Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy

ENGINEERING 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
Sustainable Engineering
(Student Details :)
26/12/2019

ENGINEERING 2
‘Different ways to generate renewable energy in sustainable engineering’
Research Questions
1. What are some of the impacts of renewable energy use in sustainable engineering
development and overall climate change?
2. Are the technology used in generating renewable energy are viable in terms of
sustainability?
Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable energy is defined as the energy generated from sources that are replenished or
not- exhaustible with the lifetime of human beings. Preferably, the total amount of energy
produced from renewable energy sources is about 14% of the overall energy demands worldwide
(Kammen and Sunter 2016 p.922). There are different examples of renewable energy sources
and they include biomass, geothermal, hydropower, marine energies, solar as well as wind.
These examples of renewable energy are largely summarized as shown in the table below
Table Showing Renewable Energy Conversion and Usage Option (Asumadu-Sarkodie
and Owusu 2016 p.1134304)
The population of the world is growing on a daily basis, and this has increased both the
need and demand for energy. Due to the increased population, there is the continual use of fossil
fuel energy sources such as oil, coal and gas and thus, resulted in their depletion as time goes-by.
The increased use of fossil fuel energy has also resulted in major challenges and problems such

ENGINEERING 3
as increased greenhouse gases emission, increased fuel price, environmental pollution as well as
military conflict (Yatim et al. 2016 p.1685-1695). The problems have continued to grow and
thus, have the high possibility of creating unsustainable situations for human societies in line
with energy consumption. Preferably, it is important to note that renewable energy sources form
the best alternative for addressing the various energy crisis and challenges resulting from fossil
fuel energy. In essence, the research conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration
in 2012, indicated that the supplied energy generated from renewable sources was 22% of the
overall world vitality (Sieminski 2014).
Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy
There are a direct relationship and link between sustainable development and renewable
energy. The relationship is largely deduced in its economic productivity and human
development. In addition to this, there are different opportunities that are fostered by renewable
energy sources in terms of sustainable development (Tiwari and Mishra, 2012). They include
energy security, economic and social development, climate change and environmental reduction
mitigation, energy access as well as health impacts. Therefore, the figure below represents the
various opportunities posed by renewable energy sources in line with sustainable development
(Aanesen, Heck, and Pinner 2017).