Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table
Natural energy sources compared to the total
primary energy supply of
.
Item
Amount relative to TPES
TPES
Solar input
All the world
'
s winds
All the ocean
'
s waves
All the Earth
'
s tides
.
Geothermal world potential
.
All the world
'
s photosynthesis
.
All the world
'
s rivers
.
would give every man, woman, and child on Earth
pounds of it), or what trillions of cubic meters of
natural gas is (
trillion cubic meters of gas would give
each person
above is a comparison of what we use now to all the
world
party balloons full of gas).
Table
.
s natural phenomena that can be used to generate
energy. The table is for today, but the projection for
increased energy demand is that the TPES demand will
increase by four times by the end of this century while, of
course, the natural sources remain the same. As our
demand goes up, the natural sources available seem to
get smaller relative to what we will need.
All of the natural energy is not really accessible. Oceans
cover
'
% of the world. We cannot absorb all of the wind
without disastrous climate problems. If we used all the
photosynthesis, there would be no
flowers to admire or
food to eat. There is no sunshine at night. The wind does
not blow at any one place all the time. However, the
potential resource is large, and the transition from mining
the fossil fuels laid down over millions of years to basing
