Future of Energy: Personal Consumption and Renewable Alternatives

Introduction

In order to reduce the negative environmental impacts of an ever-growing human population and increasing demands for energy as technological advances continue, individual countries, states, cities, and even households have the opportunity to shift their energy sources to those that are renewable. However, not all locations are equally amenable to any particular form of energy. This analysis examines personal energy consumption over the course of a normal daily routine and attempts to identify the major sources of energy use present in everyday life. It was found that heating, cooling, and transportation were among the leading contributors to total energy consumption. There are various ways in which these energy consumption sources could be minimized to create a more effective conservation strategy.

Energy Consumption Patterns

The world is facing environmental crises from a variety of sources. Many of these ecological issues are driven by the world's growing human population, which is expected to reach over nine billion people before it finally peaks — a result of exponential growth sustained over millennia (Kunzig, 2014). The growing human population was previously expected to peak and level off at much lower numbers; however, demographers now believe there could be more growth than previously anticipated. These higher total population estimates underscore the importance of reducing our environmental footprints as soon as possible.

Heating and cooling costs can be one of the greatest expenses associated with maintaining a residence, and in the future these costs could grow even higher. This trend will be driven by increasing energy demand, which will push energy prices upward — particularly because the cheapest sources of energy are non-renewable and are directly linked to climate change. Although energy used for heating and cooling is likely the largest source of personal energy consumption, it may no longer be the largest factor for the population as a whole. The use of energy by appliances, electronics, and lighting has grown rapidly in recent generations and is estimated to have overtaken the energy used to heat and cool residences (EIA, 2013).

Energy also represents 30% of operating expenses in a typical office building — the single largest and most manageable operating expense in the provision of office space (Eichholtz, Kok, & Quigley, 2009). Through thoughtful design, however, many of these energy requirements can be reduced. For example, by properly designing a floor plan to include non-critical rooms — such as conference rooms and storage areas — and heating or cooling these spaces with local controls, energy consumption can be reduced by up to 50% of peak heating load. Optimizing energy performance is rated as the most important credit in LEED certifications (NC-2009 EAc1, 2009).

Solar Energy and Renewable Markets

There have been many efforts to offset increased energy demand through the production of energy from renewable sources. Within the last five years, the market for solar-powered electricity has expanded dramatically, driven by government subsidies provided by many nations and by the gradual increase in energy prices as easily accessible fossil fuels are depleted (Gordon, Kinsey, Nayak, & Garboushian, 2010). There are currently four overall methods of reducing costs associated with solar power generation: system innovations, system optimization, system reliability, and system efficiency. Advances have been made in each of these categories, though the full extent of cost improvements remains difficult to quantify, since solar companies must operate within a competitive rather than collaborative environment.

Conclusion

Nuclear power may never be the ideal solution, yet it may be a necessary component of a diversified energy strategy that offsets the intermittency issues associated with solar power. A combination of personal conservation efforts — particularly in heating, cooling, and transportation — along with broader adoption of renewable and low-emission energy sources, represents the most realistic path toward reducing individual and collective environmental footprints in an era of growing global energy demand.