The growth of human being has travelled a long journey. It was the greatest achievement of primitive man when he discovered fire with the help of a stone. With this human history moved very fast. Later on a number discoveries and inventions were made which changed human life completely. Energy is such a great invention which made our life more
And more comfortable. It has become most needed necessity for us. It has created a crisis also. In the industrially advanced world of today, the demand for energy is increasing day by day. We have machines and factories, we have buses, cars, trains and planes, we have ships and sub marines. Energy is needed to run them. But this is not all. Man is hankering for a cozy and comfortable life. Hence he has become a little but lazy. He does not like even to wind his watch. So, energy is being used for running clocks and watches, typewriters, shaving razors and many more things. It seems as if everything will be paralyzed if there is no energy.
Wood, later, on coal was the first source of energy then came oil and passing through the stage of atomic energy, man is now looking forward to solar energy. We are naturally anxious to think about our future because we know the bitter truth that a day will ultimately come when we have no more coal or oil. It will mean energy crisis, for which we ourselves are responsible. People who have made careful calculation feel that at present level of exploitation, the coal deposit will last till 2080 and it is also true that poor quality coal with the carbon content of 40 percent only, is not conducive for electricity generation. It is also very difficult to harness the uneven distribution of coal. Hence man is on look out for other sources of energy. Our present hope seems to rest on nuclear power
Nuclear energy can be obtained both through fusion and fusion processes. Enormous amounts of energy are released from small quantity of fuel in both these processes. But we must be aware of the fact that nuclear power is full of risks. The use of nuclear energy gives rise to pollutants and hence pollutes our environment. In fact the pollution caused by the
use of nuclear energy from fission process is much more damaging than the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. The dangerous nuclear radiations can damage and cause irreparable damage to cells, and in some cases even lead to
death.
The world is thus faced with serious energy crisis. The condition of India is no better. With growing population the demand for energy is increasing day by day. Since India has limited coal and oil reserve and power generation from coal
and oil is also very costly, therefore the government is taking steps to supply energy for non-commercial purposes from
various sources such as bio-gas. Scientists all over the world are trying to meet the challenge. They are trying to harness solar, water, and air reserves. Hydro-electric power is cheaper, so are air mills. Solar energy too has bright hopes for man. However it is very expensive to establish the necessary infrastructure for tapping solar energy. Giant discs are made to concentrate the sunlight on the thermal generators which use this sunlight to produce energy.
Thus all possible efforts will have to made to save us from total darkness.
