The
prime advantages of using renewable energy are its sustainability and lack of
depletion. Another one is the lack of pollution that is normally incumbent with
other ways of producing energy.
Conventional renewable energy sources include hydroelectric (water power), geothermal, wood, wood
waste, municipal waste, landfill gas, other biomass, solar, and wind power. It
is expected that in the near future when the natural gas and fossil fuel will definitely
run out, the energy demand of the human population will definitely look towards
renewable resources to fulfill its needs. However it has been hard to produce a
huge amount of renewable energy.
During
the 20th century, throughout the world larger generation plants
which were essentially thermal in nature were constructed. However the trend
started to shift towards resources which can offer lesser pollution, less waste
and naturally produced energy.
Following
the aforementioned discussion Malta, being a member of European Union has been
trying to upgrade its systems and achieve its goal of getting 10% energy from
renewable sources by 2020. However the question still remains that whether
Malta will be able to do so?
The
need for developing renewable energy sources in Malta arose because of the fact
the non-presence of any fossil fuel resources. Much of the energy usage depends
on the oil which is also imported. This usage of oil has increased by a factor
of 53 percent within a period of just 15 years. As a result Malta decided to
develop energy through renewable resources. In 2008 the renewable energy market
was at an early stage in Malta. Only solar energy and biofuels were used. The
European Union Directive 2009/28/EC set Malta's target share of renewable
energy at 10% by the year 2020.
Currently
Malta is still working on solar energy and biofuels. Although the solar energy
is still considered a tough job reason being the high prices of photovoltaic
cells yet Renergy Limited has been able to provide solar panels at a reduced
cost hence encouraging the citizens to buy them and fix them on their roofs.
Biomass energy includes biofuel (bio-diesel/bioethanol) that is produced
through the fermentation process of biomass and the product is mainly as a
source of transport energy. Malta currently imports all biofuel. In addition to
that Malta has been obtaining its renewable energy from waste resources; these
resources include landfills, water treatment, and sewagetreatment plants where
gases and heat produced during the treatment process are used to generate
electricity. Lastly wind energy is considered as a huge prospect in Malta which
also has received much speculation about its viability. But the best source of
energy for Malta will always be that of leveraging the unlimited resource i.e
the sun.
At
the end however Malta is finding it difficult to reach the European Union’s pre-set
target of going 10 percent renewable by 2020mainly due to the transport,
heating/cooling and electricity.
This article was brought to you by Renergy Limited, You can check out their Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/renergymalta
