(350d) Death of Energy

Energy is older than human or any other living specie on the Earth. It will not be wrong to quote that it is the energy which gave birth to all living species including human and is also the mother of all the matter in the Universe. Upon understanding the power and significance of the energy though in a limited perspective, ancient human started worshiping different forms of energy like fire, and energy sources like the Sun, which are still being worshiped in some parts of the world.

Sun is the source of all major forms of energy on the Earth e.g. solar, wind, hydro, and also the hydrocarbon sources of energy like coal, oil, and natural gas. It also contributes to the tidal energy from the oceans, in this case by its gravitational pull. The other two types of energies from the oceans which also depend on the Sun, and can be extracted, are: wave energy, and ocean thermal energy conversion. In ocean thermal energy conversion, the energy can be extracted by exploiting the temperature difference between the ocean waters on the surface and the ocean waters deep underneath.

However, there are some important energy sources on the Earth which are not or not primarily based/dependent on the Sun or solar energy. These are nuclear, thermonuclear (fusion), and geothermal, and can be treated as the Sun-Independent Energy Sources (SIES). The first one i.e. nuclear is the most controversial of all the energy sources being used, controlled energy from fusion is still not possible, and the third i.e. geothermal is limited in industrial extraction of energy for practical purposes and not feasible on most places of the planet with the existing technologies.

Energy has no boundaries and the Earth receives as well as radiates back the energy from and to the Universe whereas the energy sources, their origin, strength, utilization, depletion rate, and exhaustion period have never been envisioned or evaluated on real ?universal scale'. They have been visualized mostly on global scale assuming the Sun as the infinite source of energy especially regarding its exhaustion time, thus giving rise to the misnomers like ?renewable energy sources'.

All nuclear fuels have certain half-lives, and no matter how long is the half-life, they will eventually exhaust. Geothermal energy source will also die out and so as the Sun which is the prime source of energy on the planet. If we consider the exhaustion times for nuclear, geothermal, and all the Sun-Dependent Energy Sources (SDES) on ?universal scale' then the exhaustion time point is not far from now. Fortunately, we have a Sun-independent energy source in the form of light and stable nuclei suitable for fusion.

In this presentation, first focus is on the energy and its availability on the Earth, extending the energy boundaries beyond the Earth and the Sun. Implications of the second law of thermodynamics is also discussed in this part. Secondly, the Sun-Independent Energy Sources (SIES) on the Earth i.e. nuclear, thermonuclear and geothermal are analyzed in detail. An estimate of total reserves of these three energy sources on the planet, and an optimal use of these energy sources is discussed in the last section of this presentation enabling us to understand the energy issues on wider and universal scale.

In the end, a brief summary is presented giving recommendations for comprehensive universal energy policy regarding the sequence of the use of SDES and SIES.