Renewable Energy for Environmental Protection

Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Alam
(Converted into English: Zeba Tarannum)

Re-usable natural resources use as renewable energy. Renewable energy is known as ‘Green Energy’ or ‘Clean Energy’ because it is eco-friendly.

Due to the increasing environmental catastrophe in the world, it has become impossible to live a healthy life without renewable energy. Renewable energy refill naturally.

There are usually two types of energy available in the world for human needs. The first is renewable energy produced using a variety of natural resources, including sunlight, wind, water, and biogas.

On the other hand, non-renewable energy produce using oil, coal, gas, and nuclear power. It notes that oil, coal, and natural gas are collectively known as ‘fossil fuels.’ The importance of using renewable energy in combating the ongoing corona pandemic caused by environmental disasters around the world.

A review of history shows that in 1860, ‘Solar energy’ was invented in France as the first renewable energy. Later research in 1876 showed that the selenium used in solar panels converted the energy absorbed from the sun into electricity.

Scientist Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for the production of solar energy by the sun. In the year 1888, the aerated ‘Windmill’ started generating electricity as the world’s first renewable energy. By the 1930s, windmill-powered power generation was widespread throughout the United States.

Later, in the twentieth century, the spread of power generation by aerated windmills spread worldwide. The power generation by ‘Wind Mill’ has gained wide popularity worldwide as ‘Clean Energy’ as it is environmentally friendly.

Statistical analysis shows that 3 lakh 41 thousand 320 wind turbines have been launched worldwide by 2016. At present, about 15 lakh 55 thousand people are working in those windmills in the world.

However, biogas is also important as renewable energy. Biogas is usually made in the absence of oxygen by decomposing household waste or organic matter. About 70-80% of the methane gas produced in biogas plants is used as fuel.

As biogas became environmentally friendly and popular in power generation, various types of plants started in 1920. Later, in 1938, the first solid waste was used to build a ten cubic meter biogas plant.

On the other hand, the journey of scientifically generating electricity from water began in the nineteenth century, which is known as hydroelectricity.

Hydroelectric generation usually depends on the currents of rivers or waterfalls. In many countries, climate change is changing the pattern of rainfall, and reducing the flow of the river is reducing the power generation by water.

The importance of renewable energy is immense in combating environmental disasters and climate change. Due to the upward population growth, there has been an imbalance of natural resources with population growth in the developing countries.

However, in many developing countries like Bangladesh, the importance of uninterrupted power generation to meet people’s basic needs is undeniable. In these circumstances, power generation through coal, oil, gas, and nuclear energy instead of renewable energy to meet a growing population’s needs is comparatively much more visible.

At present, the government of Bangladesh has launched the ‘Solar Home System,’ which will provide electricity to more than 6 million households by 2021. Windmills continue to generate electricity in the southern coastal areas of Bangladesh.

Moreover, Bangladesh is producing environmentally friendly biogas from a limited amount of waste, which meets the demand for electricity in households, even to a lesser extent. It will soon add electricity generated from tidal waves in the coastal areas and water waves in the Bay of Bengal to the national grid.

The use of renewable energy is less than that of non-renewable energy all over the world. The importance of renewable energy for environmental sustainability and healthy, sustainable living is immense.

Studies show that about 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere each year from fossil fuels. Moreover, various types of volatile organic matter and heavy metals, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide in electricity production using fossil fuels, are continually increasing uncontrollably in the environment.

Again, the amount of benzene, mercury, formaldehyde, and particulate matter emitted in the ‘fossil fuel’ combustion is continuously increasing, adding the health risks in the corona pandemic.

On the other hand, in some countries of the world, the popularity of nuclear power used in power generation increases to meet the electricity demand of the growing population. Many countries are moving towards renewable energy instead of using atomic energy in power generation, focusing on health risks in the ongoing corona pandemic.

Studies show that uranium is used as fuel in nuclear power. Even radioactive waste from nuclear power plants used to generate electricity increases the health risks uncontrollably.

Moreover, studies have shown that harmful radio nucleoids, such as tritium, carbon-14, and iodine-129, are released into the environment in unbearable levels. The study also found that nuclear power plants set up to generate electricity could spread health risks up to 50 kilometers around.

Renewable fuels play an important role in protecting the environment as they do not emit harmful substances into the atmosphere. So far, the use of renewable energy in the world is limited; we must increase renewable energy globally by prioritizing environmental disasters in climate change.

The whole world is now in the throes of a deadly corona. In this situation, if the toxic, harmful elements continue to grow in the atmosphere, then there is a risk of another unknown pandemic in the human environment.

As the world continues to embrace the realm of renewable energy by embracing environmental catastrophe, from a moral point of view, the use of renewable energy must be increased by gradually reducing the use of non-renewable energy to deal with global warming due to climate change.

Author: Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science | Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur

(This article was originally published in “The Daily Ittefaq” in Bangla)