RENEWABLE ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Building Technologies and Development Projects

Abstract

The criteria used in judging an energy source encompass its renewability, conversion into usable forms, and environmental and health issues. The diverse national energy policies of the countries were analyzed and areas that need attention to achieve sustainability were highlighted. On the overall, the success of sustainable development in addressing the imminent energy crisis. Excessive usage of fuel wood is already creating considerable environmental problems. Countries has all the potentials to explain its energy problems if appropriate infrastructural support can be provided for harnessing the abundant renewable resources in the continent, and if skills are pooled together and experiences shared in addressing the key issues.

Keywords: Renewable energy; Sustainable development; Environment

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Building Technologies and Development Projects

Introduction

Sustainable development has been at the center of recent policies and development plans. This is a pattern of development that delivers basic environmental, social and economic services without threatening the viability of natural, built and communal systems upon which these services depend. In terms of development indices, energy consumption is a recognized indicator. However, across the globe, as many as two billion people have no access to electricity. Most countries lack much of the basic electric driven power grid infrastructure that developed countries constructed at considerable costs. The national incomes of the countries is furthermore a major constrain in the direction of acquiring the conventional power systems. Under these circumstances, the only option for most countries is the development and harnessing of the available renewable energy resources. These may provide only small to modest capacity systems. However, the flexibility of small dimensions of renewable systems for example solar thermal, photovoltaic and wind energy can be ideal for countries needs. Another advantage associated with small size is speed of construction. Wind farms, for instance, can take less than a year to build. Also, the smaller capacity of renewable plants allows them more easily to match incremental changes in load growth and to meet the requirements of small burden centers (Kemp, 2006, pp: 91).

The major alternative energy resources abundant throughout the countries are solar energy (thermal and photovoltaic), wind power, wood and biomass, and biogas production. This paper presents the diverse spectra of development and a review is presented on the renewable energy policies of these countries and how far these policies are meeting up to the challenges of sustainable development (Kemp, 2006, pp: 95).

Discussion and Analysis

Fossil fuels are being consumed at much faster rates than they are produced in the Earth's crust; hence, the world's supply of these fuels is being depleted. The depletion of these nonrenewable fuels is a major challenge facing humanity. There are alternative sources of energy that are renewable and not based on the burning of fossil fuels. Renewable energy resources are those from sources that are capable of being continually replenished after exploitation. They are not exhaustible within human timescales. They occur naturally and abundantly and provide relatively clean energy that does not produce greenhouse gases ...