A future after fossil fuels
By Emily Chen, Biochemistry and Data Science, 2023
Fossil fuels have grown to rule our lives, from the use of oil to bond the paint on our walls to the gasoline that powers our cars. For decades, fossil fuel use increased consistently without the government noticing its detrimental effects to the planet. That is, until only about a decade ago, when former Vice-President Al Gore released his documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” describing the dramatic toll fossil fuels take on our environment, putting panic in the minds of politicians, environmentalists, and the general population.
The future of energy may not include fossil fuels, but it will include the growing demand for electricity.
The resilience of fossil fuels over the past century surprised scientists, politicians and economists. However, with the growing development of new technologies, the future of energy may not include fossil fuels, but it will include the growing demand for electricity.
For the last century, the primary contributors to electricity have been fossil fuels and nuclear energy. As new technologies rise that can compete with fossil fuels in both efficiency and cost, the use of fossil fuels will decline, leaving nuclear as the primary energy source; however, nuclear cannot be the only contributor to electricity. Its energy can be harnessed into great amounts of electricity, but the cost of storing its waste and social and political acceptability don’t allow it to be used as widely as fossil fuels.
The most prominent developing technology is solar power. If any type of energy could wholly replace fossil fuels, this is it. The sun provides an endless power source and it has tremendous potential; about 430 quintillion joules of energy is transferred to the earth from the sun every hour, which is more than the entire world’s electricity demand for a year. The potential for this technology seems limitless as new fields of solar energy are being investigated — such as nanotechnology and the use of new materials like graphene — that allow various novel applications to be developed, like being sewn into clothes or placed on cars and buildings.
The potential for this technology seems limitless as new fields of solar energy are being investigated.
It’s clear this technology won’t dominate initially, and there’s no guarantee that new developments and modifications to this technology will be successful. However, current studies are promising and the stigma around the use of fossil fuels paired with its increasing price and environmental effect will make fossil fuels undesirable. The future of energy isn’t merely solar power or nuclear power; it’s a combination of the two. Both types of energy have potential, and we need them together in order to replace fossil fuels.