Renewable Energy: ideas, research, efficiency

As your group works on renewable energies, the fact sheet about the issue climate change and energy supply may be a good support for your work. You find it in the Online-Library:
http://www.europa-nur-mit-uns.eu/forum/Online-Bibliothek_3/Climate-change-and-energy-supply_40/Fact-sheet-on-climate-change-and-energy-supply_8/

It could also be quite interesting for you to get in touch with the three other groups, who have presented similar topics. The group of the “Lycée Jean Dautet” puts the question “for or against withdrawing from nuclear energy?” and the two groups from Novy Jicin have chosen climate change and energy supply as their topic. With them, you can discuss and debate aspects of climate protection and energy policy in your country or of the European Union and exchange information and results.

for my mind the change is a duty of many citzen.beacause the earth is for we all and this problem implies the life of all

Indeed, the duty of generally ’saving’ -as the term is nowadays- planet Earth belongs to each and everyone of us. Slowly people should be adapting their ways of life to slow the on-marching process of Global Warming.

While this is all true, the main responsibility lies in our approach towards energy production, where governments are the ones who have the power to actively enforce climate-friendly policies for both the power production and other industries. They are the ones who need to take the lead in this, as companies will obviously not prefer taking climate-friendly decisions over cheap though polluting methods because the latter is simply easier and less costly.

Stronger and stricter government policies on the subject of environmental changes and emission patterns might scare off industries and cause them to relocate to less strict states leading to a loss of jobs and less economic growth, the only real solution to that would be a world-wide body recognised and obeyed by all states to ensure companies are obliged to follow environmental legislation.

As governments are enforcing ’green’ policies on companies, the companies will be forced to come up with environmentally-friendly solutions. This brings us back to the topic: Renewable energies. I would think it’s safe to conclude neither of all current renewable energy sources are developed enough to be a good replacement for fossil fuel energies, meaning a lot of work needs to be done to be able to exploit these fully.

A concept that would be interesting to examine more closely is exactly what my colleague Ludo Bolling posted on "Climate change and energy supply"’s debate page, concerning the pan-european energy network. Currently the national grids are linked only slightly and regionally (on a European scale), and even though last year the Dutch grid got connected with the British grid and the French and the British already have a connection, this still needs lots of work. Plans have been made and agreed upon for connections between Great Britain and Spain for example, a big step in the right direction.

Often when the European super grid is suggested, the issue of the storage of power is brought under attention. What I mean by this, is that even though the wind mills may produce energy and solar panels do what they are designed to do, if there is no energy demand, this power is basically wasted (perhaps if you count the heating of wires and grid components as useful, one could argue against this). Solutions? A huge chargeable battery like the ones we find in our notebooks, phones and cars? Not likely, as this would be far too costly considering the sheer size and storage capacity required.
Sometimes a solution is closer than it may seem, as we’re dealing with renewable energy sources, hydroelectricity is one of our subjects. If we take a closer look towards this, we could see a great power storage potential, pumping up water in the lakes in times of power surplus and using the potential energy of the water in times of high energy demand. Nature’s rechargeable battery!

Hi there,

have you already had a look in the online library? There you can find an open letter from the Youth European Conference that is addressed to decision-makers and politicians and that could help you with your work. Other young people met in May 2012 and discussed solutions to enviromental problems. Issues were energy, transport, solidarity, biodiversity and natural resources. Interestingly, they agreed on commitments and responsibilities of young European people but also of decision-makers.

Have a look here: http://www.europa-nur-mit-uns.eu/forum/Online-Bibliothek_3/Climate-change-and-energy-supply_40/Youth-European-Conference--Open-Letter-to-the-Decision-makers_78/