{"id":4521,"date":"2019-08-13T17:08:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:28","slug":"the-earth-could-be-the-answer-to-the-energy-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/13\/the-earth-could-be-the-answer-to-the-energy-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The Earth Could Be The Answer To The Energy Question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is beyond dispute today that the increased use of renewable energies is a prerequisite for sound, sustainable development, and future human well-being. Many industrial countries strive to take a leading position in technology development, with positive consequences for their export and labor markets. To count on renewable energies in developing modern energy supplies has several advantages. In addition to environmental aspects like a decrease in local air pollution, global CO2 emissions, and deforestation, they are a key to becoming more independent of imports of fossil fuels and uncertainties associated with the commodity markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development of renewable energies-biomass, geothermal,\nhydro, solar and wind, is not only important for industrial countries.\nToday, approximately two billion people, about one-third of the global\npopulation, have no access to modern energy.<\/a> In some regions,\nelectricity is available to only 3 % of the population. This is a central\nobstacle to development because the relationships between poverty and energy\nsupply are complex: economy, health, education \u2212 the question of energy supply\naffects them all. Thus, if the world community succeeds in alleviating poverty,\nthe demand for energy will rise significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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geothermal could lead to sustainable development|photo|worldbank.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Energy is needed to support the activities to reach\nthe other sustainable development goals, most of which require additional\nenergy: e.g. to build and operate the schools in which all boys and girls are\nto receive basic education, to run the hospitals which will help reduce child\nmortality, to pump and to treat the water for those who are presently denied\naccess. Reliable energy will power economic development to create employment\nand will generate the required improvements in social and individual welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nenergy sector in Kenya is largely dominated by electricity and petroleum,<\/a>\nwith wood fuel providing the basic energy needs for a majority of the rural\ncommunities, urban poor and part of the informal sector. Use\nof wood fuel and other biomass<\/a> in the nation is at an\nestimated 68% of the country\u2019s total energy consumption. Petroleum and\nelectricity are at an estimated 22 percent and 9 percent respectively.  The Kenya government aims to increase\nelectricity connectivity<\/a> from 15 percent to at least 65 by\nthe year 2022 and they might just be on that road given the full steam reserves\nin the Rift valley that might offer sustainable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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geothermal power plant|photo|mechanicalboost.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kenya has moved into tapping the vast steam reserves in the rift valley. Being the first African nation to drill for geothermal power, it has benefitted from a Programme guided by scientists from Iceland with a lot of expertise. Geothermal energy is fueled by the internal heat generated and stored in the earth.  Kenya has successfully initiated medium to large geothermal power development projects. It’s amongst over twenty countries worldwide already using geothermal energy to generate electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kenya, the Olkaria geothermal power plants operate\nin the Rift Valley, 105 kilometers northwest of the capital, Nairobi. They are\nexpected to become the largest power generation complex in Kenya and to\neventually increase\nthe share of geothermal power in the country\u2019s supply mix to about 25 percent.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently,\nabout 1.5 billion people worldwide have no access to modern energy services<\/a>.\nOne of the main challenges in achieving an energy sustainable future is to\nphase out inefficient fossil fuel consumption and make a smooth transition to\nclean energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why\nEmbrace Geo-Thermal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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geothermal has a wide range of benefits|photo|pinterest.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, reliability. Geothermal power is baseload energy\nwhich is independent of daylight as well as weather conditions and climate. The\nOlkaria East power plant in Kenya has had the availability of about 97% and a\nload factor of about 92% for twenty years.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geothermal power is affordable as well. It production\nentails low costs or even the least cost option at many sites with high natural\npotential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Geothermal power plants are modularly\nexpandable according to the demand and are environmentally friendly in that it\nis almost emission-free and the land requirement is very low compared to coal\nmining, solar and wind energy. This makes it flexible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nUgly In Geothermal Energy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, there are several obstacles to the\ndevelopment of renewable energies in general. These are mainly market barriers,\nlack of knowledge, an inadequate legal and regulatory framework and investment\nbarriers. A major barrier for the wider use of geothermal is related to its\nnature- steam and hot water have to be found up to several kilometers under the\nearth\u2019s surface. T<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes it hard to access and profound geological\nknowledge is needed to assess the geothermal resource potential. Exploration of\nthe resources is expensive due to high drilling costs. Geological uncertainties\nlined to high up-front costs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are not easily accessible and profound geological\nknowledge is needed to assess the geothermal resource potential. Exploration of\nthe resources is expensive due to high drilling costs. In addition, the high\nup-front costs are linked with geological uncertainties and thus deter\npotential investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All problems do have solutions and where there is a\nwill there is a way. Overlooking these obstacles could be the start of\nsomething great and it is already working. Geothermal energy will open doors to\nachieving other sustainable development goals which will be beneficial in the\nlong term. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is beyond dispute today that the increased use of renewable energies is a prerequisite for sound, sustainable development, and future human well-being. Many industrial countries strive to take a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}