The title of this article mentions challenges but as I read through, I realized that it is also providing some solutions at a global level on the energy crisis. The article claims that energy demands will go by 50% by 2040 with the largest requirement for cooling / air conditioning. Rising middle class of China and India is cited as the prime reason for this, as climate changes and the earth gets warmer. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that one fifth of the world’s primary energy supply comes from renewable sources and that worldwide in 2017, solar energy production grew by 50%. I liked the concept of supergrid between neighboring because it can enable the concept of transferring energy from regions which need energy least to regions which need it most.
This article also helped me understand the geopolitical issues around energy, and how alliances are currently forged based on oil / natural gas reserves of a country. However, this may set to change as renewable energy resources come to prominence. Each of the solution discussed here will need considerable investments of resources from the government of a country., So, this demands long term planning and does not provide immediate solution to the current energy crisis.
Richard Gray, "The biggest energy challenges facing humanity", contributed by Lopamudra Bhattacharyya, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 10 May 2020, accessed 24 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/biggest-energy-challenges-facing-humanity
Critical Commentary
The title of this article mentions challenges but as I read through, I realized that it is also providing some solutions at a global level on the energy crisis. The article claims that energy demands will go by 50% by 2040 with the largest requirement for cooling / air conditioning. Rising middle class of China and India is cited as the prime reason for this, as climate changes and the earth gets warmer. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that one fifth of the world’s primary energy supply comes from renewable sources and that worldwide in 2017, solar energy production grew by 50%. I liked the concept of supergrid between neighboring because it can enable the concept of transferring energy from regions which need energy least to regions which need it most.
This article also helped me understand the geopolitical issues around energy, and how alliances are currently forged based on oil / natural gas reserves of a country. However, this may set to change as renewable energy resources come to prominence. Each of the solution discussed here will need considerable investments of resources from the government of a country., So, this demands long term planning and does not provide immediate solution to the current energy crisis.