Issues in the topic of energy

There are already many solutions relative with energy storage in order to convert it to electricity on high demand time periods. For instance, hydroelectric power plants are capable of storing an amount of water (mechanical energy storage) and they convert it to electrical energy when needed.

Hydroelectric  power plant on Vistula river, Poland

As far as solar energy is concerned, European Union has set a goal for 2020 to produce the 20% of total energy consumption from renewable resources. Some Mediterranean countries are doing quite well. For example, Greece has approximately 1 million of solar heaters. Also, the 6 biggest Greek photovoltaic parks have a rated power of at least 40MWp.

The conversion of wind energy to electricity is also a common solution for many European countries. European Union promotes many investments willing to increase the amount of offshore wind farms by 25 times. There is another goal for 2040, for wind energy to become the most important energy resource. Denmark is an exemplary country in this field, as it has at least 9 offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

Apart from marine farms, land-based ones are also widely used. Turbines are designed 70 to 150 meters high and can weigh many tones. In the European Union, Sweden is currently leading using turbines of 6.7 Gigawatts total power. Sweden’s plan for the future is to use exclusively wind energy to produce electricity.

Finally, the controversial issue of nuclear energy is raised. While countries like Austria and Germany have stated their dissatisfaction to add it to their energy mix, some countries, mainly in eastern Europe, are going to invest in modern nuclear plants. Nevertheless, the need for time shifts of the electricity demand hasn’t been solved. At this point, the significance of applications such as smart grids and domestic devices that produce electricity in many ways can be seen.

Offshore wind farm in Denmark

Nuclear energy plant in France

From buildings to nZEB
(near Zero Energy Buildings)

Now the attention is focused on the energy consumers, office buildings, blocks of flats and dwellings, which with suitable structure, modulation or bioclimatic architecture would be able to befriend the function of energy supply networks and simultaneously to ease the inhabitants in various economical ways. Some indicative principles that should be followed while designing are the utilization of solar potential, the protection from the sun rays in summer and the proper thermal insulation of the building. Apart from these, the meaning of the term nZEB is to save energy and try to have a zero-energy balance.

From the present to the Future

Globalization, increasing independence, robotics, technological explosions, colonization of new planets, cryogenics, digital currencies, non-monetary economies, quantum computers, nanotechnology are some indicative thoughts about future and evolution. In the labor field, some professions will evolve, some new will originate, and some others will be extinct. As far as Artificial Intelligence is concerned, computers are becoming exponentially better in achieving goals earlier than expected.

Gradually, oil and natural gas are being replaced by the sun and the wind, inexhaustible energy sources that are abundant in nature and are unexploited at a high rate. Fields like construction, transportation, medicine and law will be vastly changed. The continuous improvement of the globe will surely be combined with corresponding improvements in the case of buildings and dwellings. During the next years, nZEB will also be replaced by net Zero Energy Buildings. These buildings will have such a high insulation and electricity production rate, that they will be able to produce energy surplus that will be sold back to the local energy supply network.

Every single evolution will only be a transition to the next major society era, the revolutionary Internet of Things (IoT). It is a vision that one way or another will be realized by creating an enormous wired and wireless network around the globe. It is going to include any type of devices or objects, vehicles, clothes and even food and drinks. 

In other words, it is supposed to be a sum of wirelessly connected devices and objects. Given their communication capability, they will lead millions of applications and services that will possibly have even higher standards of living as a result. Innumerable facilitations and social changes are expected in the next decades. Approximately 10 billion devices had access on the Internet globally in 2014, amount that was expected to rise to 26 billion in 2020.

It is obvious that in such tremendous changes there are no boundaries for experimenting and mistakes. It is taken for granted that in order to go to the next level of humanity all existing issues have to be faced. A matter of high importance is to improve the safety on the Web, as the violent digitalization of the world poses huge risks of massive personal data leakage. In addition, the possibilities of secondary data use have to be obliterated. Lastly, problems like anonymity absence and mistaken automated decisions also have to be eliminated.

What will be humanity’s response when Earth population will rise so high that there will be not be enough resources and space for everyone?

As noted in a research post held by a department of Washington University, there is a possibility that some countries may come to decisions to limit specific health services, with noxious consequences.

There have been suggestions for creating artificial extensions of the planet, such as a huge ring. Such a ring could rotate at a speed suitable for maintaining a geostatic orbit, thus creating an artificial gravitational field on its inside due to centrifugal forces that will develop.

SpaceX envisions colonizing Mars in the coming years. Their priority is the development of fully reusable vessels to transport people and goods from Earth to the Red Planet.

Possible future colony on the planet Mars.

C-Space training base in the Gobi Desert.