Sustainable Energy – First Generation

First generation technologies for producing sustainable energy have been around for over 100 years and many are still in use today, probably none more so than Hydro Power, or power produced from water driven turbines.

Hydroelectric plants have the advantages of being long-lived, indeed, many existing plants have operated for more than 100 years. Also, hydroelectric plants are clean and have few emissions.

However, there are some criticisms, rightly directed at large-scale hydroelectric plants which include the dislocation of people living where the reservoirs are planned, destruction of flora and fauna habitat in not only these flooded areas, but also downstream where the water flow is disrupted and also release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide during construction and flooding of the reservoir.

Generally speaking, hydroelectric plants produce much lower life-cycle emissions than other types of generation. Hydroelectric power, which underwent extensive development during growth of electrification in the 19th and 20th centuries, is experiencing resurgence of development in the 21st century.

The areas of greatest hydroelectric growth are the booming economies of Asia, however, much criticism is being levelled at some for their disregard of the consequences of damming some of their largest rivers.

This growth is driven by much increased energy costs, especially for imported energy and widespread desires for more domestically produced, clean, renewable, and economical generation.

Geothermal Power plants can operate 24 hours per day, providing base-load capacity, and the world potential capacity for geothermal Power Generation is estimated at 85 GW over the next 30 years.

However, geothermal power is accessible only in limited areas of the world, including the United States, Central America, Indonesia, East Africa and the Philippines.

The costs of Geothermal Energy have dropped considerably since it's early inception in the 1970s. Geothermal heat generation can be competitive in many countries producing geothermal power, or in other regions where the resource is of a lower temperature.

Enhanced geothermal system (EGS) technology does not require natural convective hydrothermal resources, so it can be used in areas that were previously unsuitable for geothermal power, if the resource is very large. EGS is currently under research at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Biomass briquettes are increasingly being used in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal. The technique involves the conversion of almost any plant matter into compressed briquettes that typically have about 70% the calorific value of charcoal.

There are relatively few examples of large scale briquette production. One exception is in North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where forest clearance for charcoal production is considered to be the biggest threat to Mountain Gorilla habitat.

Here, the staff of Virunga National Park have successfully trained and equipped over 3500 people to produce biomass briquettes, thereby replacing charcoal produced illegally inside the national park, and creating significant employment for people living in extreme poverty in conflict affected areas.