Energy Conservation and Audit

World Energy Scenario

World energy consumption is the total energy used by the entire human civilization. Typically measured per year, it involves all energy harnessed from every energy source applied towards humanity’s endeavours across every single industrial and technological sector, across every country and  does not include energy from food, and the extent to which direct biomass burning has been accounted for is poorly documented. Improved data and understanding of World Energy Consumption may reveal systemic trends and patterns, which could help frame current energy issues and encourage movement towards collectively useful solutions.

Closely related to energy consumption is the concept of total primary energy supply (TPES), which – on a global level – is the sum of energy production minus storage changes. Since changes of energy storage over the year are minor, TPES values can be used as an estimator for energy consumption. However, TPES ignores conversion efficiency, overstating forms of energy with poor conversion efficiency (e.g. coal, gas and nuclear) and understating forms already accounted for in converted forms (e.g. photovoltaic or hydroelectricity).

Sourced from Wiki, The IEA estimates that, in 2013, total primary energy supply (TPES) was 1.575 × 10¹⁴ kWh  or 13,541 Mtoe) .From 2000–2012 coal was the source of energy with the largest growth. The use of oil and natural gas also had considerable growth, followed by hydropower and renewable energy. Renewable energy grew at a rate faster than any other time in history during this period. The demand for nuclear energy decreased, in part due to nuclear disasters (e.g. Three Mile Island 1979, Chernobyl 1986, and Fukushima 2011).

The United States, with the highest energy consumption per capita, ranks first followed by Japan and Europe. But the gap between the United States and Japan or Europe is much less than the gap in terms of energy consumption as American consumers benefit from lower prices. Indeed, as the United States is an oil and gas producing country with low taxation rates, US oil and gas prices are more than two times lower than in Japan and in Europe . The level of expenditures per capita is  between 500 and 1000 US$ per capita for China, CIS and Latin America and are below 500 US$ per capita in India and Africa due to comparatively low energy consumption.

The share of expenses in the GDP is much more homogeneous among regions. It is about 10% for almost all regions except India and China for which it accounts to 12-13% and Africa where it is below 6%. Not surprisingly, oil has the biggest impact on consumers’ energy bill with about half of the energy expenditures for almost all regions, whereas electricity ranks second with about one third of the spending.

India Energy Scenario

The primary energy demand in India has grown from about 450 million tons of oil
equivalent (toe) in 2000 to about 770 million toe in 2012. This is expected to increase
to about 1250 (estimated by International Energy Agency) to 1500 (estimated in the
Integrated Energy Policy Report) million toe in 2030. This increase is driven by
economic growth which lead to greater demand for energy services. This growth is
also reflective of the current very low level of energy supply in India. The average
annual energy supply in India in 2011 was only 0.6 toe per capita; whereas the global
average was 1.88 toe per capita. Consequently, there is a large latent demand for
energy services that needs to be fulfilled in order for people to have reasonable
incomes and a decent quality of life.

Electricity Scenario 2018-18 as per CEA

Trees – Our Best Friends

The planet Earth is a gift to us by God. It has sustained life for millions of years, be it in any form. Resources on which we thrive have been in abundance. But, as man pushes forward for more and more, he has forgotten the importance of saving our planet so that its resources last for millions of years more. Urbanization, pollution, and other related activities have contributed to environmental hazards, global warming, and depletion of the planet’s resources.

Trees and the Environment

Trees are the largest of all land plants, and act as a kind of environmental “buffer” for the ecosystem they dominate. They help improve the extremes of climate, such as heat, cold, and wind, and create a surrounding where humans, mammals, insects, birds, etc., can live comfortably. Trees complement animals in the global environment. Mammals/Humans take in oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants use this carbon dioxide in their growth processes, store the carbon in woody tissues, and then return oxygen to the atmosphere as a waste product. This process is known as photosynthesis, and is very essential to life. Carbon captured from the atmosphere by photosynthesis is eventually recycled through the environment in a process known as the carbon cycle. Trees have an especially important role in the carbon cycle.

Today, we can see only walls, buildings, cars, large signboards/hoardings, tar roads, runways, and concrete instead of plants, gardens, or trees. Today, trees are disappearing from our surroundings faster than we can imagine. There is a dramatic loss in their numbers in urban areas. Sometimes, even if replacements are planted, they are often species of trees that will not become large. These are of no benefits to the ecological system. We are used to having clean looks and pure finishes (houses, cars etc.), and a polished lifestyle.

Global Warming

The globe is warming. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its authoritative fifth assessment report that “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased”. They also stated that “Human influence on the climate system is clear.”

Scientists from NASA and other research institutions around the world have been routinely collecting temperature data from a wide number of locations all over the planet. Their records of Earth’s average temperature go back to the 1880s, the earliest year for which reliable instrumental records were available worldwide. The  agencies have maintained global average monthly and annual records of combined land and ocean surface temperatures for more than 130 years in US. These data show that temperatures have climbed to more than 1.8°F (1°C) above pre-industrial levels as of 2015, and the long-term global upward trend is clear and unambiguous

Figure 1: Global temperatures have been going up particularly since the 1980’s.

The 2013 Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) stated that “each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850”. Data also shows that, globally, the last decade has been the warmest ever recorded – 2015 was the warmest year on record according toNASA and NOAA, and 2016 is on track to beat 2015.

Adding to the evidence of direct temperature measurements, studies by independent teams of researchers indicate that the planet is undergoing one of the largest climate changes in Earth’s history, and also one of the fastest in the past 65 million years. Not only that, the current warming is projected to occur at a rate 10 times faster than any change over that period.

But how do we know Earth’s temperature before 1880?

To understand climate trends from the past, before reliable measurement methods existed, climate experts rely on biological or physical archives – known as “proxies” – that preserve past temperature. Tree rings, coral skeletons, and glacial ice cores (Figure 3) are proxies for annual temperature records, while boreholes (holes drilled deep into Earth’s crust) can show temperature shifts over longer periods of time.

Figure -Ice core can give scientists information about the environment at the time the ice was formed. 

The same ways scientists measure and interpret various proxies depends on the information each proxy provides.Ice cores have bands of light and dark areas with traces of various substances, which can be analyzed as to composition and age, yielding important information about the environmental conditions throughout time. Antarctic ice core records vividly illustrate that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels today are higher than levels recorded over the past 800,000 years.

Atmospheric CO2 levels have risen 30 percent in the last 150 years, with half of that rise occurring only in the last three decades. It is a well-established scientific fact that CO2 (and other gases emitted from industrial and agricultural sources) traps heat in the atmosphere, so it is no surprise that we are now witnessing a dramatic increase in temperature.

Figure-CO2 levels today are higher than levels recorded over the past 800,000 years  (400,000 years shown).  Data back to 800,000 years: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7193/abs/nature06949.html

Earth’s climate in the past has been warmer and colder than it is now. Over the past million years, shifts in orbital cycles influenced the amount of sunlight falling on the northern hemisphere and played a major role in the waxing and waning of ice ages. Whenever atmospheric carbon dioxide increased naturally, global surface temperature increased further. This held true even when local temperatures in the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere might be out of phase due to factors including ocean circulation. Past climate evidence informs just how powerful carbon dioxide is. All else being equal, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to warmer global average surface temperatures. That is a proven relationship known since at least 1861 and confirmed throughout the years.

This is also true of the current warming trend–an increase in carbon dioxide is leading to an increase in temperatures. However, in this current warming episode, the increase in CO2 is largely due to human emissions from the burning of oil, coal, and gas (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report).

Figure 5: Local temperature change (blue) and global carbon dioxide change (red) observed in Antarctic ice core records.

The “hockey stick” graph and its significance

The “hockey stick” graph, created by a group of climate researchers in the late 1990s, reflects average Northern Hemisphere temperature changes over the past several centuries. It was the first comprehensive study combining data from many different archives of temperature including tree rings, ice cores, and coral reefs.

It demonstrated that Northern Hemisphere temperatures rose sharply during the late 20th century, in marked contrast to the relatively small temperature fluctuations during the previous six centuries. The graph got its name because its shape resembles a hockey stick, with the blade end representing the sharp temperature rise over recent years.

The hockey stick graph is a high-profile example among literally thousands of pieces of evidence that have contributed to the present scientific consensus on the human influence on global warming. We are observing real changes due to higher temperatures. Here are some examples from the AR5:

• Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide, and Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover have continued to decrease in extent.
• The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the rate during the previous two millennia.
• Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by 40% since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and secondarily from net land use change emissions. The ocean has absorbed about 30% of the emitted anthropogenic carbon dioxide, causing ocean acidification.

Figure 6: Hockey Stick Graph.

Surface temperature is only one indicator of climate change.

Glaciers are melting. Sea levels and ocean heat content are rising (Figure 7). Patterns of rainfalland snow, droughts and storms, and lake and sea ice are changing. Plant and animal distributions and interactions are shifting and changing, with potential severe effects on crop pests and food supplies.

These shifts are well documented and are largely attributed to human-caused global warming, because scientists can positively identify the “human fingerprints” associated with these changing patterns.

Figure 7: Indicators of Warming

Compared with natural factors that influence climate (including solar variation and volcanic eruptions), human activities – primarily burning fossil fuels and deforestation – have been a major contributor to climate change over the last 50 years. Burning coal, oil and gas and destroying forests overloads the atmosphere with excess carbon dioxide, adding to heat-trapping gases that already are present in the atmosphere. Combined, these gases act like a blanket covering the earth. The human contribution to this effect is unmistakable: the part of the atmosphere where excess carbon dioxide accumulates has expanded and warmed dramatically in recent years precisely during the period when emissions from human activity have increased.

The “Long” and “Short” of Temperature Trends

When one hears the words “global warming,” the image that comes to mind is one of a globe where temperatures are going up constantly, like the water in a kettle on the burner of a stove that steadily rises in temperature. But when it comes to climate the process is not quite the same.

While global temperatures have been going up overall, the rate of warming varies. As a result, some years are warmer than others. That is because there are factors, like air and ocean circulation patterns, that affect both the rate and the intensity of the global warming. For example, every few years an ocean cycle appears in the Pacific ocean either as an El Niño and La Niña with global temperature and regional precipitation pattern changes.

Imagine that you add a few external factors to that imaginary warming kettle (a fan or air conditioning vent blowing directly at the stove; adding more water (hot or cold) to the kettle; a bucket of ice cubes sitting by its side; etc.) and what we have is a heating system that is affected by those other factors – but the water will still eventually boil unless the burner is turned off or turned down significantly.

The “burner” in global warming is represented by the heat-trapping emissions released to the atmosphere from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas – and since that burner has not (yet!) been reduced significantly (enough for the heating to slow down and prevent boiling), what we have is a warming planet. Relatively short-term natural phenomena that cause global temperatures to fluctuate are also occurring throughout the seasons, which we experience as a result of the Earth’s tilted axis as it revolves around the sun.

Short-term effects and external factors make it possible to have “cooler” periods in regions even as the general trend of warming continues. For example, during late 2007 and early 2008, the tropical Pacific Ocean was much cooler than normal due to a strong La Niña episode that kept temperatures across much of the globe lower than usual. Nevertheless, both years were still among the warmest years on record and would have been even hotter without this short-term cooling effect. Conversely, in 2015, a very strong El Niño episode, which made the tropical Pacific Ocean warmer than normal, combined with human-induced global warming to make that year the hottest on record to date (Nov 2016). And needless to say, winters continue to be colder than summers, even though some are more or less cold.

Oscillations between cooler and warmer periods are therefore expected, and do not change the long-term trend of warming shown by the data. Focusing on the relatively short time periods where the rate of warming is slower in order to claim that global warming is not happening is a misleading way to use statistics, yet one that has been the focus of attention. If one starts to measure a warming trend from a much warmer year, the rate of warming is bound to be different from the long term trend, simply due to the starting point (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Measuring warming trends with different start year leads to a different rate of warming, but the long-term trend remains unchanged.

Climate, Weather, and the United States

Climate is a good indicator of what to expect in general, such as cold days in February in New England. Weather, on the other hand, is what we actually experience, like a blustery, snowy day with temperatures in the low 20s. In other words, climate describes phenomena observed over long time periods, such as decades and centuries, while weather is observed over short time periods, such as days and weeks.

Studies in US shows Temperatures in the United States keep breaking records. In 2015 most of the country experienced temperatures above average or much above average, and unless global emissions are reduced significantly, the trend is likely to continue.

It’s Not Too Late

The studies says due to energy efficiency programs, public consciousness, energy audit modules and fast changes in renewable energy resources exploitations, the energy is consumptions is expected to peak off in coming years. Though effects of global warming due to current energy consumption patterns will continue to do the damages. It is the responsibilities of the industries, governments and common public to do their role in saving the environment. More tree plantation and stopping deforestation is most important but not sufficient alone.  Putting a limit on heat-trapping emissions and encouraging the use of healthier, cleaner energy technologies, such as solar and wind power, would help us to avoid the worst potential consequences of global warming.

A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.” says studies. When we Generate electrical energy from coal, We burn coal. It also Generate CO2 which is a Green house Gas and deplete Ozone Layer. To quantify the damage we make ,As per USEPA, 1400 Units of electricity saved is equivalent to 1 Tonne of Green House Gas sequestered or 16.4 Trees plantation.

SAVE TREES, CONSUME MINIMUM ENERGY, GO RENEWABLES