UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF

SCIENCES
DIVISION-CHEMISTRY
Open Elective (Applicable to 4th
year students of all Branches)
Subject Name: Renewable Energy
Sources Subject Code: SHO-441
Fundamentals of Energy
DISCOVER . LEARN . EMPOWER
By jasdeep kaur
 Course Objective
Student will learn to identify and distinguish between different forms of
renewable energy resources and it may enhance the use of alternate
sources of energy.

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 Renewable Energy
Sources
Course Outcome
CO Title
Number
CO1
Able to understand the Fundamentals of Energy
with main focus on Solar Energy
CO2
Able to understand the basics of Wind Energy
and Bio-energy

CO3
Able to understand the basics of Ocean energy
and Geothermal energy
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 Fundamentals
of Energy
Unit I
Solar Energy

Wind Energy
Renewable Energy
Unit II
Sources
Bio Energy

Ocean Energy
Unit III
Geothermal
Energy

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 Fundamentals
of Energy
Introduction to Energy-sustainability and
environment. Availability of primary energy
resources: Conventional, Non-Conventional-
advantages and disadvantages of
conventional energy sources. Importance of
Energy conservation. Renewable and non
renewable energy sources. Energy scenario in
India – Overall production and consumption.

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 Introduction
• Any physical activity in this world, whether carried out by human
beings or by nature, is caused due to flow of energy in one
form or the other.
• The word ‘energy’ itself is derived from the Greek word ‘en-
ergon’, which means ‘in-work’ or ‘work content’.
• The work output depends on the energy input.
• Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic development
of any country.
• In the case of the developing countries, the energy sector
assumes a critical importance in view of the ever increasing
energy needs requiring huge investments to meet them.

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 Introduction
• Energy can be classified into several types based on the following
criteria:
Primary and Secondary energy (Based on usability of Energy)
Commercial and Non commercial energy (Based on
commercial application)
Renewable and Non-Renewable energy (Based on long-term
availability)
Conventional and Non-conventional energy (Based on
Traditional use)

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 Sustainability of Energy

• One of the greatest challenges to the humanity in present era is

that of giving everyone on the planet access to safe, clean and
sustainable energy supplies.
• Use of energy has been central to the functioning and
development of human societies.
• During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we have learnt
about harnessing the highly-concentrated forms of energy
contained within fossil fuels.
• This source of energy provided the power that drove the
industrial revolution, bringing unparalleled increases in affluence
and productivity to millions of people throughout the world.

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 Sustainability of Energy
• As we entered the third millennium, there is a growing realisation
that the world's energy systems will need to be changed radically
if they are to supply our energy needs sustainably on a long-term
basis.
• Concerns that the present energy sources such as fossil fuel
reserves are ultimately finite and will ‘run out' in the short-to-
medium term have continued discovery of new reserves and the
application of increasingly-advanced exploration technologies.
• Nuclear power is another exploited energy source that has
grown in importance since its inception just after World War II and
now supplies some 7 per cent of world primary energy.

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 Sustainability of Energy
• A major advantage of nuclear power plants, in contrast with fossil
fuelled plants, is that they do not emit greenhouse gases. Also,
supplies of uranium, the principal nuclear fuel, are sufficient for many
decades – and possibly centuries – of supply at current use rates.
• However the use of nuclear energy, gives rise to problems arising from
the routine emissions of radioactive substances, difficulties of
radioactive waste disposal, and dangers from the proliferation of
nuclear weapons material.
• To these must be added the possibility of major nuclear accidents
which, though highly unlikely, could be catastrophic in their effects.
Although some of these problems may be amenable to solution in the
longer-term, such solutions have not yet been fully developed.
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 Sustainability of Energy
• Of course, not all energy sources are of fossil or nuclear
origin. The renewable energy sources, principally solar energy and
its derivatives in the form of bioenergy, hydroelectricity, wind and
wave power, are increasingly considered likely to play an important
role in the sustainable energy systems of the future.
• The 'renewables' are based on energy flows that are replenished by
natural processes, and so do not become depleted with use –
although there may be other constraints on their use.
• The environmental impacts of renewable energy sources vary, but
they are generally much lower than those of conventional fuels but
the current costs of renewable energy sources are in many cases
higher than those of conventional sources, and this has until
recently retarded their deployment. 11
 Sustainability of Energy
• All these considerations suggest that in creating a sustainable
energy future for humanity during the coming decades, it will be
necessary:
i. to implement greatly-improved technologies for harnessing the
fossil and nuclear fuels, to ensure that their use, if continued,
creates much lower environmental and social impact;
ii. to develop and deploy the renewable energy sources on a much
wider scale; and
iii. to make major improvements in the efficiency of energy
conversion, distribution and use.
• These three general approaches will be explored further, and in
greater detail in the remaining sections of this course.
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 Definition of Sustainable Energy

• The term energy has a long history but the standard scientific
definition today is that energy is the capacity to do work. The
term power is related to energy and its definition is power is the
rate of doing work. The two are linked together by the simple
formula
energy = power x time
• The Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development,
as 'development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs ' (United Nations, 1987).

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 Sustainability of Energy
• This means that sustainable resources are those not significantly
depleted over time, those which do not result in substantial
pollution or other environmental hazards, and those that do not
involve the perpetuation of health hazards or social injustice.
• The Brundtland Commission's view that developments should not
compromise the needs of future generations, suggest that we
should judge the sustainability of energy systems on an indefinite
time scale – far into the very distant future.
• Future generations will be justified in blaming us for creating
problems that were foreseeable, but they can hardly hold us
responsible for eventualities that none of us could have anticipated.

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 Present Energy Sources and
Sustainability
• About 80 per cent of the world's energy is currently supplied
by fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Present estimates
suggest that, at current consumption rates, there are over 200-
years' worth of coal left, 60-years' of gas, and 40-years' of oil.
Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, and their combustion releases
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, one of the main causes of
the human-induced greenhouse effect.
• Nuclear energy which currently provides nearly 7 per cent of
our primary energy requirements. It is based on harnessing the
very large quantities of energy that are released when the nuclei
of certain atoms, such as uranium-235, are induced to split
or fission. Estimates suggest that there is sufficient fuel for many
decades or even centuries, depending on use rates, but there are
major concerns regarding safety and the disposal of nuclear
waste products. 15
 Present Energy Sources and
Sustainability
• The combustion of biofuels such as wood or other biomass
material gives us bioenergy. To be sustainable, the forests that provide
traditional wood fuel need to be re-planted at the same rate as they are
cut down. The incomplete combustion of wood can also release a
mixture of greenhouse gases with a greater overall global warming
effect than can be offset by the CO2 absorbed by growing replacement
trees. Modern bioenergy power plants burn straw and forestry wastes.
• Hydroelectricity is the power from flowing water, a source which has
been used by humanity for many centuries. In 2000, it contributed over
17 per cent of world electricity. Its original source is the sun; water
evaporated from oceans falls as rain or snow into rivers, where its flow
can be harnessed using water wheels or turbines. Larger installations
can have adverse environmental effects, but smaller projects may have
little, if any, impact.
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 References

• Non Conventional Energy Sources - G.D. Rai – Khanna Publishers,

New Delhi,1999.
• Non Conventional Energy Sources and Utilisation - R.K. Rajput - S.
Chand & Company Ltd., 2012.
• https://youtu.be/wvyy73Wb7XM
• https://youtu.be/cg0q1RY8CGo
• https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/environmen
tal-studies/introduction-sustainable-energy/content-section-3
• https://byjus.com/physics/conventional-and-nonconventional-sour
ces-of-energy/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123851369/energy-sust
ainability-and-the-environment
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THANK YOU