Abstract World energy demand has been increasing rapidly due to the development and civilization.

As predicted by George Kirkland, Chevron Corps upstream vice president for gas, the global energy demand will increase drastically by 40% by the year of 2030. Hence, it is very important to understand the issues regarding energy generation especially when certain energy resources will deplete eventually (coal, oil and gas). To satisfy the increasing demand of global energy, several forms of renewable energies have been introduced and developed. These include solar energy, hydropower, wind energy and wave energy. However, these renewable energies also face some challenges in their development process because of their impacts on the environment. In this thesis, we will explore and expose several aspects regarding these energies, including their history and development, technologies used, issues and challenge faced and their economics and future prospects. We will be discussing about the solar energy, hydropower, wind energy, wave energy and nuclear energy.

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Objectives To inform public there are how many renewable energies exist in the world Public is too dependent on the petroleum energy. In fact renewable energy is still consider as new energy resources, hence even though these renewable energy has been introduced ,there are people still does not know about these renewable energy. The aim of this assignment is to let public know what kind of energy that can effective be used To improve the publics knowledge on how renewable energies are created Even though public know about these renewable energies, but the knowledge they have and the information they can get are still limited. Purpose of this assignment is to acknowledge public how these renewable energies are created. To show what issues and challenges that these renewable energies faced Most people do not know what challenges faced to create renewable energy and what issues that have been raised. This mini thesis is also directed to let know of issues and challenges that renewable energies come across to become one of important energy resources. To introduce future development of renewable energies This is aimed to encourage more investment from the government and private sector to contribute to the development of renewable energy. Therefore, more research and development can be done for improvement. By doing so, these renewable energies will someday can become the main energy to replace the present petroleum energy.

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Introduction As the global energy demand has increased drastically, the new methods of energy generation have been continually being explored and developed. These energies include solar, wave, wind, hydro and nuclear. New resources and methods for electricity generation must be employed to ensure the continuity of our energy supply. The first type of renewable energy is solar energy. It can be obtained in two ways, either as heat or as light energy. The system which uses heat is known as solar thermal systems; the Sun's heat energy (infrared radiation) can be collected by solar collector and use it to warm water and heat houses, but the heat can also be used to produce electricity by raising the temperature of the working fluid in heat engine which will then operate a generator. For light energy, solar photovoltaic systems obtain the sun's larger frequency electromagnetic radiation (visible and ultra violet) in a collection of semiconductor, photovoltaic cell which turns the radiant energy directly into electricity.

Wind energy is a source of clean, renewable and free energy that exist throughout the world which comes from air current flowing across the earth's surface. The kinetic energy is harvest by the wind turbines and been convert into usable power such as electricity for home, farm, school or business applications on small residential or large utility scales. One of the fastest growing sources of electricity and one of the fastest growing markets in the world today is wind energy. This energy develops as green power, sustainable, affordable and economically for development. Wave power is one of the renewable green energy, which is also a gift from Mother Nature. This energy sources has been discussed long time ago but somehow, it is still developing in the early stage. Through researches, there are only certain countries in the world that can effectively use this wave power resource, as it require strong waves in order to generate electricity. These countries include Portugal, Scotland and also Australia. As long as there is wave movement in the ocean, wave power can be supply continuously for mankind demand. The way to harness wave power is totally different from other renewable energy and non-renewable energy. Nevertheless, even though wave power is still in the beginning of development but, someday, it would probability become one of the main energy resources that is comparable to present existing energy to supply demands.

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The next form of renewable energy is hydropower. It is the one and only renewable energy that is being utilized in a large scale (Zainal Abidin, 2005). This is due to its unique characteristics and benefits, including its renewability, producing trace amount of greenhouse gases, able to store large amount of electricity in a lower cost compared to other forms of energy generation and adjustable electricity production according to the user demand. Hydropower is very popular throughout the whole world, ranging from a small scale production (mini- hydro) to mammoth schemes which provide electricity to several countries or regions. The hydropower potentials in industrialized countries have been utilized to a considerable extent. However, hydropower still serves as an option in developing world, especially in the equatorial and tropical belts to satisfy their energy needs.

What is Nuclear Energy? Nuclear energy is the energy created via nuclear reaction. Nuclear energy comes from the splitting of uranium atoms in a process called nuclear fission. At the power plant, the fission process is used to generate heat for heating water and produce steam, which is then used to turn the turbine to generate electricity. There are two main types of nuclear energy: fission and fusion. Fission releases nuclear energy when a single heavy nucleus splits into two smaller ones, while fusion is the more powerful and efficient process, but its hardly used for peaceful purposes here on the Earth. Although many scientists are working to create fusion reactors, which can produce more and safer energy, there is still no safe technology found for this. For the last several years, a decent progress has been achieved in this field. Hence, we have the hope to get the advantage from nuclear energy in the near future. Nuclear energy comes from mass-to-energy conversions that occur in the splitting of atoms or combining of smaller atoms together. The small amount of mass that is lost in either of these events follows Einsteins famous formula E = MC2, where M is the small amount of mass and C is the speed of light. This energy supports life on our planet and it was the only energy our ancestors used, even without knowing this.

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Methodology In this project, we are required to form a group of 5 students from multi-disciplinary, multi- racial and consist of both genders. After several discussions and meeting, we have form a group consisting of 1 Civil Engineering student, 1 Mechanical student and 3 Petroleum Engineering students. Our group also consists of different races and different genders. After the group is formed, we discussed and selected the topic Harnessing Solar, Hydro, Wind, Wave and Nuclear- Issues and Challenge and had our first meeting to distribute the tasks. We selected our topics by having a draw lots session. After dividing the job, we have regular meetings to check and update the progress of our work. Besides, we also created a Google group for online discussion and information sharing. To complete our tasks, we went to IRC UTP to borrow related reference books besides searching for the information online. In addition, we also ensure that our source of information is reliable. For instance, we did not include the information from Wikipedia because this source is unreliable since everyone can edit it online. After completed our respective tasks, we gathered and compile the whole thesis. During this compilation process, we checked for error and did improvement to our thesis.

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Solar Energy History and Development of Solar Energy 1767, First Solar Collector In the year 1767 a Swiss scientist named Horace-Benedict de Saussure invented the first solar collector an insulated container covered with three layers of glass to obtain heat energy. Saussures container became commonly known as the first solar oven, achieving temperatures of 230 degrees fahrenheit.

1839, Photovoltaic Effect Defined In 1839 a major advancement in the development of solar energy occurred with the defining of the photovoltaic effect. A French scientist by the name Edmond Becquerel realized by using two electrodes inserted in an electrolyte. After putting it under the light, electricity raised.

1873, Photo Conductivity of Selenium In 1873, Willoughby Smith realised photoconductivity of a material known as selenium. The invention was to be further developed in 1876 when the same man discovered that selenium radiates solar energy. Actions were taken to construct solar panels using selenium. The cell did not function well but a lesson was learned that solid could turn light into electricity without heat or mobile parts. Lewis and Nocera (2006) stated that the realisation laid a strong foundation for future progress in the development of solar energy.

1883-1891 Light Discoveries and Solar Cells Firstly, in 1893 the first solar cell was produced. The cell was to be surrounded with selenium wafers. Later in 1887 there was the discovery of the ultraviolet ray capacity to cause a spark connection between two electrodes. This was completed by Heinrich Hertz. Later, in 1891 the first solar heater was manufactured.

1916, Photoelectric Effect Albert Einstein published a journal on photoelectric effect in 1905, still there was no empirical evidence regarding it. In 1916 a scientist known as Robert Millikan carried out an experiment to validate the journal, it was valid.

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1947, Solar Popularity in the US After Second World War, solar power equipment began being well known among the society in the USA. There was a huge customer base of solar energy equipment.

1958, Solar Energy In Space Solar power was used to power space exploration equipment such as satellites and space stations. This was the first commercial use of solar energy.

1977 Governments Embrace Solar Energy In 1977 the USA government started using solar energy by launching the Solar Energy Research Institute. Other governments across the world soon began using solar energy too.

1986-1999 Solar Power Plants Development of large scale solar energy plants with advancement being made in each phase. By the year 1999 the largest plant was developed producing more than 20 kilowatts.

1999, Breakthroughs in Solar Cell Efficiency The most efficient solar cell was developed, with a photovoltaic efficiency of 36 percent.

2010, Evergreen Solar and Solyndra Fail Two leading solar companies declared bankruptcy. This was because of market inactivity for their advanced technology products.

2012, Record Breaking Solar Plants For the past several years, there were massive investments in utility-scale solar plants, with records for the largest frequently being problematic. As of 2012, the historys biggest solar energy plant is the Golmud Solar Park in China, with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts. This is arguably overrun by Indias Gujarat Solar Park, an array of solar farms distributed around the Gujarat region, showcasing an installed capacity of 605 megawatts.

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Applications of Solar Energy Water Heating Solar water heating systems utilise sunlight to warm water. In low latitudes (below 40 degrees), 60 to 70% of the domestic hot water use with temperatures up to 60 C can be obtained from solar heating systems. The most ordinary types of solar water heaters are vacuum tube collectors and glazed flat plate collectors commonly used for domestic hot water; and unglazed plastic collectors utilized majorly to warm swimming pools.

Solar Power Solar power is the change of sunlight into electricity, either directly utilising photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Lewis and Nocera (2006) explained that CSP systems make use of lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to direct a large area of sunlight into a tiny beam. PV turns light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. Commercial CSP plants were first planned in the 1980s, and the 354 MW SEGS CSP built was the largest solar power plant in the world and is positioned in the Mojave Desert of California. Other large CSP plants include the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW) and the Andasol solar power station (100 MW), both located in Spain. The 214 MW Charanka Solar Park in India, is the worlds biggest photovoltaic plant.

Photovoltaics A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a gadget that change light into electric current based on the photoelectric effect. The first solar cell was manufactured by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. In 1931 a German engineer, Dr Bruno Lange, planned a photo cell using silver selenide instead of copper oxide. Although the prototype selenium cells changed less than 1% of incident light into electricity, both Ernst Werner von Siemens and James Clerk Maxwell realised the objective of this discovery. After the work of Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the silicon solar cell in 1954.

Solar vehicles Some vehicles use solar panels for side power, namely for temperature conditioning, to keep the interior of low temperature, thus lowering fuel consumption.

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In 1990 Eric Scott Raymond in 21 hops flew from California to North Carolina using solar energy. David (2011) stated that the esvolution then changed back to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with the Pathfinder (1997) and following designs, culminating in the Helios which set the altitude record for a non-rocket-propelled aircraft at 29,524 metres (96,864 ft) in 2001. The Zephyr, developed by BAE Systems, is the latest in a line of record-breaking solar aircraft, making a 54-hour flight in 2007, and month-long flights are envisioned by 2010.

Issues and Challenges of Solar Energy Issues of Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Liliasa (2007) commented that the single biggest issue solar energy faces is that rival energy sources have always been lower in cost in terms of charge per kilowatt-hour. The initial cost of purchasing and installing the solar panel used to harness solar energy is relatively higher than other sources of energy. Given their high cost, modules of todays cells incorporated in the power grid would produce electricity at a cost roughly 3 to 6 times higher than current prices. Therefore, solar energy technologies still remain a costly alternative to the use of readily available fossil fuel technologies, if you don't consider the environmental costs.

Efficiency Tran (2004) explained that Solar cell efficiency is the ratio of the amount of electricity generated, to the amount of light energy radiated onto the solar cell. Averagely, the light energy on a sunny day is about 1 kW/m . A 1m x 1.5m solar panel made of 20% efficient solar cells will obtain 1.5kW of energy from the sun and output 300 watts. The efficiency of the solar cells used in a photovoltaic system forms the starting point for the overall annual output of the system. Researchers are continually trying to enhance the efficiency with which solar cells turns light energy to electricity. Now, standard solar panels have a theoretical highest efficiency of 31 percent due to the electronic properties of the silicon material. Recently, the efficiency for multi junction cells (multiple layers of silicon) has managed to reach around 40%, this type of solar cells is composed of many silicon layers tuned to trap different frequencies (colours) of light. However, this type of cell is high in price to manufacture and in the past has been commonly used in space where efficiency may be more important.

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Solar cell for general electricity generation is usually single junction type with an efficiency of somewhere around 15% serious hazards.

Geography A major issue with photovoltaic solar panel is intermittency due to geographical context. Solar energy is merely handy when the sun is radiating. During the night, the solar panels will not be useful due to the lack of light source. However, the utilization of solar battery chargers can aid to solve this issue, by keepingthe electricity produced during day time for consumption at night (Gwen & Pan, 2007). On the other hand, latitude is among the factors limiting the availability of sunlight. Although solar power is an option almost anywhere on the planet to at least some extent, efficacy declines dramatically as length from the equator increases. Residents of Vancouver, Canada, and St. Petersburg, Russia, for instance, are at a serious solar disadvantage. Besides, clouds decrease the efficiency of solar panels, especially in domestically foggy or overcast areas. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the solar resource during foggy or low-cloud conditions is around 10% of the value under clear sky conditions. In the United States of America, solar arrays in Denver, Colorado, would rarely be blocked by clouds, as that city has only 30 to 40 cloudy days per year. Hilo, Hawaii, despite its proximity to the equator, receives downpour an average of 277 days per year, which might make it a poor choice for solar-power generation.

Land Space A solar panel installation needs a large land for the system to be productive in generating electricity. This may be an issue in areas where land space is limited, or expensive, such as inner cities. Jtruong (2006) said to provide energy for the whole building, a large solar panel is required. Its sad that photovoltaic technology is still in its infancy but, for now, we must make large arrays to make up for the inefficiencies of single panels. A heavy mechanical orientation system may also be required to turn the panels as they follow the sun across the sky. Battery which is used to keep the electricity will occupy a fair amount of space too.

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Challenges of Solar Photovoltaic System Impractical on Large Scale Solar photovoltaic cells produce energy for immediate use or for battery usage, which is currently impractical on a large scale. Currently, batteries are the choice for keeping solar energy, although these need to be changed regularly. Solid oxide fuel cells based on hydrogen technology exhibit great promise, but need to be further developed. For hydrogen storage to achieve its goal, it needs to produce its power from clean sources, such as electrolysis powered by solar energy.

Net Metering Illines (2004) explained that buildings connected to the electrical grid may use ordinary energy when needed, while using solar cells when the sun is available and the energy is obtainable. In many places, solar energy may actually be returned back into the electrical grid, making the meter to run in the opposite direction, a phenomenon known as net metering. But, for many years the utilities did not permit the feeding in of solar electricity into their electrical grid.

Disposal of Old Solar Panels One of the challenges of solar energy is the disposal of old solar panels that contain harmful chemicals such as mercury and chromium, which are poisonous when it seeps into the underground water system. In recent years the solar energy industry has gained bad name for generating an endless stream of disposable products that at life's end is sent to developing countries, where poor people without safety measures remove contaminants into their water, air and lungs. While most solar panels are constructed to be usable for 25 years and only 1% of the United States utilises solar energy as electricity, this is one of the challenges with solar energy that we haven't seen as much as other countries that have been using it for years. and burn out valuable materials, spilling

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Recyclable Solar Panel Design The cost of recycling solar panels could be minimised if in the first place, the producers draft the solar panels with recycling in mind. It will be more expensive to recycle the solar panels that are not designed to be recycle-friendly. Rare metals such as cadmium and tellurium should be recycled and used in new solar panels, even though purchasing it from the suppliers is now less expensive. However, in future the price is supposed to increase as the harvesting cost increases. So, as recycling scale becomes bigger, the price raise can be mitigated. Issues of Solar Thermal System Cost One of the advantages solar thermal power generation has over its counterpart, photovoltaic system is that it can be completed at a much larger scales with less costly price. However, the costs are still far larger than coal plants based on amount of energy produced, which does initial cash outlays impractical for potential investors. More investment has flowed into smaller PV projects because of smaller risk and cheaper payment up front. Water Solar thermal plants use a huge amount of water for its steam to operate steam turbine, which is a major issue in desert areas. Using non-water cooling increases the cost of solar thermal projects too much. While utilising sea water has been suggested it remains to be seen if it alright to implement this action as this would mean building plants close to the coastline, which is vulnerable to natural disaster such as tsunami or stop the progression of tourism. Land Space Fermicci (2011) said that the solar thermal plants can only be located in places which have a large amount of solar radiation. They can be located in deserts mostly and require a large land area. This means it is not easy to build them in urban areas. Solar thermal plants also can only be built in huge sizes, which are at least 50 MW in size to be practical. This contrasts to photovoltaic system which is sold in sizes as low as 5 Watts.

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Challenges of Solar Thermal System Storage Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding outcheap catalysts that can divide water into hydrogen and oxygen, with electricity generated during the day so that solar thermal power plants can use the energy kept in the chemical bonds of the hydrogen to produce power at night by using fuel cells, but the work is not close from completion. Alternatively, experimental heat transfer materials like molten salt can keep the heat produced by a solar thermal power plant for using during night time. However, the most successful plant to do so, as of 2010, the Andasol station in Spain, receive only an extra six hours of electricity production from the ststem. Its a good beginning, but 24-hour per day power via some sort of storage technique must turn into a reality so that solar is possible worldwide.

Efficiency Using solar thermal plants to produce electricity from heat needs high temperatures to achieve reasonable efficiencies. Frensy (2003) stated that the output temperatures of nonconcentrating solar collectors are around 200 C. So, concentrating systems must be utilized to generate higher temperatures. Because of their high price, lenses and burning glasses are not normally used for large-scale power plants, and more cost-effective alternatives are used, including reflecting concentrators.

Land Space Solar thermal power plants typically need 1/4 to 1 square mile or more of land. One silver lining of global warming and human effect on the land is that more and more farmland is becoming harsh for agricultural activity. This land, presumably originally chosen for its sun exposure, can be used for solar thermal energy production. Utilization of desertification can be a boon for solar thermal real estate procurement and growth (Locy, 2009).

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Overcoming the Negative Impact of Solar Energy Cost Ahmell (2000) although the solar industry today generates solar panels made from crystalline silicon, they are relatively expensive to produce. Lately researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have produced a cheap solution processing method for CIGS-based solar cells that could give an answer to the production problem. In a new study to be published in the journal Thin Solid Films on July 7, Yang Yang, a professor in the school's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and his research team show how they have planned a cheap solution processing procedure for their copper-indium-diselenide solar cells which have the ability to be manufactured on a large scale.

Battery Storage Solar power can be kept in batteries for later use or to be returned into the grid, depending on the incentives. Solar power storage devices are generally composed of a battery bank (utilising a technology such as standard-issue lead-acid or the increasingly affordable lithium-ion) and a smart inverter that can manage power in accordance with programming. One option available is the Netherlands Nedaps PowerRouter, whose modular nature allows for smart management of a small-scale renewable energy system as well as a battery bank if necessary.

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Economy and Future Prospect of Solar Energy Because of studies, innovative works, technological advancement and mass manufacture on one side, and to the price raise of ordinary energy sources on the other side, Concentrated Solar Power could become aggressive by 2015. CSP technologies today have a cost between photovoltaics and wind. Nevertheless, costs are declining as market develops and Research & Development efforts enhance ability.

Future Solar Technology Cost Rely on Current Research Funding Dresselhaus & Thomas (2001) indicated that if fixed society preference for solar energy is available, at least one of the technological choice interpreted will have a great capability to solve technical issues in the following 20 years and to become cheap with oil, gas and coal electricity generation. In particular, the best opportunity for survival is linked with the advancement of a diversified portfolio of society financial aid in solar energy studies. Funds should be assigned both to photovoltaic and solar thermal techniques, in order to achieve the success of more high-end technologies (such as Crystalline-silicon and Thin-film PV), and to evaluate the potential of more innovative ones (such as Organic PV and Third Generation PV). In contrary, the historical institutional option of the European Union and its Member States, demonstration activities were identified as a most important element in the innovation action for solar energy. An adequate preference to demonstration would in fact ensure that the more developed technologies exit the valley of death and become commercially possible.

Future Electricity Generation According to ESTELA, the European Association of the Solar Thermal Electricity Industry, there will be more than 400 MW connected to the grid by year 2010, and the capability for European Mediterranean countries is estimated at 30.000 MW that could afford, provided that the necessary actions are being taken.

Non-technical Issues Affecting Solar Energy Development Non-technical issues and obstacles could slow down the worldwide diffusion of solar technologies. The major barriers are the inertia of existing power plants and unfavorable power pricing rules, which need to be addressed through ad hoc policy interventions, such as feed-in tariffs. When assessing the likelihood that solar power will represent 5%, 20% and 30% of electricity production in OECD countries, experts show little consensus. Almost 40%
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indicate penetration in the OECD countries will be high (around 30%). Fast-developing countries will instead experience an average diffusion scenario, while developing countries are assigned a high probability of experiencing high penetration rate since lock-in effects will be milder.

Conclusion Solar energy history can be traced back to as old as around two centuries. However, development has not been rapid and progressive until recent 30 years. Therefore, solar energy is still in its infancy development. So, its reasonable that solar energy is facing various issues and challenges. As long as there is commitment and dedication of the government in solar energy, the issues and challenges should be solved in no time. The public should support solar energy because it is a much cleaner energy, as compared to other types of energy, so that our future generation will be able to live in a cleaner and more sustainable world.

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Wind Power History and Development of Wind Power Historically, wind energy had been harnessed since early recorded history all across the world. In 5000 B.C., there is certain evidence that wind energy propelled boats along the river Nile. Wind energy is converted to provide mechanical energy somewhat later in antiquity by 200 B.C. In China, simple windmills are used to pump water while in the Middle East, vertical-axis windmills with woven reed sails were use in grinding grain. The Roman Empire was introduced by Persians to use wind power by 250 A.D. However, around 7th century, Afghanistan had made the first practical windmills. Since then, technology had been advancing greatly and lately in 11th century, windmills were used extensively for food production.
Figure 1: Wind Mill

By the end of 19th century, American settlers began to use windmills to pump water for farms and ranches. Later, they used it to generate electricity for homes and industry especially in rural and desert areas. Prof. James Blyth from Glasgow was the first one who had built large windmills about 33 feet high in Scotland in 1887 to generate electricity. He installed a cloth-sailed wind turbine in the garden of his cottage and uses the windmills to charge accumulators that powered the lighting in the cottage. Thus, from all over the world, it was the first house to have wind power supplied electricity. Across the Atlantic, in Cleveland, Ohio, Charles F. Brush had constructed a large and heavily engineered machine in 1888. The wind turbine had a rotor 17 meters in diameters and was located on an 18 meter tower. The machine was rated only at 12 kW although it was respectively large. About 100 incandescent light bulbs, three arc lamps and various motors in Brush laboratory can be operated by the connected dynamo. After 1900, the machine fell into disuse. The largest wind turbine of time began operating in 1940s on a Vermont hilltop known as Granpas Knob. The turbine fed electric power to the local utility network for several months during World War II and it was rated at 1.25 megawatts in winds of about 30 m/h.

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Figure 2: Brieft history of wind technology

In the first quarter of 20th century, wind power had played an important role in Denmark, partly because of Poul la Cour who constructed wind turbines. At Gedser, during 1956, a 24 m diameter wind turbine had been installed where it ran until 1967. This was similar to those used nowadays for commercial wind energy development which had a threebladed, horizontal-axis, upwind and stall-regulated turbine. The price of fossil fuel was one of the affecting factors of the popularity of using wind energy. Lately in 1940s, fuel price fell and interest in wind turbines were also decreases. Oppositely, in 1970s, the price of oil was skyrocketed, so did the worldwide interest in wind generators. Since then, many wind farms and wind power plants had been built. Nowadays, wind energy seems to be t he worlds fastest growing energy source that will sustain the power of the industry as well as homes with clean, renewable electricity and according to scientists expectation.

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Wind Power Technology Nowadays, wind energy is use to provide mechanical power or electricity. The wind contains kinetic energy which can be converted through various different processes to create mechanical energy that can be utilized in lieu of fossil fuels. Turbines exist in variety of size and shape but its performing the same function as illustrated in the diagram.

Figure 3: Wind mill design

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Figure 4: Wind mill rotor and generator

Figure 5: Concept of wind technology

Wind turbines are located in areas of high wind flow. The movement of the turbines will power an electric generator. Before the power being released into the generator, the power will through a transmission which keeps the generator operating efficiently during different ranges of wind speed. Even in slight wind, the transmission allows energy to be generated all the times. As a result, electrical current is produced and this energy can be stored for later use or used directly. Wind turbine has two types which are in horizontal axis rotation and vertical axis rotation. Horizontal axis rotation turbines are more common and older in design compare to the vertical axis rotation.

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Figure 6: Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT)

Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) are built on strong sturdy towers. It can absorb the huge static loads brought about by the varying wind power. The electricity generator and the main rotor shaft are located at the top of the tower and been pointed into the wind. The rotor and its blade will rotate as the wind blows. Thus, the mechanical energy will be converted by the generator into electricity. The rotor blade are made of glass-fiber or carbon-fiber reinforced plastics and usually the blades are stiff and positioned at considerable distance from the tower as the blades would not be pushed into the tower by strong winds. The design of the blades is also slightly tilted forward into the wind and it functioning like an aeroplane wing by using the application of Bernoullis law. The upper sides generate low pressure than the lower sides, causing the rotor to rotate.

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Figure 7: Vertical-axis

wind turbines (VAWT)

Oppositely, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT), the main rotor shaft and generator are positioned vertically near to the ground. This turbine is very useful in places where the wind direction changes regularly and no need to point it towards into the wind. Besides, such wind turbines are very useful to locate on the rooftops because the wind over the roof can help doubling the speed of wind turning the turbines. However, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT) are usually lower in wind speeds for the same turbine size and more severe wind shear. The reasons are the blades are located neared to the ground which turbulence may also be created by the air flow or other objects. Thus, it will lead the wind turbines to problem such as increased in wearing a way of bearings used in the mechanical parts and creating such vibrating noises. Issues and Challenge Faced by Wind Power There are some issues on wind power. Nowadays, wind energy had to compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Wind energy is depending on how energetic a wind site. Despite the decreasing of the cost of wind energy in the past 10 years, the initial investment of wind turbine technology is higher compare to the fossil fuelled generators. The major challenge faced by wind energy as a source of power is that the wind is intermittent; the wind flow is not constant in any rate and it does not always blow when
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electricity is needed. The wind energy also cannot fully harness to meet the timing of electricity demanded and it cannot be stored unless batteries are used. Besides, the location of good wind energy site is often far from cities where electricity is needed. According to Hudgins, the variation in the wind cause the production of electrical energy is very hard to be consistent. He added that when summer season, the electrical load is the biggest as many conditioning load need to be power. Meanwhile the wind resource of wind in summer is the lowest. So, there is a need to efficient ways of storing large amounts of energy to use when it is needed. Wind turbines also produce noises when they operate. The noise crested from the masking of wind on the wind turbines. Recently, engineers had taken many tries in designing wind turbine which will reduce the noise. Generally the early model turbines are noisier than most new and larger models. As wind turbines are getting more advancing, more wind is converted into rotational torque and less into acoustic noise. Additionally, to minimize noise impacts proper sitting and insulating materials can be used. Wind turbine also contribute in visual impact because wind turbine are generally be sited in exposed and wide places, they are often highly visible; but being visible is not necessarily the same as being intrusive and aesthetic issues are by their nature highly subjective. Any aesthetic impacts to the landscape can be avoided by proper sitting decisions. One of the ways is to site fewer turbines in any one location by using many locations and by using larger and more efficient models of wind turbines.

Figure 8: A Red Kite and bats killed at a wind farm in Germany

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The most controversial biological issues related to wind turbines are bird and bat deaths. Fish and wildlife agencies and conservation groups had raised concerns because of the deaths of birds and bats at wind farm sites. In addressing this issue, the wind industry and government agencies had sponsored research into collisions, mitigation measures, and appropriate study design protocols and relevant bird and bat behaviour. Furthermore, monitoring efforts and data collection at existing and proposed wind energy sites are required

Figure 9: Flocks of birds going through the wind turbine

by project developers. As to minimize fatalities and in some cases, additional research may be needed to address bird and bat impact issues by carefully select a site for wind turbine. Differ from the other generation technologies, wind turbines generate electricity with wind energy and not by combustion, hence it does not produce air emissions. There are only relatively small amounts of lubricating oils and hydraulic and insulating fluids which are potentially toxic or hazardous materials. Therefore, contamination of surface or ground water or soils is exactly zero. The blade movement and the presence of industrial equipment in areas potentially accessible to the public are consider by the primary health and safety. In addition, wind turbines are potentially interfering with radar and telecommunication facilities. Likely other electrical machines, the wind generators produce electric and magnetic fields. According to Hudgins, although the sustainable source is available, there is a need to build better and more efficient machines to capture wind energy and on a large scale with economically cost. Furthermore, excess energy can be captured when wind blows and can be
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stored as for backup energy when the wind is not blowing. Similarly, solar energy can be captured capture during the day and stored to recover the needed energy on needed time. If the wind resource is reasonable, Hudgins said, and if there is that interplay between the photovoltaic and wind systems, it can work well. For instance, he said, if the photovoltaic system is running while the wind turbine is not, or the wind starts blowing but the photovoltaic system is not working, the energy can still be captured. Future Prospects of Wind Power The use of renewable energy will continue to grow, but it still not in the pace to replace base load sources like coal plants, nuclear plants and natural gas plants because the electricity these sources provide is 24 hours a day. For the next half century, the future of wind energy is very good or maybe even threequarters of the century, while energy storage problem have already its own solution. By improving the infrastructure, the storage problem can be solved where across the entire United States; one can put geographically-dispersed wind energy systems. Enough energy can be generated if there is a transmission setup to move power around where needed and when the wind is blowing. Wind can be used as the longer term sustainable energy source once the energy storage problem is solved.

Figure 10: Wind Power capacity 1997-2011

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From the graph, advancement in wind energy usage opens a new era of clean, renewable and free energy throughout the world. The increasing usage of wind energy by the world indicates that more improvement needed in this energy since every year, the energy consumed is getting increasing. Thus, there are hope for wind power being utilize at maximum rate as for the betterment of the earth itself.

Conclusion Wind power is a renewable resource, clean and it is free. There are a lot of advantages compare to the negative impact when the usage of wind energy are maximize. Although there are some issues develop because of wind power advancement, research and finding in minimizing the bad impact either to the environment or life being must go on and develop from time to time.

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Wave energy

Picture of ocean wave (Source: The Future and problems of Wave Power)

As we all knew that land of planet earth is covered by about seventy percent by the ocean, so there will be many wave created in the earth from time to time. Movement of wave can also be observed from time to time on the surface of the ocean. Wave is create by wind, the stronger the wind, the larger and stronger wave generated because wind create wave by changing from ripples into waves when it is blowing on the water surface. As long as there is wave movement in the ocean, there is energy created to continuously draw the movement of these waves, and this kind of energy is known as wave energy

Harnessing Wave energy To use the power from the sea has been discussed many years ago, while the first project that is successfully using this energy concept is developed in Scotland. The most famous wave power device is the Pelamis, which is developed by a Scottish company in the year 1998 and was tested in the year 2004 in North Sea. This Pelamis was the first wave power converter created aimed for commercial uses. The first Pelamis made has 4 sections, which is 3.5 meters in diameter and 120 meters in length. It function by creating electrical energy when the connector section is moved, as these connector can be bend and it is also flexible as the wave from the sea pass through.

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Purpose of Wave energy used First, this wave energy is free and renewable, just like other renewable energy. For example, solar energy winds energy thermal energy and so on. Furthermore, this wave energy will be produced continuously as long as there is wave movement , in this case, it is consider to have much more benefits compare to wind and solar energy as solar energy will only produced in the day time and wind energy can only created during strong wind blows. In addition, this wave energy is also to be considered as a more stable energy compare to other renewable energy. If were to compare with wind energy, this wave energy is able to create about thousands times the kinetic energy produced by winds. Also, the amount of cost require to built these wave power infrastructure is also cheaper if to compare wind generator as it require many generators in order to create the same amount of electrical energy. Besides, the usage of wave energy is more stable as it can easily predicted as wave movement are continuous throughout the year and it is observable. For example, how much waves will be created, and also the height of the wave are observed and recorded before the wave power generator is decided to be built on certain location. Apart from that, this wave energy is eco friendly and as it does not produce harmful gasses such as carbon monoxide and green house gasses. In addition, the wave energy does not require initial cost to buy rare material in order to generate electricity, as it is a gift given by our mother nature. Whereas, other electrical generator such as petroleum based electrical generator require huge amount of cost to buy rare materials, these include diesel and other petroleum product and hence, it saves a lot of cost. In the mean time, the usage of wave energy has less negative effect on the habitat and the environment.

Types of wave energy converter and they function Various types of methods being used to generate electrical energy from wave energy but most of the wave power generator converts wave energy to electrical energy by using turbines to turn the generator in order to for the machine to rotate and electricity is produced when flow of water pass through the generator. Following are some wave power converter.

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(a)

Pelamis Wave Energy Converter by the Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power

(formally Ocean Power Delivery)

Picture of Pelamis (Source: Ocean Energy Review 2008) To create electrical energy using wave movement from the sea surface. This Pelamis wave energy converter create electrical energy when there is movement between the connector section ,as these connector can be bend and it is also flexible as the wave from the sea pass through . The first one is set in Orkney Scotland in August 2004 and the second one is set in Portugal in September of 2008. This machine can develop 2.25MW, which is more than enough of the electrical usage Portugal homes

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(b) Ocean Harvester (by Mikael Sidenmark) founder and invent

Picture of Ocean Havester (Source: Ocean Energy Review 2008)

To generate electricity, the most effective way to achieve greater energy from inconsistent wave energy is to change from rotation motion in to up and down motion. Hence, the mooring line around the buoy will turn the drum in the buoy as the buoy float at the surface of sea along with the movement of the wave to equalise the generator load by using counterbalance which created by the wave movement. Constant power will be produce by using wave motion

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(c) Sea Gen

Picture of Sea Gen (Source: Ocean Energy Review 2008) This power station can develop 1.2 MW which is also the highest power generated by tidal power station which ever created in present. This machine is created by the Marine Turbines Company. By using the water current flow developed by the tidal, the rotor of the turbine rotated in order to create electricity. By doing so, this power generator is able to create the electricity require by one thousand house. In Northern Irelands Strangford Lough in 2007

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(d) TIDAL and OCEAN CURRENT POWER

Picture of Tidal and Ocean Current Power (Source: Ocean Energy Review 2008) This machine (tidal power station) built to convert tidal energy into electrical energy using turbine. Electrical energy can be generated when water flow through the turbine causing it to rotate .this device is similar to the concept of the wind turbine which is on land. Tidal power station is suitable to build in the constant water flow area such as narrow bay.

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Oscillating Water Column (OWC)

Picture of oscillating water column (owc). (Source: How wave Energy Works) This device uses the principle of air to turn the turbine. It function by absorbing the air into it to rotate the turbine via the upper small opening when sea water comes into the device through the bottom opening and finally, the sea water is forced out when sea wave pulling this device away to a distance

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Development of wave energy in Malaysia According to E.P.Chiang, Malaysia has a high probability to develop wave energy in the coming time as most part of Malaysia is enclosed by the sea. In fact, this wave energy in Malaysia is also still under the early stage of research although other countries in the Europe and the united state has already develop the wave power converter.

Map of Malaysia with study locations (source: from Potential of Renewable Wave and offshore Wind energy sources in Malaysia) Due to the southwest monsoon wind and northeast monsoon wind especially during the month of December to January for northeast monsoon while June to September for southwest monsoon. However, from the month July to October, the wave energy is higher but is much more less than the peninsular Malaysia in other month. Strong wind will also develop high amount of wave which can develop a lot of wave energy and later convert to electrical energy if it is used effectively.

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Monthly mean swell wave power in kW/m. (source: from Potential of Renewable Wave and offshore Wind energy sources in Malaysia) Scientists in devon also stated that, wave energy develop using generator can be increase in two times by predicting wave power which is a new skill and technology which is still under research and the main purpose of this research is to reduce the probability of accidents happen to these power station. In addition, Dr Guang Li also said that the research has the ability to make expand the progress of marine renewable energy.

The benefits of wave energy The benefits of wave energy are this wave energy is a very clean energy and a green energy, which will not give out harmful green house gasses, which will pollute the environment and give negative effect on human health According to Hawaii government; these wave powers generates little to zero pollution. In addition, wave energy is also a renewable energy which can be obtain from the ocean easily as long as we have the method to convert this energy to other forms of energy, in other words it means this energy is a free gift to human beings by the mother nature. Besides, the power generator can last for a very long time as long as no accident occurs and it also will not produce waste product to the environment, as it does not require fuel to start the generator. Apart from that, wave energy can also create large scale of electricity supply as long as the wave movement is continuously and stable throughout the year. Furthermore, the maintenance cost for the wave power station is low. In addition, wave can be easily
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predicted and will not run out like petroleum as long as there is seawater in the ocean. Most importantly, it has less risk compare to other power generator. Electric Power Research Institute report in the year 2005 had mention that the effect on the ecosystem and mother natural will be as low as possible if it is compared to other energy resources if the wave power is used wisely. It s also believes that this wave energy can supply more electrical energy than necessary as there are abundant of wave produced each year. In addition, this wave power energy is infallible if to compare to other energy resources present.

Issue and challenges The electrical energy produced by the wave power plant is actually a small scale if were to compare with energy produce by nuclear or petroleum based generator. Furthermore, these energies produced from the wave power plant does not comes cheap if were to compare with other energy resources. In order to create this kind of machine it requires a lot of money to do research as not all research were successfully done as many of the research had been conducted in the past, but not most of the researches were successful and have an effective result. Hence, high amount of money has been consumed just for the sake for these researches with no result achieved. Besides, this wave energy produced will only able to benefit people in certain area, which are staying near to the power generator. In addition, not every time that these wave movements is strong enough to rotate the turbine in wave power generator. If the wind is strong enough to create strong wave, the wave energy produced will be able to be converted into electrical energy source by using wave power generator, but also, it is not a simple job to build a machine that can convert this wave energy into electrical energy to supply human needs. Moreover, in order to develop these wave energy power plants effectively , it must be affordable .it is also certainly not an easy job to create a power generator which can last for a long time considering the wave impact it has to face in order to turn the turbine for generate electricity purpose. Furthermore, it is not an easy task to generate electricity when the movement of wave is in low speed. The high content of mineral salt in the seawater will also corrode these wave power stations .because of this, it will cause more cost in the maintenance for the power station. Furthermore, not most of the places are suitable for the use of wave energy, as it requires places, which has strong wave and the continuous movement of ocean waves.
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Australia, Scotland, southern Africa , northern Canada and also the northwestern coast of U.S are consider suitable for the usage of these wave energy, this is because it require to generate huge amount of electrical energy in order to meet the human needs in daily life and also for industrial usage. Most of these wave power generators are built in the middle of the sea, which is the offshore, or near seaside or on shallow water. Apart from that, it is also requires a lot of money to develop the machine that could convert wave energy to electrical energy. The infrastructure of wave power station will also give some ecological impact especially to the marine wildlife. This is because most of the wave power station is bind into the seafloor in order for these wave power stations to be located on certain longitude and latitude, so that it would remain on that location in a longer period. Hence, this would cause negative effect to the wildlife marine habitat and to the ecosystem in that particular place. The most serious part is that, these wave power plants will cause electromagnetic interference and will cause some pollution to seawater. Moreover, it will also cause all the fish which lives nearby to decrease their ability to keep the dissolved oxygen in their body due the unwanted heat produce by these power plant. Even though these wave power station will not lead to permanent damage to the marine flora and fauna, but these wave power plant will lead to secondary damages to ecosystem in the sea of certain area where these power plant was placed. Thus, it also place negative effect on those people who depend marine resources for their living. Furthermore, Power generated by the wave power station only able to benefits people in certain area only ,as all the power station were installed on the sea . Hence if it is quite hard and requires high cost to send this electrical energy generated to other places of the country which located far away from the ocean, and this will also causes high demand on cost to build these connector if these electrical energy produced were to be send to a further places. Besides that, to build a wave power plant that can last for a long time will become a huge challenge, as to save cost and to prevent the repetition of rebuilding these power plant. It is also not a easy task to obtain electric current from wave power with the current technology, although wave power are free give from the nature , but the device to convert wave power to electricity is very expensive indeed and also hard to built . Places for these wave energy plant to be install is not many , mostly the places that these wave power plant
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can be install will be in the medium or shallow sea which is usually offshore, so that the gadget will not be damaged by obstacles and wave that is too strong ,for example tsunami. Yet, not every wave power has the strength to generate plant. Lastly, it will also affect the navigation for the boats in the ocean, which will cause accidents, as these ships might not saw the power generator especially during bad weather condition. Overcoming the Negative Impact of Wave Energy The development of wave power in certain area will certainly cause a lot of impact to the environment, especially to the habitat of the marine wildlife, ocean and to the tourism and recreation. Hence, improvement on these power stations has to be taken in order to reduce these negative impacts. First, these wave power converters should not be located in the high fish population location, as this will affect the marine creature and will affect fishery. Second, avoid placing these machines on the direction of ships passing through by choosing the location wisely, as it will cause collision between ships and the device. Besides, radar reflector and navigation light should also be installed in the wave power converter, so that ships can detect them easily, especially during nighttime. Water sport such as scuba diving can also be introduced near the location of this power converted as to attract more people to visits these places. Lastly, pollution to the ocean can be reduce by avoiding the use of petroleum and chemical based lubricant and replace it by environment friendly lubricant. Leakage of these lubricants can also be avoided by placing a protective layer such as rubber to those places which has higher possibilities for leakage to occur. The Environmental Concern Most of the environment concerns about these wave power stations are about the effect to the environment, flora and fauna and the habitat, when these wave power is installed on the sea. Some fluid leakage will occur during accident or during the operation, which contains harmful substances or chemicals from these power stations, is also one of the environmental concerns. Besides, after these power stations is installed on the sea, they will affect the navigation as it will use some place on the sea and hence might lead to some problem the ships navigation
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electrical energy via the power

Industrial Benefits As long as mankind has the knowledge that can effectively change Wave power into electrical energy or other kinds of energy, then it is worth to develop these wave power converters in large scale. Besides, the material required to build these power generators and infrastructure can be easily obtain as mostly are metal and concrete. Hence, they can build as long as the place is suitable to harness wave energy. Nevertheless, in order to become one of the main energy sources, it must have high capability to produce more energy and is able to transfer this energy over a long distance. Future development of wave energy power station There are some countries, which have high possibilities to generate and use wave energy. These countries include South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Philippines. These countries were predicted to be able to generate huge amount of electricity if the wave power plant is developed. That is, 250 Megawatt at Sihwa Lake and 520 Megawatt at Garolim Bay for South Korea, 200 Megawatt in Kaipara harbor in New Zealand ,1.68 trillion kilowatt hour per year in Kuroshio for Taiwan and also 2.2 Gigawatt in Dalupiri in Phillipines. Conclusion Although wave power is still in the beginning of the stage, but it will certainly contribute a lot to the energy resources in future. However, there is still a long way to go for this energy to become the main energy source for human needs. In addition, this wave energy is a free gift from Mother Nature, hence as long as humankind able to use this source of energy effectively, the negative impact to the environment and also to human being can be reduced as much as possible.

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Hydroelectric Power History and Development Hydroelectric power is a popular way of electricity generation in Malaysia. There are several hydroelectric stations in Malaysia such as Chenderoh Power Station, Temenggor Power station, Sultan Ismail Petra Power station, Sultan Mahmud Power Station and Bakun Dam. Balmer and Spreng (2008) mentioned that in year 2005, the contribution of hydropower in global primary energy supply was 2.2%, showing an increase of 0.4% over the previous 30 years. On the other hand, the global primary energy supply from petroleum (35%), coal (25.3%) and natural gas (20.7%), which account for around 80%of total global energy supply. At the same time, renewable energy only shared 20% of the global energy supply. In this 20%, most of the energy came from hydropower.

Figure 1: Fuel shares of global energy consumption and electricity generation in 2005 (Source: Balmer and Spreng, 2008)

However, it is observed that the contribution of hydropower in global electricity generation was more than 20% in year 1970. This indicates that in the past, other energy technologies had a more rapid growth rate than hydropower. The other energy technologies having higher growth rate include nuclear power and natural gas, although both of them are non-renewable energy. Over the past century, most of the exploitable hydropower resources in Europe, North and Central America have all been harnessed. Furthermore, hydroelectric has become the first and only resource for electricity generation in countries lacking of other energy sources. Humans have tried to experiment with hydropower for more than 2000 years ago.
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Balmer and Spreng also mentioned that the first wheels were probably used in the hydrological societies of the Far East to raise water to higher irrigation channel. The transfer of waterwheel technology from the East to the West took place slowly during the course of the middle Ages. At that period, this technology gained no great interest because it had less economic advantage due to its heavy, inefficient waterwheels with complicated connecting gear. However, a textile industry run by hydropower had been developed during the 19 th century in several European countries. This system exploited the mechanical forces of flowing water across the main rivers. Waterwheel technology had become highly effective during the end of 19th century. Hydropower development expanded drastically after the discovery of the technology of transporting electricity over long distances. At the end of 19 th century, the first hydropower plants were built and electricity turned out to be a modern and flexible energy carrier. Nowadays, it can be observed that Asia, North America and Europe have most of the hydropower installed capacity. However, Europe has exploited most of its hydropower potential. Statistics reveal that Asia and North America have the biggest hydropower production, followed by South America and Europe and finally Africa and Australasia. A comparison analysis shows that the future hydropower development will most likely to happen in Asia, South America and Africa. The existing global hydropower production might be doubled by these three continents in the future. Hydropower schemes are very site specific. Hence, the economic and environmental aspects of hydropower scheme are affected by the factors such as specific investment costs, total production cost, technical variables, peak load production possibilities and external effects. Hydropower Technology The renewable resource for hydropower is the global water cycle. Using the kinetic and potential energy from the flowing water, water turbines and electric generators can produce electricity from these energies. Hydropower has not undergone much change in the past 100 years because it is a very mature technology. However, technical details, especially the efficiency of the turbines are continually being improved. Besides, the setting of water inflow, tunnels and reservoirs are reaching perfection. Balmer and Spreng also emphasized that hydropower has an overall efficiency of 75-90%, which is the highest efficiency achieved by any mean of electricity generation system. Besides having a high efficiency,
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hydropower also overtakes other form of electricity generation technology by having a high energy pay back ratio.

The other technologies have energy pay back ratio of around 9 to 39%. While on the other hand, hydropower has the extremely high energy pay back ratio of 200%, causing it to become the most effective technology for electricity production.

Figure 2: Estimation of energy pay back ratio for different type of energy generation (Source: Balmer and Spreng, 2008)

There are 2 basic schemes of hydropower: run-of-river and storage schemes. The former has no capacity of storage and operates on the continuous discharge of the incoming water. The natural course of a river itself concentrates large quantities of water. This type of power plant can be built anywhere on a river where a sufficient difference in elevation exists (Quaschning, 2010). Normally the head pond has the same height as sea level all the year around. On the other hand, storage scheme has the ability to shift the use of water inflow from times of low electricity demand to times of high electricity demand. These plants can stop their operation on an hourly or daily profile, with electricity generation timed for peak demand only. This type of power plant can produce high levels of power output and can be built in the mountains.
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Figure 3: Concept of Run-of-river Power Plant (Source: Quaschning, 2010)

Figure 4: Example of Run-of-River Power Plant at Laufenburg, Germany (Source: Quaschning, 2010)

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Figure 5: Example of Storage Power Plant with Reservoirs: Malta (left), Kaprun in Austria (right) (Source: Quaschning, 2010) Quaschning (2010) emphasized the importance of water turbine as the core of waterpowered systems and extract the energy from water (hydropower). Modern water turbines have very little similarity with the rotating wheels of traditional watermills. Turbines are optimized for the different operating area, depending on the head of the water and the water flow. There are 4 main types of turbines used for hydropower generation. The first one, Kaplan turbine was developed by the Austrian engineer Viktor Kaplan in year 1912. This type of turbine is normally used in low heads, especially the power plants on rivers. Kaplan turbines have the efficiency of around 80-95%. The second type, bulb turbine is similar to Kaplan turbine, except that it has a horizontal axle. Thus, it is more suitable for even smaller heads. The generator is placed in a bulb- shaped workroom behind the turbine, which gives it the name of bulb turbine. Francis is the third type of turbine. It was developed by the Briton James Bicheno Francis in year 1848. This type of turbine is used for larger heads up to 700m and has the efficiency of over 90%. In principle, the Francis turbine can also be used as a pump and is therefore suitable as a pump turbine for storage plants. Last but not least, the forth type of turbine, Pelton turbine, was developed by American Lester Allen Pelton in year 1880. It is mainly designed for large heads and consequently for the use in high mountains. This turbine can reach a very high efficiency of 90-95%.

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Figure 6: Kaplan Turbine (Source: Voith Hydro)

Figure 7: Bulb Turbine (Source: Voith Hydro)

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Figure 8: Francis Turbine (Source: Voith Hydro)

Figure 9: Pelton Turbine (Source: Voith Hydro)

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Issues and Challenge Faced by Hydropower From the aspect of effectiveness, it is undoubtedly that hydropower surpasses any other means of electricity generation. It is considered as the most effective way of electricity generation as compared to other technologies in electricity production. Furthermore, it is a type of renewable resource, which means it will not deplete as the time passes. However, everything has its bad site despite all the advantages it brings to humanity. Hydropower plants are the most controversial of all renewable power plants. Overall, hydropower has important advantages over most other electricity generation technologies. It is renewable, clean, reliable and largely carbon-free. The problem arises from hydropower on a local level due to its site specificity. Hydropower systems will affect the watercourses, environment, local communities and resident population. The larger the scheme, the more serious it impacts the environment. However, the impacts of hydropower plants to the environment must be accessed in relation to the amount of electricity produced. Hence, it is wrong to perceive that small-scale hydropower scheme to be less harmful than large-scale hydro schemes. Balmer and Spreng mentioned that hydropower plants do not deplete or pollute the water used to run the turbines, but instead it has an impact to the environment through damming or inundation process, diversion and hydro-peaking. The building of dams across the river will alter the flow of river streams, which in turn responsible for the environmental problem, especially to the fish living in the river. Dams and weirs represent barriers that restrict the fish from reaching their spawn areas. The building of dam will include a special fishway but this does not completely solve the problem. The river current for the run-of-river hydropower scheme has been drastically reduced. This leads to habitat characteristics that is similar to stagnant lakes and is far different from being optimal for riverine fish that need stronger current to orientate, feed and breed. As a result of the changes in their habitat, several types of fish and plants have become extinct. Besides, the existence of turbine will endanger the survival of fish itself. Although there maybe barrier to prevent larger fish from entering the turbine system, those barriers cant prevent smaller forms of life slip through and become injured or killed by the turbine blades. Last but not least, the barrier system has become the obstacles for certain type of fish (Queschning, 2010). Besides altering the habitat of fish species, hydropower plants also affect the boating and shipping. This is because their way is blocked by the structure of the dam built across the river. In addition, the lifetime of
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hydropower will also be decreased because of the alteration in sediments transportation. This is due to the filling up of the head pond or reservoir by the inflowing sediments. Too little or no minimum ecological flow makes existence of fish almost impossible. On the other hand, hydro-peaking creates habitat characteristics too rough for most of the riverine fauna. If we inspect this issue from another perspective, the construction of dam and process of reservoir filling always lead to land loses. This is because much of the land has been flooded during inundation process (Balmer and Spreng, 2008). The decrement in availability of land affects the local population, especially when the housing and agricultural area is involved. Resettlement is one of the major problems in the context of hydropower and the compensation schemes reveal unsolved difficulties in practice. Queschning (2010) also emphasized that large reservoirs flood wide areas of land and destroy peoples houses. Sinking biomass decomposes in water and releases large quantities of climate-changing methane. Besides affecting the availability of land, hydropower system also other businesses or industry branches either positively or negatively. The adverse impacts become the core of many conflicts of use. While the energy- intensive industries especially the hydropower plants benefit from cheap and reliable electricity supply, the other sectors might be negatively affected in terms of cost- benefit analysis. For instance, hydropower schemes affect tourism industry. Building of dams causes alteration to the natural landscape, which in turn lead to the loss of natural river course or even loss of unique historical sites. On the contrast, tourism industry also can gain benefit from hydropower plants because the reservoirs serve as recreational area, providing the opportunity for boating and other water sports. Effects on agriculture may vary from the provision of irrigation to the land loss due to inundation. The problem here is that the local population usually bears the negative impacts through land losses, while more distant agricultural businesses benefit from irrigation (Balmer and Spreng, 2008) For instance, the newly built Three Gorges dam in China is often cited as a negative example of the type of environmental damage hydropower plants can cause (Queschning, 2010). To build this plant, 20 cities, more than 10000 villages and the housing of more than 1 million people have been sacrificed. Although the ecological impact from this dam is still not clear, it is expected to contaminate the underground water, which brings trauma to the people. In addition, the 600-km long reservoir has the probability to be turned into a dumping area of sewage and industrial waste.
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Besides affecting the environment, the health issues brought by the hydropower scheme must not be neglected or underestimated, especially in the case of large hydropower schemes in tropical regions. Reservoirs deal with the accumulation of large amount of stagnant water. Hence, it serves as a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread diseases such as malaria, bilharzias and other mosquito-borne infections. Industrial pollutants or other waste coming from the upstream civilization, accumulating in the water reservoirs, can enter the food chain of local population. Organic toxins such as algae or from methylmercury found in many big reservoirs can trigger further problems. Although hydropower scheme has brought so many problems to the nature and people, it is undeniable that it still benefits the mankind in the field of energy production. To fairly judge the hydropower system, the external costs per kilowatt hour of electricity produced must be estimated. Many international studies have been carried out to determine the external cost of hydropower. From the results, it can be noticed that hydropower still has the lowest external cost if compared to other electricity generation technologies, especially the fossil technology. However, the external cost varies for different hydropower system. Hence, it is very difficult to provide a firm statement regarding the external cost of hydropower system. Overcoming the Negative Impacts of Hydropower As mentioned in the previous section, the negative impacts of hydropower scheme include endangering the natural habitat of wild life, decreasing usable land area, affecting the tourism industry and polluting the environment. Despite bringing these adverse impacts, hydropower still remains as the most effective power generation technology. Thus, suitable measures must be implemented to decrease these negative effects to its marginal. The negative impacts can be reduced or mitigated if they are considered early in the planning and construction process. However, this process of analysis the risk before building the hydropower system is very complex and time-consuming. It needs the environmental impact assessment and the involvement of stakeholder to identify potential negative impacts and ways to mitigate them. The integration of environmental and social considerations from the start is a crucial prerequisite in order to shorten this process. Environmental impact assessment for hydropower system is strictly monitored in many countries, including Malaysia. Normally, a pre-study to assess the potential problems of the project is carried out to prevent the investment of money into an unrealistic project due to the fundamental

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incompatibility. This pre-study helps to shorten the whole planning process and thus is a vital element in hydropower scheme planning. In short, the risk assessment to the nature must be included in the early planning of building a dam because this can provide a chance for us to identify and solve potential problem before it is too late. The use of GIS technologies enables us to identify potential hydropower sites, 3D views and models of the future hydropower scheme and site, watershed and reservoir modeling, natural hazards such as landslides and flood, and potential conflicts of use. With the aid of technology, we can minimize the risk of hydropower system to the nature. Economics and Future Prospects of Hydropower Overall, it can be expected that hydropower will have more development potential in Asia because there are still many potential and undeveloped spot for the building of hydropower system. On the other hand, the development of hydropower system in other places such as USA is limited. This is not because of the failings of technology innovation, but due to the overexploitation of hydropower scheme in these countries in the past. Hence, they are now facing with limitation of the availability of hydrological resources and the constraints on developing them. Cassedy (2000) mentioned that the hydro capacity in USA will probably not increase over 10% in the first few decades of the 21st century. Referring to the table below, it can be observe that Asia, Latin America and Africa are presently producing 10% or less of the exploitable hydro energy resources of their regions, while Europe and North America have exploited over 45% of theirs.

Table 1: Actual hydropower production, capacity and potential by continent (Source: Balmer and Spreng, 2008) Among so many types of renewable energy generation, the use of the hydroelectric power is the most developed. Classic run-of-river and storage hydropower plants could at
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best double the output of electricity generated worldwide. However, in the long term their share of energy production worldwide will decrease, due to the increasing electricity demand. There are other types of hydropower plants, such as wave and ocean current plants which is still uncommon now, have the potential to be developed in the future, although the development cost must be somehow decreased. In addition, hydropower has the biggest advantage- producing relatively constant output if compared to other renewable resource such as solar energy and wind power. On the contrary to the other electricity generation method, hydropower schemes are very site specific and have a very long lifespan of around 80 years. Hence, if the initial analysis and investment is done precisely, we can actually harvest the electricity for a very long period with the initial huge investment. To ensure that suitable site and construction method is selected, long-lasting construction and planning time must be implemented. Because hydropower plants are very capital intensive, the fixed cost are high while the variable cost, including the operation and maintenance cost are usually lower. Hence, accurate investment will bring back long-term profit for hydropower systems. As in Malaysia, several suitable spot for building hydropower system have been identified, especially in Peninsular Malaysia. However, these projects are still under study and they will have to compete with other form of energy generation technologies such as coal and oil plants in term of economy viability (Zainal Abidin, 2005). As suggested by the 17th Congress of the World Energy Council in year 1998, priority should be given to the development of renewable energy resources such as the hydropower because this will substantially reduce the amount of emissions as what happen to the use of fossil fuels. Hence, hydropower should be given more attention in term of development although it requires initial large financial investment. In the long run, we will be benefited from hydropower. However, any planning or development project must be assessed carefully to minimize the impact to our environment. Conclusion Hydropower is the premier renewable resources. Together with other resources, such as the solar and wind energy, they can provide electricity to the mankind without being depleted. However, the development of hydropower station also brings a lot of issues, especially to the mother earth. Hence, proper planning and assessment must be carried out to minimize the risk of destroying the nature.
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History & Development of Nuclear Energy According to the principle of massenergy equivalence, radium, the radioactive elements which release huge amounts of energy excite the pursuit of nuclear energy for generation of electricity in the early 20th. The challenge of harnessing "atomic energy" was strong enough, even though it was dismissed by fathers of nuclear physics like Ernest Rutherford as "moonshine." However, in the late 1930s, the situation has changed due to the discovery of nuclear fission.

Throughout the history, two of world-changing events that involve the field of nuclear technology have dramatically altered the course of human civilization. However, these events happened less than 3 years apart. On December 2, 1942, the Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi (1905-1954) led a small team of scientists in operating the worlds first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago. In addition to power generation, the reactors core contained a large quantity of neutrons that could create many interesting new isotopes for applications in medicine, industry, research and development, environmental science and even the space exploration. The first human-initiated, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place in wartime secrecy in very unassuming surroundings which is the unused squash court beneath the west stands of Stagg Field, the athletic stadium of the University of Chicago. Besides, Fermis first reactor also provided the key technology needed for the production of large quantities of plutonium. Therefore, this human-made transuranic element was greatly prized by physicists as the more efficient candidate nuclear fuel for the first American atomic bomb.

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On July 16, 1945, the worlds first nuclear explosion took place. An incredible burst of human-made light pierced the predawn darkness of a remote portion of the Southern New Mexican desert and bathed the surrounding mountains in the glow of a nuclear fireball. The bulky, spherical plutonium implosion device, code named Trinity, exploded with a yield of 21 kilotons and completely vaporized the 33 meter tall steel support tower upon which it was hoisted. Angelo(2009) mentioned that, the American physicist J.Robert Oppenheimer (19041967), who lead the team of atomic bomb scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico, recalled the ancient Hindu declaration: I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Less than a century later, almost like the hero in a classic Greek tragedy who successfully completes a difficult quest and receives punishment as a reward, this brilliant physicist would be ushered off-stage in disgrace when government officials denied him further access to classified information. At Trinity, most of the scientists who helped develop the worlds first nuclear explosive device were more concerned with ending World War II than with contemplating the long-term social consequences of their work. Considering the possibility of prolonged and bloody conflict, President Harry S.Truman (1884 - 1972) made the incredibly difficult decision to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). After the World War II, the conceptual of using atomic energy, except using for war, were used as a reason not to keep all nuclear research controlled by military organizations. Nevertheless, most of the scientists saying that it would take a very long period to master the nuclear energy, and it also produced weapons-based plutonium. Therefore, most national attempted to keep their nuclear reactor research under the control of their government. United States has been put a great effort on nuclear marine propulsion, with a test reactor being developed by 1955. United Stated President Dwight Eisenhower gave his "Atoms for Peace" speech in 1953, which he emphasizing the important to develop "peaceful" uses of nuclear energy. This act was followed by the 1954 Amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, which allowed rapid declassification of U.S. reactor technology and encouraged development by the private sector.
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On the other hand, for the first time, electricity was generated by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, has produced about 100 kW.

Calder Hall nuclear power station in the United Kingdom was the world's first nuclear power station to produce electricity in commercial quantities.

The Shippingport Atomic Power Stationin Shippingport, Pennsylvania was the first commercial reactor in the USA and was opened in 1957.

In 1956, the world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England, was with an initial capacity of 50 MW (later 200 MW). On the other hand, the first commercial nuclear generator to be operated in the United States was the Shipping port Reactor (Pennsylvania, December 1957).

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History of the use of nuclear power (top) and the number of active nuclear power plants (bottom).

Over the span of just a few centuries in the 20th century, the performance of nuclear scientists greatly changed our world. Some individuals have received prestigious awards such as Nobel Prize in chemistry or physics due to their contributions publicly acknowledged.

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Impacts of Nuclear Energy Besides from any other modern technology existed in the world, nuclear energy has been recognized as an important role in controlling the lives of human cycle and has a dramatically impacts on human being and the world. Undeniably, with the invention of nuclear energy, it indeed helps much on every prospect of human being. It is necessary to emphasize that many of nuclear technologys impacts are multifaceted. For instances, the generation of electric power by using nuclear energy could satisfy the world demand for electricity without releasing the huge amount of dangerous level of carbon dioxide which buildup in the earths atmosphere, thus the prudent application of nuclear energy could avoid the environmental pollution and catastrophe. Nevertheless, the operations of the nuclear fission reactor also release some nuclear wastes. These nuclear wastes also require extremely safe and controlled storage.

Every year, around twenty to thirty tons of high-level waste are being created per nuclear reactor around the world while the world's nuclear fleet produced thousands metric tons of high-level spent nuclear fuel. Petrangeli (2010) mentioned that nuclear reprocessing can be used as a method to reduce the quantity of high-level waste; however, it does not reduce the heat and radioactivity generation. Thus, nuclear reprocessing does not help on the solution for geological waste repository. On the other hands, nuclear reprocessing has been politically controversial. It is because of its potential to develop to nuclear proliferation, which is the potential vulnerability to terrorism in terms of nuclear field. Although lots of method have been suggested to cure the high-level waste, which includes remove it to the outer space, deep burial in ground or even transmutation. Yet none of these methods have been implemented until now. The nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear accidents have been created a great affect and impacts to human being. The nuclear fission power which emits the greenhouse gases

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does not affect much on human routine health as compared to the coal, but there is some high chances risk which includes the over-heating fuel releasing the massive amount of fission products to the surrounding. The public opposition to nuclear power has always been strong in the society. For example, the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and 1986 Chernobyl disaster, has ended the fast growing of global nuclear power capacity.

We waited until the blast had passed, walked out the shelter and then it was extremely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds. - J.Robert Oppenheimer, Trinity Explosion Site, 16 July 1946

In terms of human health concern, there always been rumor and research on increased risk of various diseases,

especially cancers, for those who stay nearby the nuclear facilities. Most tissues can produce cancers with enough

radiation damage but rapidly dividing tissue lines, such as blood-forming `haemopoietic' lines which may produce leukemias, are particularly vulnerable. When a person is exposed to anearly 100 rems, the blood's lymphocyte cell count will be reduced, caused the victim more susceptible to infection which is sometimes considered as mild radiation sickness. Early symptoms of radiation sickness, which resemblances to the flu may be undiscoverable unless a blood count is done. Many people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not die directly from the actual explosion, but from the radiation released as a result of the explosion. Referring to the data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki case, it show that symptoms may persist for up to 10 years and may also have an increased long-term risk for leukemia and lymphoma. For instance, a 14 years old boy was admitted to hospital two days after the explosion in Hiroshima, suffering
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from a high fever and nausea. 9 days later his hair began to fall out and it is discovered that his supply of white blood cells dropped lower and lower. Later on the seventeenth day he began to bleed from his nose, and on the twenty-first day he died. Until today, there is still currently no effective medical treatment for potentially fatal radiation doses. The case of the Japanese boy discussed above shows the important fact about radiation sickness. Technology on medical science does not have certain way of differentiate between people who have received fatal doses will die while for those who received less radiation could be saved. Treatment for those that can be saved includes bone-marrow transplants and blood transfusions. For example, bone-marrow transplants rejuvenate the supply of white blood cells which was affected by the radiation. Certain environmental consequences of nuclear energy generated the radioactive materials and created contaminated sites which now require remedial action. No other modern technology except nuclear energy offers such an unambiguous survival proposition. Human being only can learning

maturely on how to properly apply the power of nuclear energy, or we can just remain immature and belligerent and eventually misusing this

technology and lead to self-destructive manner that will causing human being to varnish.

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Issues & challenges of Nuclear Energy As we well known, the application of nuclear technology has been giving rise to lots of the conflicts and controversy and many issue aroused. For example, issue such as nuclear proliferation, depend on the domain of national defense at the same time created difficult dilemma and decision making at the international level to achieve a favourable resolution. Besides that, other issue like the use of nuclear power system to support space exploration always excite the arguments between scientist, politician and the public. In addition, aroused also some technical issue such as the conflict or whether using nuclear irradiation to preserve and protect food supplies and also the most effective ways to dispose high-level nuclear waste. Below are some issues and challenges related to nuclear energy.

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation The nuclear power program has a dual-use capability which associated with its technology and materials; a country has its own decision to make it the nuclear weapons. A 2009 United Nations report said that:

The revival of interest in nuclear power could result in the worldwide dissemination of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies, which present obvious risks of proliferation as these technologies can produce fissile materials that are directly usable in nuclear weapons.

There are some of the major negative global trends regarding nuclear proliferation. Each of these trends involves complex technical, social and even the political issues. In some countries in Northeast and South Asia, dependency on nuclear weapons and brinkmanship has ever increasing since the cold war. For instances, this increase would encourage the attempts at nuclear blackmail in North Korea, promote the nuclear war between Pakistan and India, or even excite the political stress in some sensitive and fragile area such as Middle East.
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Besides, a nonstate actor which knows as terrorist groups may also acquire the capability to deliver a massive nuclear attack on United States or other countries. The new global terrorism threat, which was highlighted by the 9/11 attack on the New York City, demonstrate the willingness of terrorists to sacrifice their own lives to achieve their evil political purpose. The application of nuclear weapons in a regional nuclear war or a well-planned urban attack by terrorists would have tremendous shock value and inflict massive civilian casualties. Although the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) striving its best effort to promote the peacefulness in using nuclear technology and against the nuclear weapons proliferation, but the nuclear weapons still being seen as the bargaining chip in the international power. Furthermore, regional powers view nuclear weapons and longrange ballistic missiles as a way to deter the United States from intervening in a border crisis or local conflict. In various parts of the world, the possession of a nuclear weapons arsenal is being considered as providing the nuclear-capable country with a substitute for alliances and external security guarantees. The ownership of nuclear weapon also ensure that some despotic leader of the country possess the high-stakes bargaining chip. In addition to that, the sale of nuclear weapons technology, materials or the expertise is extremely costly. Also, illicit trafficking in radioactive sources poses a significant threat to modern civilization.

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The Radiological Weapon and trafficking in Radioactive Sources A radiological weapon or so-called dirty bomb is a bomb that contains radioactive material, but does not use that material to produce the nuclear explosion (Angelo, 2009). The dirty bomb is made of radioactive material and conventional explosives, and then its detonation will disperse out all of the radioactive material to the surrounding. Those blast or explosion will definitely kill thousands of people in the nearby. Nevertheless, in the prospect of such dirty bomb, the radioactive material which dispersed out could also expose to the people in the nearby location. Basically, it is difficult to generalize and predict the level of exposure of persons in the vicinity of a radiological weapon blast. The exposure to radioactive percentage also different from each individual; which also depends on many factors, such as the chemical and physical form of the radioactive

material, the amount and type of explosive. In all likelihood, Angelo (2009) mentioned that the most severe tangible consequences of a radiological weapon would be the social disruption associated with evacuation, subsequent clean-up of contaminated property, and the associated economic costs. Besides, terrorism, together with religious enthusiasm, increased the problem rate to the illicit trafficking in radioactive resources. The illicit trafficking in radioactive resources can be inserted in any luggage or suitcase and bring all around the place, if and only if the criminal is not afraid of sacrifice himself. Under this kind of scenario, with full access to powerful radiation resources, a powerful nuclear bomb can be easily packed in the explosive backpack and an extremely fanatical blast could be created. However, fortunately, the authorities can be able to detect the radioactive resources using the certain instruments. Several types of instruments have been implemented to assist police and customs officials to detect the illicit movement of radioactive resources. Definitely, more advanced and high technology instrument will be invented to assist human being to identify more precisely and effectively the type of radioactive materials.

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Environmental Issues

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking. - Albert Einstein For many years, lots of extensive studies have been carried out to investigate the effects on the environment of releases of radioactivity from the nuclear industry, particularly in regard to the impact on human being. More recently, with the forecast rapid development of nuclear power, the environmental impacts of thermal releases from nuclear power stations and chemical wastes release from the nuclear industry have also been examined individually. Nevertheless, the possibility of synergistic and combination effects from this kind of interactions and their significance to human being and our environment have received some attention from the public. During the past few years, more and more countries have taken a more proactive interest in studies of effects of nuclear energy, in its perspective to the aquatic environments, especially the rivers and lakes, and also in respect to releases to the atmosphere. The effects nuclear energy have on the environment pose serious concerns that need to be considered, especially before the decision to build additional nuclear power plants is made. Nuclear power has always been called a clean source of energy because the power plants do not release carbon dioxide. While this is true, it is deceiving. Nuclear power plants may not emit carbon dioxide during operation, but high amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted in activities related to building and running the plants. Nuclear power plants use uranium as fuel. The process of mining uranium releases high amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment. Carbon dioxide is also released into the environment when new nuclear power plants are built. Finally, the transport of radioactive waste also causes carbon dioxide emissions.

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Climate change due to the nuclear energy can cause some kind of weather extremes such as heat waves and droughts. The seawater will become corrosive and therefore the nuclear energy supply is likely to be negatively affected by the fresh water

shortage. Nuclear power supply was severely diminished by low river ow-rates and droughts, which meant rivers, had reached the maximum temperatures for cooling reactors. Cooling reactors are used to keep nuclear power plants from overheating. There are two main environmental problems associated with nuclear power plant cooling systems. First, the cooling system pulls water from an ocean or river source. Fish are inadvertently captured in the cooling system intake and killed. Second, after the water is used to cool the power plant, it is returned to the ocean or river. The water that is returned is approximately 25 degrees warmer than the water was originally. The warmer water kills some species of fish and plant life. Some similar events have happened somewhere in Europe during the hot summers. And if global warming continues, this disruption will most probably be increased.

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Nuclear Accidents & Safety

The nuclear accidents have always been discussed as a topic in the public. It is also a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities. Some implementation have been introduced to minimize the chances of nuclear accidents or to reduce the amount of radioactivity released to the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, regulated safety procedures are not being followed to ensure that nuclear power plants are safe. Even if all safety precautions are followed, it is no guarantee that a nuclear power plant accident will not occur. If a nuclear power plant accident occurs, the environment and surrounding people could be exposed to high levels of radiation. Severe accidents are defined as those which entail at least an initial core damage, in many cases specified as the overcoming of the regulatory fuel limits. Examples include , huge radioactivity release to the environment, reactor core melt and fatal effects to individuals.In any case, the prevailing ideas of nuclear safety were not substantiated by these figures. Therefore, responsible people started to think about the best way severe accidents could be prevented, or at least mitigated. Petrangeli (2010) said that in the report of Benjamin K. Sovacool, there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants from 1952 to 2009 which defined as incidents that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage resulted in the total of US$20.5 billion in property damages. Fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and almost two-thirds (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the USA. There have been comparatively few fatalities associated with

nuclear power plant accidents. One of the worst nuclear accidents to date was

the Chernobyl

disaster which

occurred in 1986 in Ukraine. That accident killed 56 people directly, as well as damaging approximately $7 billion of property. A study published in 2005 estimates that there will eventually be up to 4,000 additional cancer deaths related to the accident among those exposed to significant radiation levels. Radioactive fallout from the accident was
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concentrated in areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Approximately 350,000 people were forcibly resettled away from these areas soon after the accident.

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Economic & Future Prospect of Nuclear Technology

One of the big problems with nuclear power is the enormous upfront cost. These reactors are extremely expensive to build. While the returns may be very great, they're also very slow. It can sometimes take decades to recoup initial costs. Since many investors have a short attention span, they don't like to wait that long for their investment to pay off. - Indiviglio, Daniel (February 1, 2011).

In the prospect of economics of the nuclear energy, it is always been a controversial subject. Many are having different opinions on this topic, and multi-billion dollar investments have been invested on this massive nuclear energy resource. Normally, nuclear power plant has very high capital costs in order to build the plant, but it consumes low fuel costs. Therefore, the comparison between the nuclear energy power generation

station with other power generation methods is totally rely on the

construction timescales and capital for nuclear plants, future costs of fossil fuels and renewable as well as for the energy storage solutions for

intermittent power sources. From the beginning, the most attraction part of nuclear energy has always been its low fuel costs compared with those for coal, oil and gas-fired plants. However, unlike other sources, Uranium must be processed, enriched and fabricated into fuel elements, with roughly half of the cost associated with enrichment and fabrication, according to NEI Data. Besides, allowances must also be made for the management of radioactive used fuel and the ultimate disposal of this used fuel or the wastes separated from it. However, as reported by similar data from a Finnish Study, even with these additional costs included, the total fuel costs of a nuclear power plant are typically about a third of those for a coal-fired plant, and between a quarter and a fifth of those for a gas combined-cycle plant.( Rissanen, 2000 ) Due to the 2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents, the costs are probably to go up for currently operating

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and new nuclear power plants, due to increased requirements for on-site spent fuel management and elevated design basis threats. In addition, it is also important to distinguish between the economics of Nuclear Plants already in operation and those at the planning stage. Once capital investment costs are effectively sunk, existing plants have relatively low operating costs and are effectively cash-producing machines. This advantage is irrespective of whether the investment costs are amortized or depreciated; assuming the marginal costs of operation are below the power price, the plant will continue to operate economically.

The future role of nuclear technology and some of the very exciting opportunities it offers the human races are being discussed here. Briefly saying, nuclear technology is either the gateway or exit to a new sustainable world and the universe beyond or the trapdoor to the hellish world of a post-apocalypse planet. The technical, political, and social pathway into the 21st century contains both great chances and great risk. During the period between 1998 and 2002, for instances, India and Pakistan brought their military forces, including nuclear weapon systems, to be excel and outstanding in the combat war. On the other hand, some nuclear industry experts predict that global warming, electricity shortages, fossil fuel price increases, new technology such as passively safe plants, and national energy security will replace the demand for nuclear power plants.

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According to the World Nuclear Association, globally during the 1980s one new nuclear reactor started up every 17 days on average, and by the year 2015 this rate could increase to one every 5 days. (Angelo, 2009) There is some obstacle to the production of nuclear power plants, due to the capability of only a few companies worldwide have the capacity to forge single-piece reactor pressure vessels, which are needed in the most common reactor designs. Other manufacturers are attempting some various options, for example, making the component on themselves, or finding other alternate methods to make a similar item. There is a very broad consensus on the concept of geological disposal for such wastes. The necessary technologies have all been tried and tested. Research and development will continue to refine data, models, and concepts related to the long-term safety of disposal. The experts have no doubt that we could dispose safely of wastes today and that there are now no technical reasons to delay decisions on disposal. Radioactive waste exists. We generated it. We must manage it. If we are not to pass our waste on to future generations, we should also dispose of it.

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Conclusion There is no disagreement that clean resources of energy are vital to the environment. The disagreement lies in what form that clean energy should be in. Supporters of nuclear energy argue that it is an efficient source of energy that is easy to implement. People against nuclear energy propose using combined methods of solar, wind and geothermal energy. Solar, wind and geothermal energy still have environmental issues, but ones that are not as great as nuclear plants or coal- burning power plants.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war. - Isaiah 2:4

The prophecy of Isaiah 2:4 show that the extremely eager hope for peace that is probably as old as human civilization. The reason is that through nuclear technology, scientists have successfully discovered some of the most powerful force in the universe and placed them in our hands. If we human being can apply wisely, the nuclear technology has done and definitely will continue to help human being for a better modern civilization in some important areas such as electric power generation, industry, research, medicine and space exploration. Used unwisely, however, nuclear technology could end up as become a fatal threat to human being and even bring harm our lives, our earth and our planet.

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Conclusion This project aims to spread and expose the information regarding different energies production methods. In this thesis, the history and development, technologies, issues and challenge faced, methods of overcoming the challenge and future prospects of the 5 different energies: solar, wind, wave, hydro and nuclear are being discussed. Energy supply is very important for development of civilization. However, the production of electricity causes adverse impacts on the environment such as the depletion of land and pollution. Thus, proper design and planning should be carried out to reduce the impact to the environment to its minimal level. Knowing the importance and limitation of the availability of energy, we as a responsible resident must try our best to save electricity. Simple practices such as switching off the light and fan before leaving the room and reduce the usage of air- conditioner will actually help us to save a lot of electricity.

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