How sustainable are thermal power stations and biogas plants?
The sustainability of an electricity-generating process determines if it uses resources in a way that can provide enough power required for years to come. Ideally, this can be achieved by using only renewable sources that will be constantly available, and once processed, will give an adequate amount of electricity that will consumed by industry, commerce, transport, households and agriculture. I am going to discuss the sustainability of two approaches to electricity production used at present, thermal power plants and biogasifiers.
Thermal power stations are used mainly in MEDC’s because they are expensive to produce and maintain. They generate electricity by burning coal, oil or gas, which gives off carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and dust. The input resources are not only rapidly becoming scarce, but are difficult and dangerous to collect from the ground with occasional oil spills, along with damage to the environment. They are also non-renewable and mean this type of power production using these most efficient resources will not be able to continue into the future. The waste products of fossil fuels pollute the atmosphere consequently affecting the increasing problem of acid rain and radioactivity. The large cooling towers are considered an eyesore in the landscape, and must be positioned next to a river for cooling; therefore the water is heated, and affects the natural environment. Thermal power production is quite costly, having to build the cooling towers, extracting fuels and managing offices and computer systems that run and observe the production. The efficiency of this type of power production is quite poor, only 30-40%.
