Question

Malaysia has set the policy of achieving 20% Renewable Energy (RE) by 2025. The country had signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 with the commitment of reducing carbon emissions by 40% and also to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions contributions by 45% in 2030.

1. Explain what is Renewable Energy?

2. What are the THREE (3) advantages and TWO (2) disadvantages of using biomass energy source?

3. Discuss the problems that arises from using hydropower as the source of renewable energy.

Answer 1

Till now we have been using the non- renewable energy to meet our daily needs like electricity, transportation, etc. But the resources which we are using are exhaustible in nature, which means we have limited quantities of these resources like coal, wood, petroleum, etc. But the bigger point which is to be noted is that these resources cause a good amount of pollution by producing greenhouse gasses, which is contributing to climate change. climate change is becoming a big bad problem for our earth, climate change is leading to problems like rising sea levels, melting of glaciers, forest fires, etc.

so renewable resources are those type of resources which are not exhaustible in nature, they do not create any pollution nor it produces any greenhouse gasses.

types of renewable resources are:

1)Solar energy

2) water energy

3) Wind energy

4) Tidal energy.

5) nuclear energy

B) advantages of biomass energy are-

1) no pollution or very less pollution is emitted from using renewable sources of energy.

2) due to no pollution and no greenhouse gasses, climate change can be controlled to save the earth.

3) we can get cleaner air to breathe due to less pollution. improves health conditions.

4) one-time investment for the production of renewable sources of energy.

5) it can help us to be less reliant on fossil fuels. and it is less expensive.

Disadvantages-

1) the high cost of getting renewable energy.

2) population is highly dependent on non-renewable resources.so shift to renewable resources like biomass can be tough. and it is not as efficient as other fossil fuels.

3) problem of deforestation can take place.

C) problems of hydropower as a source of energy-

1) building a hydro-electricity power house or a dam can disturb the aquatic life of that river or a lake, that can indirectly harming our and earth. Dams can cause problems like blockage of important minerals and silt to flow in the river. In short natural flow is disturbed causing disturbances to aquatic animals and plants.

2) dams are very expensive to build and dams can cause floods in its nearby areas, which in turn can affect their livelihood. for example life or farmers is largely affected.

3)making damns can affect the natural flow of the river which can cause the problem of water supply to its nearby places and also it can affect the water table of a city or a village which can lead to a water crisis.

4)hydropower cannot be generated everywhere, and it needs a proper water source to produce electricity and dams can cause droughts as well.