What is the relationship between energy use and economic development?

As an economy develops greater amounts of energy are required for many reasons including: 1.Mechanisation of agriculture. 2.Expansion of manufacturing industry. 3.Demands of a growing service sector. 4.Increased freight and general business transportation. 5.Increasing car ownership. 6.Higher level of domestic use. 7.Expansion of power networks to isolated areas.

The relationship between energy and poverty Describe the main trends that can be seen in the above graph. Give suggestions for some of the anomalies.

Why is energy consumption so low in LEDCs? The main answer is poverty. People depend on goods and services produced locally. They cannot afford to buy expensive manufactured goods that require lots of energy to make; nor can they afford to own their own cars, and in rural areas often rely on animals for transport. Cooking and heating depend on bio fuels like wood and crops are produced using human and animal labour rather than petrol machines. Most LEDCs have little if any income left after satisfying their basic needs, Thus, international travel, which is extremely energy intensive, is not an option for the bulk of the worlds population.

Case Study: The energy situation in the UK – An energy rich country. Describe and explain the changes from 1990 to 2004.

Background info The UK is running out of significant reserves of oil and gas that made it the leading over the last three decades. In 2005 Britain became a net importer of natural gas and is expected to lose its self sufficiency by 2009! The UK coal industry has also continued to decline. This means that by 2020 Britain will be importing about ¾ of its primary energy needs! There are growing fears that energy could become a political weapon, therefore leaving the UK in a vulnerable position.

Future Issues Many of the country's coal and nuclear power stations need to be closed in the next decade. New development will be very costly and the government must decide on a new strategy to reduce carbon emissions. The government has set the optimistic target of reducing greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050.

UK – Oil and Gas The UK has already taken between ½ and ¾ of the oil and gas in its territorial waters. UK oil production peaked at the end of 1990s and has now declined by about 30% - this reduction in production is expected to continue. It is also predicted that natural gas production will fall considerably by More than 90% GB’s gas comes from the North Sea – other 10% imported from Europe. Gas imports will rise greatly in the future as this is projected to account for an increasing share of electricity generation.

The government is trying to encourage development of the remaining oil reserves in the North Sea. New technologies are being developed to extract more oil than was previously possible from the North Sea. Example: Miller oil field 240km NE of Peterhead, Scotland. Production peaked in 1995 and was due to close down in However, by injecting carbon dioxide from a mainland power station into the oil field it has been estimated a further 40 million barrels of oil could be extracted – increasing the oil field life expectancy by 20 years.

Nuclear Power As a result of the falling North Sea energy production and concerns about the UK energy mix, nuclear energy is back on the agenda. It takes at least 10 year to plan and build a nuclear reactor and environmental action groups such as Greenpeace are absolutely opposed to nuclear power. Supporters believe nuclear is the only way to meet UK energy needs and the climate change obligations at reasonable cost. However, without the construction of new power plants, the share of nuclear generated electricity will decline from 23% in 2005 to 7% by Of the country’s 12 nuclear plants, 9 are due to be closed in the next ten years. What would you do?

Coal At the beginning of the 20 th century coalmining was the country's biggest employer. However, at the end of 2005 there was only 42 open coast mines, employing 9,300 people. Why has coal declined? It is the dirtiest and most inflexible of the fossil fuels – all of the easily accessible coal has been mined. The country has 19 coal-fired power stations, very little UK coal is exported, however imports are very significant. Coal could have a come back – How?

Clean coal technologies… This has developed forms of coal that burn with greater efficiency and capture coal’s pollutants before they are emitted into the atmosphere. The latest ‘supercritical’ coal-fired power stations, operating at higher pressure and temperatures can operate at 20% higher efficiency levels than previous power stations. Existing coal power stations could also be updated to include this technology.

Hydroelectric Power (HEP) The UK generates only about 0.8% of electricity from HEP. Most of the large scale plants are located in the Scottish highlands. – Why? There are few opportunities to increase large-scale production of HEP as the most attractive and environmentally acceptable sites have already been taken. In July 2005, Scottish ministers approved plans for a new HEP generating station at Glendoe in Inverness- shire. Will be built underground at the site of Loch Ness. Could generate 100 megawatts of electricity to meet the power requirements of homes.

Other renewable options The government has set a target of 10% of electricity from renewable sources by In 2003, biomass used for both heat and electricity generation accounted for 87% of renewable energy in the UK. The majority of this came from land fill gas and waste combustion. Electricity produced form biomass, accounted for 1.55% of total electricity supply in There is a small geothermal plant in Southampton – use hot water from deep below the city. In 2003 total capacity for solar in the UK was sonly 6 megawatts. There are 2 wave power devices operating in the UK – both in Scotland. Total capacity is 1.25 megawatts.

Wind energy Scroby Sands, Britain's newest (2005) and largest wind farm is located on a sand back 3km off the coast of Great Yarmouth. 30 turbines can produce enough electricity for 41,000 homes.

The government promotes wind power at least partly to help meet its commitment to reduce carbon emissions. Under the ‘renewables obligation certificate’, energy companies are obliged to generate part of their electricity through renewable sources. At present the requirement is 4.3% byt will rise to 15% by Power companies can meet their obligations by buying credits from other companies that operate renewable energy facilities. The credit system has resulted in significant payments from conventional power companies to ‘green’ operators.

In 2005 the total amount of financial assistance to renewable energy companies (mainly wind farms) was £700 million a year – expected to rise to £1 billion by A recent estimate was that renewable energy capacity would rise 21-fold between 2005 and 2010 – if this materialises 7% of UK’s electricity will come from wind.

Microgeneration There has been a developing interest in new small scale energy generators. In the UK, microgenerators are generators with a very small output of energy. For example photovoltaic tiles and wind turbines on roofs are no longer a rarity. If these were installed in large enough numbers they could take a considerable strain off overloaded distribution grids. The government-sponsored Energy Saving Trust (EST) estimates that home-powered generators of various types could provide between 30-40% of the UK’s energy needs by 2050.