Sustainable Energy: Booming Global Market, Impacts for 2021 - Essay Sample

Introduction

Energy is a very essential resource in the entire world, especially in this era of technological advancement and industrialization. Energy has a direct impact on the economy of every nation worldwide since it is used in the everyday smooth running of major industries. In 2017, the world sustainable energy bazaar was estimated to be $928.0 billion and was anticipated to shoot to $1,512. 3 billion by 2025 (Allied Market Research, par. 2). Sustainable energy technology transforms energy from various naturally available resources like the sun, tides, and wind into forms of energy that can be used as electric power.

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The planetary sustainable energy bazaar is expected to expand importantly in the predicted era due to high volumes of emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon (ii) oxide because of the increased use of fossil fuels to generate energy. Additionally, the reduced fossil fuel resources in the world and its explosive prices expand the sustainable energy bazaar. Nonetheless, a large investment is needed in the creation of sustainable energy. The expensive investment factor is expected to be an obstacle to the expansion of the markets in the said period. Moreover, fossil fuels are chiefly utilized to create energy in the Middle East owing to its economical nature compared to other areas, thus hindering the market growth. Contrastingly, the constant technological advancement and heightened governmental investment in the sustainable energy sector will provide profitable expansion opportunities within the evaluation period. The size of the sustainable energy bazaar is rising because of increased strict government policies in regard to climate change in the developing as well as developed economies.

The sustainable energy bazaar is categorized into the region, type, and end usage. Basing on the type, the bazaar is segmented into hydroelectric, bioenergy, wind, geothermal and solar energy. The end usage segment groups the energy into residential, industrial, commercial and others. Lastly, regional categorization aligns the energy as European, North American, LAMEA and Asia-Pacific. From the four, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow at the quickest rate because of the high demand for energy in India and China owing to increased industrialization. The developing countries are boosting the sustainable energy sector due to the increase in population, steep industrialization and opportune government regulations. To remain competitive in the market, chief players are adopting novel strategies like acquisition, collaboration, business growth, partnership and product launch (Allied Market Research, par. 2-4).

Universal Energy Problems

Among the problems facing the world today are begives that relate to energy. The provision of enough energy to satisfy an expanding universal population with heightening living standards will need chief changes in energy supply and effectiveness. Meeting such requirements while at the same time mollifying climate change is even more difficult, and will need a vital swap in the historical pattern of usage of fossil fuels and a chief metamorphosis in the universal energy system. Harmonious to the annual primary report of the International Energy Agency, the universal primary energy need is expected to upsurge to 18,048 from 12,271 million tonnes of oil equivalent amid 2008-2035, which is a 47% increase. Simultaneously, the need for electric power is expected to rise from 20, 183-38,423 terawatt-hours, which is a 90% increase (Kessids & Toman, 2). Generally, the average expansion rate of energy needs amid 2008-2035 is appraised to be about 2.4% yearly for the entire world.

Due to the increased threats of climate change, demands to behedge carbon (ii) oxide emissions as a result of generating coal-fired electricity grows. Such demands germinate the central challenge to the global energy industry since countries start revising their energy regulation policies to restrain the increased emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Once such regulations are enacted, there will be difficulty in realizing the energy capacity as projected.

Several technological alternatives are available but have differing implications economically, socially and environmentally. There is great anticipation that more innovation technology-wise might be critical to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. In efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and upsurge the safety of energy supply, already several governments have enacted policies to enable them to source electricity from renewable sources. The move can also be a motivation to curb domestic pollutants. However, this transition will be challenged by issues of intermittence, the point of sustainable resources in relation to main population areas and the gargantuan scale of prospect shift.

Based on the nudiustertian report by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, an important decrease in greenhouse gas emissions can be done by rising the effectiveness of how electricity is used and by increasing deployment of existent sustainable technologies. However, such measures are insufficient in realizing longterm greenhouse gas decreases. Hydropower may be economical, but the use of potential novel sites is likely to be limited. A chief expansion of bioenergy would need large pieces of land. The cost of harnessing solar energy is also not favorable. Wind and solar energy can not be reliable since they are dependent on natural resources and therefore cannot provide enough energy for a large population. Nuclear energy would be the most efficient and cost-effective method but then it raises issues concerning security since a minor fault would mean high consequences (Kessides & Toman, 3). The challenges above make the transition to low-C energy sources very difficult. However, technological innovations have shown that they can solve the problem but need more time. There is a possibility of lowering the carbon level in high-carbon energy source but this method is not cost-effective.

Development Trap

There has been intense competition among the oil-producing and exporting countries for many years, each country wanting to show that it is superior over the other when it comes to oil production. Such fights have been very influential concerning the direction of the economy for the whole world. Some oil-consuming countries also take advantage of such occasions for their own gains. To safeguard their common interest and divert the mental focus of people from strategic errors, the oil-importing states occasionally upbraids oil-exporting nations for the oil-shortage and economic downturn. An example of such a case can be drawn from former United States secretary Kissinger, who in 1975 blamed the OPEC for the poor economic development experienced in the US (Zhao, 165). Kissinger believed that the dominant and monopolist behavior of cartels in the oil-exporting states was responsible for the devastavit economic constraints for the past one decade.

Notwithstanding the numerous disasters and tempestuousness resulting from contention and interference of oil resources, basing on economic development outlook alone, the wealthier energy resources are key determinants for economic development. However, the oil-producing and oil-exporting nations do not become economic powers per se. Richdom in energy resources can result in vast wealth to the resource-producing countries, and may also impact their geopolitical and foreign influences. Similarly, richness in resources can be the worst curse for that country and can hamper national development. Many countries in the United Arab Emirates can attest to the existence of the resource curse.

Resource curse in developmental economics can refer to the prohibition of resources to economic expansion. In this case, the economic growth rate of countries with rich resources tends to be slower than those of countries with scanty resources. Several investigations show that the abundance of resources may be a development trap if technological and institutional innovations are not embraced. A good example of the development trap can be seen in the Dutch disease case study. Between the 1970s-80s the Dutch oil and gas mining industry grew quickly and in turn restricted the growth of other industries like manufacturing and services sectors (Zhao, 160). The expansion of the mining and export industry crippled other industries like manufacturing and agriculture so that they largely depended on it for survival. The sharp down- and upturns of oil prices can also affect the economic development of a country negatively like in the case of Russia. Some countries like Saudi Arabia, who gained abrupt vast richness, are unable to restructure their development plans due to weakened government motivation. In other major oil-producing states like Nigeria and Venezuela, poverty, mismanagement, and corruption have grown very deep because of the resource curse. The resource curse has in other nations caused fights and divisions of countries. In the case of Nigeria for example, the country has faced regular fightings as a result of the oil resources. Research has shown that many countries that do not have mineral resources have developed more compared to the rich-resource countries. The western countries faced challenges due to the high dependence on oil resources sometime back. The countries, since then revised their development plans to lessen their dependency on oil.

Works Cited

Allied Market Research. Renewable Energy Market by Type (Hydroelectric Power, Wind Power, Bioenergy, Solar Energy, and Geothermal Energy), and End-Use (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2025. (2018). https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.alliedmarketresearch.com/renewable-energy-market/amp

Kessides, I. N & Toman, M. The Global Energy Challenge. (2011). https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/the-global-energy-challenge.

Zhao, Hongtu. The Economics and Politics of China's Energy Security Transition. Academic Press. (2018) . Pg 151-172