustion of organic materials to generate energy), biofuels (processing of biomaterials to synthesize ethanol) and biogas (anaerobic processing of biological waste) are other renewable energy sources that should not be discounted. They cannot provide energy production on a global scale, but they are capable of generating up to 10 MW / h. In addition, they can cover the costs of biowaste disposal.

Hydropower is the only renewable energy source in use today, providing a significant share of the world's energy production. The potential of hydropower has been uncovered insignificantly; in the long term, the volume of energy received will increase by 9-12 times. However, the construction of new dams is hampered by the associated environmental disturbances. In this regard, there is increasing interest in mini-hydro projects that avoid many of the problems of large dams.

Solar panels today can convert about 20% of incoming solar energy into electricity. However, if special “light collectors” are created and they occupy at least 1% of the land used for farmland, this could cover all modern energy consumption. Moreover, the performance of such a solar collector is from 50 to 100 times greater than the performance of an average hydroelectric power station. Solar batteries can also be installed on the free surface of existing industrial infrastructures, which will avoid the withdrawal of land from park and crop areas. The German government is currently running a similar program, which other countries are watching with interest.

Thanks to research, it was possible to find out that algae farms can capture up to 10%, thermal solar collectors - up to 80% of solar energy, which can subsequently be used for various purposes.

Wind energy is one of the cheapest renewable sources today. Potentially, it can provide five times more energy than is consumed in the world today, or 40 times cover the need for electricity. To do this, it will be necessary to occupy 13% of the entire land with wind power plants, namely those areas where the movements of air masses are especially strong.

Wind speeds at sea are about 90% faster than wind speeds on land, which means that offshore wind turbines can generate much more energy.

This way of obtaining energy would also have an effect on the environment, mitigating the greenhouse effect.

Geothermal energy, ocean thermal energy and tidal wave energy are the only currently renewable sources that do not depend on the sun, but they are "concentrated" in certain areas. All available tidal energy can provide about a quarter of current energy consumption. Currently, there are large-scale projects for the creation of tidal power plants.

Geothermal energy has a huge potential if you take into account all the heat trapped inside the Earth, although the heat escaping to the surface is 1/20,000 of the energy that we receive from the Sun, or about 2-3 times the energy of the tides.

At this stage, the main consumers of geothermal energy are Iceland and New Zealand, although many countries have plans for this kind of development.

The considered types of energy resources are by no means devoid of shortcomings.

The application of most technologies associated with the use of renewable resources is costly, and often the location of such stations is extremely inconvenient, which ultimately makes these sources unprofitable and inaccessible to the consumer. On the other hand, many sources allow the creation of small industries located in close proximity to the energy consumer, such as solar panels.

Another problem is the negative impact on the environment. For example, the construction of dams, oddly enough, contributes to the greenhouse effect - the decaying organic matter of flooded areas releases carbon dioxide. In general, the entire ecosystem of the blocked river suffers.

In addition to location-specific geothermal and hydroelectric resources, other alternative energy sources are often more expensive and inconvenient to use than conventional fossil fuels. Perhaps the only area of ​​their application remains remote areas with undeveloped infrastructure, where it is cheaper to build wind and other stations than to transport fuel by sea or land, as well as underdeveloped regions of the Earth.

Another way to solve the energy problem is intensification. New technologies are making better use of available energy, making equipment more efficient, such as more efficient fluorescent lights, motors, insulation materials. The heat that is wasted in the environment can be used by means of heat exchangers for heating water and central heating of buildings.

Existing power plants can operate more productively with minimal cost and change thanks to new technologies. New power plants can be made more efficient with technologies such as "cogeneration". New architectural solutions may include the use of solar collectors. LEDs are gradually replacing obsolete electric light bulbs. Naturally, none of these methods offers perpetual motion technology, and part of the energy is always spent "for heating".

In the distant future, space exploration can bring a huge number of new energy sources, although they are hardly relevant in solving today's energy problems.

In the short term, we can afford solar energy orbital stations that would collect solar energy 24 hours a day and transmit it to Earth via microwaves. Fundamental research in this area will make it possible in the future to make this type of energy production cost-effective and competitive in comparison with terrestrial sources.

Nuclear fuel could theoretically be mined from asteroids, but the technical hurdles to drilling asteroids are much harder to overcome than those associated with exploiting Earth's vast reserves of uranium-238.

Another interesting possibility is the extraction of the helium-3 isotope, which is inaccessible on Earth, on the Moon. This type of fuel can be used in a special kind of fission reaction that has advantages over fissioning conventional uranium.

Well, in the very distant future, humanity, having mastered space, will have a huge choice of energy resources. And then, probably, it will be able to use the gigantic potential of Black holes, the possibility of which scientists are already thinking about the possibility.

The further development of the energy industry will in any case face difficulties: a growing population, meeting the demands of a higher standard of living, the demand for cleaner production and the depletion of minerals. In order to avoid energy crises, you need to remember the following:

the solution of the energy problem is impossible without paying close attention to the environmental aspect;

only an integrated approach, providing for a more efficient use of both already known and alternative sources, will further satisfy the need of mankind for electricity;

the development and implementation of new technologies will open up access to new energy sources that are currently inaccessible.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of the Secretary of the US Department of Energy, Samuel Bodman: “Today, the world economy needs oil in order to develop. We need ways to achieve its growth that both reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and expand the use of cleaner and more reliable sources of energy. In short, we need variety. It won't be cheaper or easier, but it's necessary. In fact, everything depends on him. So we just need to provide it.”

Plan

1. Introduction

2) The energy problem of the world

3) Ways to solve the raw material and energy problem

4) Alternative energy sources

5)Conclusion

6) Literature

Introduction

At present, the problems of the natural environment and its reproduction, the limited reserves of organic and mineral resources are becoming increasingly important. This global problem is connected, first of all, with the limitation of the most important organic and mineral resources of the planet. Scientists warn of the possible depletion of known and available oil and gas reserves, as well as the depletion of other critical resources: iron and copper ore, nickel, manganese, aluminum, chromium, etc.

There are indeed a number of natural limitations in the world. So, if we take an estimate of the amount of fuel in three categories: explored, possible, probable, then coal will last for 600 years, oil - for 90, natural gas - for 50 uranium - for 27 years. In other words, all types of fuel in all categories will be burned in 800 years. It is assumed that by 2010 the demand for mineral raw materials in the world will increase 3 times compared to today's level. Already now in a number of countries rich deposits have been worked out to the end or are close to depletion. A similar situation is observed for other minerals. If energy production grows at an increasing pace, then all types of fuel currently used will be used up in 130 years, that is, at the beginning of the 22nd century.

Energy problem of the world

* find a system of instruments that ensure appropriate investment and structural changes within countries;

* find politically acceptable methods of approving and supporting their constituents, who will also have to pay for shifts both through taxes and lifestyle, while some of the solutions may be resisted (for example, nuclear energy);

* form an acceptable basis for interaction with other major players in the global energy market.

Global environmental problems of energy

The greenhouse effect. An increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes the so-called greenhouse effect, which was named by analogy with the overheating of plants in a greenhouse. The role of the film in the atmosphere is played by carbon dioxide. In recent years, a similar role has become known for some other gases (CH4 and N2O). The amount of methane increases annually by 1%, carbon dioxide - by 0.4%, nitrous oxide - by 0.2%. It is believed that carbon dioxide is responsible for half of the greenhouse effect.

Air pollution. The negative impact of energy on the atmosphere is reflected in the form of solid particles, aerosols and chemical pollution. Chemical contaminants are of particular importance. The main one is sulfur dioxide, which is released during the combustion of coal, shale, oil, which contain sulfur impurities. Some types of coal with a high sulfur content produce up to 1 ton of sulfur dioxide per 10 tons of coal burned. Now the entire atmosphere of the globe is polluted with sulfur dioxide. Oxidation to sulfuric anhydride takes place, and the latter, together with rain, falls to the ground in the form of sulfuric acid. This precipitation is called acid rain. The same thing happens when nitrogen dioxide is absorbed by the rain - nitric acid is formed.

Ozone holes. For the first time, a decrease in the thickness of the ozone layer was detected over Antarctica. This effect is the result of anthropogenic impact. Other ozone holes have now been discovered. Currently, there is a noticeable decrease in the amount of ozone in the atmosphere over the entire planet. It is 5-6% per decade in winter and 2-3% in summer. Some scientists believe that this is a manifestation of the action of freons (chlorofluoromethanes), but ozone is also destroyed by nitrogen oxide, which is emitted by energy enterprises.

Ways to solve the raw material and energy problem:

1. Decrease in production volumes;

2. Increasing the efficiency of extraction and production;

3. Use of alternative energy sources;

Reducing production volumes is very problematic, because. the modern world needs more and more raw materials and energy, and their reduction will certainly result in a global crisis. An increase in efficiency is also unpromising. its implementation requires large investments, and raw material reserves are not unlimited. Therefore, priority is given to alternative energy sources.

Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation

FGOU VPO Ural State Agricultural Academy

Department of Ecology and Animal Hygiene

Essay on ecology:

Energy problems of mankind

Artist: ANTONIO

student FTZh 212T

Head: Lopaeva

Nadezhda Leonidovna

Yekaterinburg 2007

Introduction. 3

Energy: forecast from the standpoint of sustainable development of mankind. five

Non-traditional energy sources. eleven

Energy of sun. 12

wind energy. 15

Thermal energy of the earth. eighteen

Energy of internal waters. nineteen

Biomass energy.. 20

Conclusion. 21

Literature. 23

Introduction

Now, more than ever, the question arose about what the future of the planet will be in terms of energy. What awaits humanity - energy hunger or energy abundance? There are more and more articles about the energy crisis in newspapers and various magazines. Because of oil, wars arise, states flourish and become poorer, governments are replaced. Reports about the launch of new installations or about new inventions in the field of energy began to be attributed to the category of newspaper sensations. Gigantic energy programs are being developed, the implementation of which will require enormous efforts and huge material outlays.

If at the end of the 19th century energy played, in general, an auxiliary and insignificant role in the world balance, then already in 1930 about 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were produced in the world. Over time - gigantic numbers, huge growth rates! And still there will be little energy - the demand for it is growing even faster. The level of material, and, ultimately, the spiritual culture of people is directly dependent on the amount of energy at their disposal.

To extract ore, to smelt metal out of it, to build a house, to make any thing, you need to use up energy. And human needs are growing all the time, and there are more and more people. So why stop? Scientists and inventors have long developed numerous ways to produce energy, primarily electrical. Let's then build more and more power plants, and there will be as much energy as needed! Such a seemingly obvious solution to a complex problem, it turns out, is fraught with many pitfalls. The inexorable laws of nature state that it is possible to obtain usable energy only through its transformation from other forms.

Perpetual motion machines, supposedly producing energy and not taking it from anywhere, unfortunately, are impossible. And the structure of the world energy economy today has developed in such a way that four out of every five kilowatts produced are obtained in principle in the same way that primitive man used to warm, that is, by burning fuel, or by using the chemical energy stored in it, converting it into electrical at thermal power plants.

True, the methods of burning fuel have become much more complex and perfect. The increased demands for environmental protection required a new approach to energy. The most prominent scientists and specialists from various fields took part in the development of the Energy Program. With the help of the latest mathematical models, electronic computers have calculated several hundred options for the structure of the future energy balance. Fundamental solutions were found that determined the energy development strategy for the coming decades. Although the energy sector of the near future will still be based on thermal power engineering using non-renewable resources, its structure will change. The use of oil must be reduced. The production of electricity at nuclear power plants will increase significantly.

Energy: forecast from the standpoint of sustainable development of mankind

According to what laws will the energy of the world develop in the future, based on the UN Concept of sustainable development of mankind? The results of research by Irkutsk scientists, their comparison with the works of other authors made it possible to establish a number of general patterns and features.

The concept of sustainable development of mankind, formulated at the 1992 UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro, undoubtedly affects the energy sector as well. The Conference shows that mankind cannot continue to develop in the traditional way, which is characterized by the irrational use of natural resources and a progressive negative impact on the environment. If the developing countries go the same way as the developed countries have achieved their well-being, then a global environmental catastrophe will be inevitable.

The concept of sustainable development is based on the objective necessity (as well as the right and inevitability) of the socio-economic development of the third world countries. Developed countries could, apparently, "reconcile" (at least for a while) with the achieved level of prosperity and consumption of the planet's resources. However, this is not just about preserving the environment and the conditions for the existence of mankind, but also about simultaneously raising the socio-economic level of developing countries ("South") and bringing it closer to the level of developed countries ("North").

The requirements for sustainable development energy will, of course, be broader than for clean energy. The requirements of the inexhaustibility of the used energy resources and environmental cleanliness, embedded in the concept of an environmentally friendly energy system, satisfy the two most important principles of sustainable development - the interests of future generations and the preservation of the environment. Analyzing the remaining principles and features of the concept of sustainable development, we can conclude that in this case, at least two additional requirements should be presented to the energy sector:

Ensuring energy consumption (including energy services to the population) not below a certain social minimum;

The development of national energy (as well as the economy) should be mutually coordinated with its development at the regional and global levels.

The first follows from the principles of the priority of social factors and ensuring social justice: in order to realize the right of people to a healthy and fruitful life, reduce the gap in the living standards of the peoples of the world, eradicate poverty and destitution, it is necessary to ensure a certain living wage, including the satisfaction of the minimum necessary needs for energy of the population and the economy.

The second requirement is related to the global nature of the impending environmental catastrophe and the need for coordinated action by the entire world community to eliminate this threat. Even countries that have sufficient energy resources of their own, such as Russia, cannot plan their energy development in isolation because of the need to take into account global and regional environmental and economic constraints.

In 1998-2000 ISEM SB RAS conducted research on the prospects for the development of the energy industry of the world and its regions in the 21st century, in which, along with the usually set goals, to determine long-term trends in the development of energy, rational directions of scientific and technical progress, etc. an attempt was made to test the obtained options for the development of the energy sector "for sustainability", i.e. for compliance with the conditions and requirements of sustainable development. At the same time, in contrast to the development options that were developed earlier on the principle of "what will happen if ...", the authors tried to offer, if possible, a plausible forecast for the development of the energy industry in the world and its regions in the 21st century. For all its conventionality, a more realistic idea is given about the future of energy, its possible impact on the environment, the necessary economic costs, etc.

The general scheme of these studies is largely traditional: the use of mathematical models for which information is prepared on energy needs, resources, technologies, and limitations. To take into account the uncertainty of information, primarily on energy needs and constraints, a set of scenarios for future conditions for the development of the energy industry is formed. The results of calculations on the models are then analyzed with appropriate conclusions and recommendations.

The main research tool was the GEM-10R Global Energy Model. This model is optimization, linear, static, multiregional. As a rule, the world was divided into 10 regions: North America, Europe, the countries of the former USSR, Latin America, China, etc. The model optimizes the energy structure of all regions simultaneously, taking into account the export-import of fuel and energy over 25-year intervals - 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100 The entire technological chain is being optimized, starting with the extraction (or production) of primary energy resources, ending with technologies for the production of four types of final energy (electrical, thermal, mechanical and chemical). The model presents several hundred technologies for the production, processing, transport and consumption of primary energy resources and secondary energy carriers. Ecological regional and global restrictions are provided (for emissions of CO 2 , SO 2 and particulate matter), restrictions on the development of technologies, calculation of costs for the development and operation of energy in the regions, determination of dual estimates, etc. Primary energy resources (including renewable ones) in regions are set with division into 4-9 cost categories.

The analysis of the results showed that the obtained options for the development of the energy sector of the world and regions are still difficult to implement and do not fully meet the requirements and conditions for the sustainable development of the world in socio-economic aspects. In particular, the considered level of energy consumption seemed, on the one hand, difficult to achieve, and, on the other hand, not providing the desired approximation of developing countries to developed countries in terms of per capita energy consumption and economic development (specific GDP). In this regard, a new (lower) energy consumption forecast was made, assuming a higher rate of reduction in the energy intensity of GDP and the provision of economic assistance from developed countries to developing ones.

The high level of energy consumption is determined on the basis of specific GDP, which basically corresponds to the forecasts of the World Bank. At the same time, at the end of the 21st century, developing countries will only reach the current level of GDP in developed countries, i.e. the gap will be about 100 years. In the option of low energy consumption, the amount of assistance from developed countries to developing countries was adopted based on the indicators discussed in Rio de Janeiro: about 0.7% of the GDP of developed countries, or $100-125 billion. in year. At the same time, GDP growth in developed countries is somewhat decreasing, while in developing countries it is increasing. On average, per capita GDP in this scenario increases around the world, which indicates the expediency of providing such assistance from the point of view of all mankind.

Per capita energy consumption in the low variant in industrialized countries will stabilize, in developing countries it will increase by the end of the century by about 2.5 times, and on average around the world - by 1.5 times compared to 1990. Absolute world consumption of final energy (from taking into account population growth) will increase by the end of the beginning of the century according to the high forecast by about 3.5 times, according to the low forecast - by 2.5 times.

The use of certain types of primary energy resources is characterized by the following features. Oil in all scenarios is consumed approximately the same - in 2050, the peak of its production is reached, and by 2100, cheap resources (of the first five cost categories) are completely or almost completely exhausted. This steady trend is explained by the high efficiency of oil for the production of mechanical and chemical energy, as well as heat and peak electricity. At the end of the century, oil is replaced by synthetic fuels (primarily from coal).

Natural gas production has been continuously increasing throughout the century, reaching a maximum at the end of it. The two most expensive categories (unconventional methane and methane hydrates) turned out to be uncompetitive. Gas is used for the production of all types of final energy, but most of all for the production of heat.

Coal and nuclear energy are subject to the greatest changes depending on the introduced restrictions. Being approximately equally economical, they replace each other, especially in the "extreme" scenarios. They are mostly used in power plants. A significant part of the coal in the second half of the century is processed into synthetic motor fuel, and nuclear energy in scenarios with severe restrictions on CO 2 emissions is used on a large scale to produce hydrogen.

The use of renewable energy sources varies significantly in different scenarios. Only traditional hydropower and biomass, as well as cheap wind resources, are used sustainably. Other types of RES are the most expensive resources, close the energy balance and develop as needed.

It is interesting to analyze the costs of global energy in different scenarios. They are least of all, of course, in the last two scenarios with reduced power consumption and moderate restrictions. By the end of the century, they increase by about 4 times compared to 1990. The highest costs were obtained in a scenario with increased energy consumption and severe restrictions. At the end of the century, they are 10 times the costs of 1990 and 2.5 times the costs in the latest scenarios.

It should be noted that the introduction of a moratorium on nuclear energy in the absence of restrictions on CO 2 emissions increases costs by only 2%, which is explained by the approximately equal efficiency of nuclear power plants and coal-fired power plants. However, if strict restrictions on CO 2 emissions are introduced during a moratorium on nuclear energy, then energy costs will almost double.

Consequently, the "prices" of a nuclear moratorium and restrictions on CO 2 emissions are very high. The analysis showed that the cost of reducing CO 2 emissions could amount to 1-2% of world GDP, i.e. they turn out to be comparable to the expected damage from climate change on the planet (with warming by a few degrees). This gives grounds to speak about the admissibility (or even necessity) of easing the restrictions on CO 2 emissions. In fact, it is required to minimize the sum of costs for reducing CO 2 emissions and damages from climate change (which, of course, is an extremely difficult task).

It is very important that the additional cost of reducing CO 2 emissions should be borne mainly by developing countries. Meanwhile, these countries, on the one hand, are not guilty of the situation that has been created with a greenhouse effect, and on the other, they simply do not have such means. Getting these funds from developed countries will undoubtedly cause great difficulties and this is one of the most serious problems in achieving sustainable development.

In the 21st century, we are soberly aware of the realities of the third millennium. Unfortunately, the reserves of oil, gas, coal are by no means endless. It took nature millions of years to create these reserves, they will be used up in hundreds. Today, the world began to seriously think about how to prevent the predatory plunder of earthly wealth. After all, only under this condition, fuel reserves can last for centuries. Unfortunately, many oil-producing countries live for today. They mercilessly spend the oil reserves given to them by nature. What will happen then, and this will happen sooner or later, when the oil and gas fields are exhausted? The likelihood of the imminent depletion of world fuel reserves, as well as the deterioration of the environmental situation in the world (oil refining and fairly frequent accidents during its transportation pose a real threat to the environment) made us think about other types of fuel that can replace oil and gas.

Now in the world more and more scientists and engineers are looking for new, non-traditional sources that could take on at least part of the concerns for supplying mankind with energy. Non-traditional renewable energy sources include solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and ocean energy.

Energy of sun

Recently, interest in the problem of using solar energy has increased dramatically, and although this source is also renewable, the attention paid to it around the world makes us consider its possibilities separately. The potential possibilities of power engineering based on the use of direct solar radiation are extremely high. Note that the use of only 0.0125% of this amount of solar energy could provide all the current needs of world energy, and the use of 0.5% could fully cover the needs for the future. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that these huge potential resources will ever be realized on a large scale. One of the most serious obstacles to such implementation is the low intensity of solar radiation.

Even under the best atmospheric conditions (southern latitudes, clear sky), the solar radiation flux density is no more than 250 W/m2. Therefore, in order for collectors of solar radiation to "collect" the energy necessary to meet all the needs of mankind in a year, they must be placed on the territory of 130,000 km 2! The need to use huge collectors, in addition, entails significant material costs. The simplest collector of solar radiation is a blackened metal sheet, inside of which there are pipes with a liquid circulating in it. Heated by solar energy absorbed by the collector, the liquid is supplied for direct use. According to calculations, the production of solar radiation collectors with an area of ​​1 km 2 requires approximately 10 4 tons of aluminum. Proved as of today, the world's reserves of this metal are estimated at 1.17 * 10 9 tons.

It is clear that there are various factors that limit the capacity of solar energy. Suppose that in the future it will be possible to use not only aluminum, but also other materials for the manufacture of collectors. Will the situation change in this case? We will proceed from the fact that in a separate phase of energy development (after 2100) all the world's energy needs will be met by solar energy. Within the framework of this model, it can be estimated that in this case it will be necessary to "collect" solar energy over an area from 1*10 6 to 3*10 6 km 2 . At the same time, the total area of ​​arable land in the world today is 13*10 6 km 2 . Solar energy is one of the most material-intensive types of energy production. The large-scale use of solar energy entails a gigantic increase in the need for materials, and, consequently, for labor resources for the extraction of raw materials, their enrichment, the production of materials, the manufacture of heliostats, collectors, other equipment, and their transportation. Calculations show that it will take from 10,000 to 40,000 man-hours to produce 1 MW of electricity per year using solar energy.

In traditional energy on fossil fuels, this figure is 200-500 man-hours. So far, the electrical energy generated by the sun's rays is much more expensive than that obtained by traditional methods. The scientists hope that the experiments that they will carry out at experimental facilities and stations will help to solve not only technical but also economic problems.

The first attempts to use solar energy on a commercial basis date back to the 80s of the last century. Loose Industries (USA) has achieved the greatest success in this area. In December 1989, it put into operation a solar-gas station with a capacity of 80 MW. Here, in California, in 1994 another 480 MW of electric power was introduced, and the cost of 1 kWh of energy is 7-8 cents. This is lower than at traditional stations. At night and in winter, energy is provided mainly by gas, and in summer and during the daytime - by the sun. A power plant in California has demonstrated that gas and the sun, as the main sources of energy in the near future, can effectively complement each other. Therefore, it is not accidental that various types of liquid or gaseous fuels should act as a partner for solar energy. The most likely “candidate” is hydrogen.

Its production using solar energy, for example, by electrolysis of water, can be quite cheap, and the gas itself, which has a high calorific value, can be easily transported and stored for a long time. Hence the conclusion: the most economical possibility of using solar energy, which is seen today, is to direct it to obtain secondary types of energy in the sunny regions of the globe. The resulting liquid or gaseous fuel can be pumped through pipelines or transported by tankers to other areas. The rapid development of solar energy became possible due to the reduction in the cost of photovoltaic converters per 1 W of installed power from $1,000 in 1970 to $3-5 in 1997 and an increase in their efficiency from 5 to 18%. Reducing the cost of a solar watt to 50 cents will allow solar plants to compete with other autonomous energy sources, such as diesel power plants.

wind energy

The energy of moving air masses is enormous. The reserves of wind energy are more than a hundred times greater than the reserves of hydropower of all the rivers of the planet. The winds blowing in the vastness of our country could easily satisfy all its needs for electricity! Climatic conditions make it possible to develop wind energy in a vast territory from our western borders to the banks of the Yenisei. The northern regions of the country along the coast of the Arctic Ocean are rich in wind energy, where it is especially necessary for the courageous people who inhabit these richest lands. Why is such a plentiful, affordable and environmentally friendly source of energy so poorly used? Today, wind-powered engines cover only one thousandth of the world's energy needs. The technology of the 20th century has opened up completely new opportunities for wind energy, the task of which has become different - to generate electricity. At the beginning of the century N.E. Zhukovsky developed the theory of a wind turbine, on the basis of which high-performance installations capable of receiving energy from the weakest breeze could be created. Many projects of wind turbines have appeared, incomparably more advanced than the old windmills. Achievements of many branches of knowledge are used in new projects. Today, the design of a wind wheel, the heart of any wind power plant, involves aircraft builders who are able to choose the most appropriate blade profile and study it in a wind tunnel. Through the efforts of scientists and engineers, a wide variety of designs of modern wind turbines have been created.

The first bladed machine that used wind energy was a sail. Sail and wind turbine, except for one source of energy, are united by the same principle used. Yu. S. Kryuchkov's research showed that a sail can be represented as a wind turbine with an infinite wheel diameter. The sail is the most advanced bladed machine, with the highest efficiency, which directly uses wind energy for propulsion.

Wind power, using wind wheels and wind turbines, is now being revived, primarily in ground-based installations. Commercial units have already been built and are in operation in the United States. The projects are half financed from the state budget. The other half is invested by future consumers of clean energy.

The first developments in the theory of a wind turbine date back to 1918. V. Zalevsky became interested in windmills and aviation at the same time. He began to create a complete theory of the windmill and deduced several theoretical provisions that a windmill must meet.

At the beginning of the 20th century, interest in propellers and wind turbines was not isolated from the general trends of the time - to use the wind wherever possible. Initially, wind turbines were most widely used in agriculture. The propeller was used to drive ship mechanisms. On the world-famous "Fram" he rotated the dynamo. On sailboats, windmills set pumps and anchor mechanisms in motion.

In Russia, by the beginning of the last century, about 2,500 thousand windmills with a total capacity of one million kilowatts were rotating. After 1917, the mills were left without owners and gradually collapsed. True, attempts were made to use wind energy already on a scientific and state basis. In 1931, the largest at that time wind power plant with a capacity of 100 kW was built near Yalta, and later a project for a 5000 kW unit was developed. But it was not possible to implement it, since the Institute of Wind Energy, which dealt with this problem, was closed.

In the United States, by 1940, a wind turbine with a capacity of 1250 kW was built. By the end of the war, one of its blades was damaged. They didn’t even begin to repair it - economists calculated that it was more profitable to use a conventional diesel power plant. Further studies of this installation have ceased.

The failed attempts to use wind energy in large-scale power generation in the 1940s were not accidental. Oil remained relatively cheap, specific capital investments in large thermal power plants dropped sharply, and the development of hydropower, as it seemed at that time, guaranteed both low prices and satisfactory environmental cleanliness.

A significant disadvantage of wind energy is its variability over time, but it can be compensated for by the location of wind turbines. If, under conditions of complete autonomy, several dozen large wind turbines are combined, then their average power will be constant. In the presence of other sources of energy, the wind generator can supplement the existing ones. And, finally, mechanical energy can be directly obtained from the wind turbine.

Thermal energy of the earth

Since ancient times, people have known about the spontaneous manifestations of gigantic energy lurking in the bowels of the globe. The power of the eruption many times exceeds the power of the largest power plants created by human hands. True, there is no need to talk about the direct use of the energy of volcanic eruptions - so far people do not have the opportunity to curb this recalcitrant element, and, fortunately, these eruptions are quite rare events. But these are manifestations of the energy lurking in the bowels of the earth, when only a tiny fraction of this inexhaustible energy finds a way out through the fire-breathing vents of volcanoes. The small European country of Iceland is fully self-sufficient in tomatoes, apples and even bananas! Numerous Icelandic greenhouses are powered by the heat of the earth - there are practically no other local sources of energy in Iceland. But this country is very rich in hot springs and the famous geysers-fountains of hot water, bursting out of the ground with the accuracy of a chronometer. And although Icelanders do not have priority in using the heat from underground sources, the inhabitants of this small northern country operate the underground boiler house very intensively.

Reykjavik, which is home to half of the country's population, is heated only by underground sources. But not only for heating people draw energy from the depths of the earth. Power plants using hot underground springs have been operating for a long time. The first such power plant, still quite low-power, was built in 1904 in the small Italian town of Larderello. Gradually, the capacity of the power plant grew, more and more new units came into operation, new sources of hot water were used, and today the power of the station has already reached an impressive value - 360 thousand kilowatts. In New Zealand, there is such a power plant in the Wairakei region, its capacity is 160,000 kilowatts. A geothermal plant with a capacity of 500,000 kilowatts produces electricity 120 kilometers from San Francisco in the United States.

Energy of inland waters

First of all, people learned to use the energy of rivers. But in the golden age of electricity, there was a renaissance of the water wheel in the form of a water turbine. Electric generators that produce energy had to be rotated, and this could be done quite successfully by water. We can assume that modern hydropower was born in 1891. The advantages of hydroelectric power plants are obvious - a constantly renewable supply of energy by nature itself, ease of operation, and the absence of environmental pollution. And the experience of building and operating water wheels could be of great help to the hydropower industry.

However, in order to set the powerful water turbines in rotation, it is necessary to accumulate a huge supply of water behind the dam. To build a dam requires so much material to lay down that the volume of the giant Egyptian pyramids will seem insignificant in comparison. In 1926, the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station was put into operation, the next year the construction of the famous Dneprovskaya began. The energy policy of our country has led to the fact that we have developed a system of powerful hydroelectric stations. Not a single state can boast of such energy giants as the Volga, Krasnoyarsk and Bratsk, Sayano-Shushenskaya HPPs. The power plant on the river Rance, consisting of 24 reversible turbogenerators and having an output power of 240 megawatts, is one of the most powerful hydroelectric power plants in France. Hydroelectric power plants are the most cost-effective source of energy. But they have disadvantages - when transporting electricity through power lines, losses of up to 30% occur and environmentally hazardous electromagnetic radiation is created. So far, only a small part of the earth's hydropower potential is serving people. Every year, huge streams of water, formed from rains and snowmelt, flow into the seas unused. If it were possible to delay them with the help of dams, humanity would receive an additional colossal amount of energy.

Biomass Energy

In the US, in the mid-1970s, a team of ocean scientists, marine engineers and divers created the world's first ocean energy farm at a depth of 12 meters under the sun-drenched Pacific Ocean near the city of San Clement. The farm grew giant California kelp. According to project director Dr. Howard A. Wilcox, an employee of the Center for Marine and Ocean Systems Research in San Diego (California), "up to 50% of the energy of these algae can be converted into fuel - into natural gas methane. Ocean farms of the future, growing brown algae on an area of ​​approximately 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares), will be able to provide energy that is enough to fully meet the needs of an American city of 50,000 people."

Biomass, in addition to algae, can also include the waste products of domestic animals. So, on January 16, 1998, the newspaper “Saint Petersburg Vedomosti” published an article entitled “Electricity ... from chicken manure”, which stated that the subsidiary of the international Norwegian shipbuilding concern Kvaerner, located in the Finnish city of Tampere, was seeking support EU for the construction of a power plant in Northampton, UK, operating ... on chicken manure. The project is part of the EU Thermie program, which provides for the development of new, non-traditional energy sources and methods for saving energy resources. The EU Commission distributed ECU 140 million on 13 January among 134 projects.

The power plant designed by the Finnish company will burn 120,000 tons of chicken manure per year in furnaces, generating 75 million kilowatt-hours of energy.

Conclusion

One can distinguish a number of general trends and features in the development of the world's energy industry in the beginning of the century.

1. In the XXI century. a significant increase in world energy consumption is inevitable, primarily in developing countries. In industrialized countries, energy consumption may stabilize at about current levels or even decline by the end of the century. According to the low forecast made by the authors, the world consumption of final energy in 2050 may reach 350 million TJ/year, in 2100 - 450 million TJ/year (with current consumption of about 200 million TJ/year).

2. Mankind is sufficiently provided with energy resources for the 21st century, but the rise in energy prices is inevitable. The annual cost of world energy will increase by 2.5-3 times by the middle of the century and by 4-6 times by the end of it compared to 1990. The average cost of a unit of final energy will increase in these terms by 20-30 and 40- 80% (increase in fuel and energy prices could be even greater).

3. The introduction of global limits on CO 2 emissions (the most important greenhouse gas) will greatly affect the energy mix of the regions and the world as a whole. Attempts to maintain global emissions at current levels should be recognized as unrealistic due to a contradiction that is difficult to resolve: the additional costs of limiting CO 2 emissions (about $ 2 trillion / year in the middle of the century and more than $ 5 trillion / year at the end of the century) will have to be borne by predominantly developing countries, which, meanwhile, are "not guilty" of the problem that has arisen and do not have the necessary funds; developed countries are unlikely to want and be able to pay such costs. From the point of view of ensuring satisfactory energy structures in the regions of the world (and the costs of its development), it can be considered realistic to limit global CO 2 emissions to 12–14 Gt C/year in the second half of the century, i.e. to a level approximately twice as high as it was in 1990. At the same time, the problem of allocation of quotas and additional costs for limiting emissions between countries and regions remains.

4. The development of nuclear power is the most effective means of reducing CO 2 emissions. In scenarios where severe or moderate restrictions on CO 2 emissions were introduced and there were no restrictions on nuclear power, the optimal scale of its development turned out to be extremely large. Another indicator of its effectiveness was the "price" of the nuclear moratorium, which, with strict restrictions on CO 2 emissions, translates into an 80% increase in the cost of world energy (more than 8 trillion dollars a year at the end of the 21st century). In this regard, scenarios with "moderate" restrictions on the development of nuclear energy were considered in order to search for realistically possible alternatives.

5. An indispensable condition for the transition to sustainable development is assistance (financial, technical) to the most backward countries from developed countries. To obtain real results, such assistance must be provided in the very coming decades, on the one hand, to accelerate the process of bringing the living standards of developing countries closer to the level of developed ones, and on the other hand, so that such assistance can still make up a significant share in the rapidly increasing total GDP of developing countries.

Literature

1. Weekly newspaper of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences N 3 (2289) January 19, 2001

2. Antropov P.Ya. Fuel and energy potential of the Earth. M., 1994

3. Odum G., Odum E. Energy basis of man and nature. M., 1998

On Earth, due to the rapid depletion of raw materials, a raw material problem has arisen that has common features with the energy problem, so experts consider them inextricably linked, as a general fuel and raw material problem of the planet. For the development of civilization, raw materials and fuel are needed, but, unfortunately, the deposits of mineral and hydrocarbon raw materials on the planet are depleted, the problem of its lack is acquiring global proportions, confirmed by the raw material crisis of the 70s.

Raw materials are the starting material for many technological processes. This concept includes substances of natural and synthetic origin used in industrial production as a starting material for energy production and necessary products. There is a division of raw materials according to their origin, into industrial and agricultural. But most often the term - "raw materials" is associated with mineral raw materials. Minerals are the basis of the development and existence of mankind. Industry on the planet is developing at a rapid pace, the need for raw materials is growing, therefore, production volumes are growing. Unfortunately, the reserves of oil, gas, iron ore and other minerals on the planet are limited, so after a while they will be exhausted.

Causes of the raw material problem:

• The rapid growth of the amount of raw materials extracted from the bowels of the planet.
• Natural depletion of deposits as a result of mining.
• Explored hydrocarbon reserves are not endless.
• The need to extract depleted ores with a low content of useful substances.
• Increasing the distance between the regions of production and processing.
• The need to use a deposit with poor mining and geological conditions.
• Development of newly discovered deposits in regions with difficult natural conditions.

The above reasons have a huge impact on the provision of industry with natural resources at the global level, which is constantly declining. Calculations of the resource endowment of the planet, made by specialists using different methods, often do not coincide, and there are large discrepancies between the results. In our time, there is an urgent need for the rational use and more complete extraction of mineral raw materials from the bowels of the Earth. For example, modern technologies for oil production with a low recovery factor, not exceeding 0.25-0.45, need to be improved, because most of the most valuable energy raw materials remain in the bowels. If the recovery factor is increased even by 1%, then with the existing volumes of oil production, we will get a significant economic effect. If in the 20th century “resource wastefulness” prevailed, then in the 21st century mankind was forced to switch to the rational consumption of resources.

Highlights of the transition:

• The energy crisis of the 1970s gave impetus to the development of energy-saving technologies and an intensive development path for the entire world economy began. The decrease in energy consumption occurred in the industrial and non-industrial sphere, which led to significant savings in hydrocarbon raw materials.
• The imperfection of traditional technologies has led to the fact that only 20% of the extracted raw materials are used in finished products, the rest is accumulated in dumps. They are made up of billions of tons of slag waste from metallurgy, ash waste from thermal power plants and a huge amount of rocks. Innovative technologies have already emerged that use waste to extract metals, chemicals and produce building materials. Such technologies contribute to a significant reduction in "resource waste" and the transition to the rational use of the planet's resources.

energy problem

Civilization requires the availability of fuel and energy in the long term. But the limited quantity and increase in the rate of consumption of hydrocarbon and mineral resources on Earth has become the cause of the energy problem.

Regional crises arose in individual states in the pre-industrial era as well. A vivid example is that in England in the 18th century, deforestation reached such proportions that the country was forced to switch to coal for heating. Then it was a local problem, but during the global energy crisis of the 70s, it acquired a global character. Sharply increased oil prices have led to the stagnation of the world economy.

The crisis was overcome, but the problem of providing the world economy with energy and fuel has not disappeared, it has retained its significance. On average, one worker in production uses an amount of energy equivalent to 100 liters. With. The amount of energy produced per inhabitant of the planet is an indicator of the quality of life. It is believed that the norm per capita is 10 kW, and the average value for the population of the planet is only 2 kW.

The highly developed countries of the world have already reached the generally accepted standards of energy production per person. But the irrational use of resources, the increase in the population, the uneven distribution of raw materials and fuel across the regions of the planet will lead to a constant increase in their consumption and production. For example, uranium ores used in nuclear energy, at current rates of production, will be completely exhausted already in the first half of the 21st century.

One of the reasons for the fuel and energy problem is the increase in the use of natural resources, the number of which is not unlimited. The former socialist countries were characterized by extremely costly economies, in which the loss of energy resources was enormous. The situation, after the collapse of the USSR, improved slightly, but even now the CIS countries use 2 times more raw materials to produce a unit of production than European countries. Oil and gas production is on the rise. The richest oil and gas fields in Western Siberia, on the shelf of the North Sea, in Alaska have been explored and are being exploited, with simultaneous deterioration of the environmental situation.

Scientists and specialists made complex calculations showing that if the rate of use of hard coal continues, then it will last for 325 years, gas for 62 years, and oil reserves will be depleted in 37 years. New hydrocarbon deposits are constantly being discovered, both on the mainland and on the shelf. The discovery of new energy sources destroyed the pessimistic forecasts of the 70s.

Problem Solving Ways

There are two ways to solve the energy problem - extensive and intensive way.

An extensive way is an increase in hydrocarbon production and an increase in energy consumption. China and England have already reached the limit of their own energy production with the prospect of reducing their number. The lack of energy resources is forcing many countries to look for technologies that allow their rational use.

Intensive way - reduction of energy costs per unit of output.

The energy crisis led to the restructuring of the economy structure, to the introduction of innovative energy-saving technologies, and this made it possible to reduce the consequences of the energy crisis. If you save a ton of energy, then its price will be 3 or 4 times less than the extracted ton. By the end of the 20th century, the United States and Germany had reduced the energy intensity of production by 2.5 times.

For example:

Compared to metallurgy, the energy intensity in mechanical engineering has decreased by almost 10 times.

All energy-intensive industries were transferred by developed countries to third world countries. Energy conservation saved 20% of energy resources per unit of GDP.

Increasing the efficiency of energy consumption is associated with the introduction of modern technological processes. Innovative technologies are very capital-intensive, but this is a promising way of development - the costs are 3 times less than the costs of increasing the production of energy resources.

Surprisingly, some states, such as China, Russia, India, Ukraine, still use outdated technologies in metallurgy and the chemical industry. They even seek to develop these extremely energy-intensive industries.

The increase in energy consumption in these states is associated with a lack of funds for the introduction of modern technologies and with a slight increase in the standard of living of the population. The global energy problem and its solution is related to the energy consumption for the manufacture of products. At present, there is no shortage of energy resources on the planet. For some regions and states, the characteristic problem of providing energy resources remains.

Global resource problem, solutions

• Organize and finance exploration and exploration expeditions. With the successful completion of the search, mineral reserves will increase. For example, in the post-war period, the explored amount of bauxite reserves increased by almost 36 times, and production only by 10 times. During this period, the explored reserves of copper ores increased almost 7 times with an increase in production only 3 times. Many deposits of non-metallic minerals have been explored - potassium salts, phosphorites, rock salt. Modern technology makes it possible to search for and explore deposits not only on the mainland, but at the bottom of the seas and the World Ocean.
Implementation of energy-saving technologies, reduction of material consumption of products and energy intensity of manufacturing processes of final products.
• Achieve complete and waste-free processing of mineral resources.
• The use of secondary raw materials in industry is an important element in the rational use of natural resources.
• The use of artificial materials to replace natural raw materials such as ceramics, fiberglass, carbon fiber and other materials.

Despite the huge natural reserves of minerals - ore, oil, gas, the Russian economy, which is developing in an extensive way, began to experience certain crisis phenomena. Gradually, rich mineral deposits are depleted, the cost of their production is growing, and there is a gradual decrease in the state's reserves of hydrocarbon and mineral raw materials.