Energy Resources

For most of the man’s existence on this planet, his merely source of energy was the wild food he gathered, hunted, and ate. Whereas his invention of machines, like the lever, wedge, pulley, inclined plane, and the wheel, enabled him to spread force exerted at one point in more helpful form to the other point or in another direction, such devices did not raise the total energy at his command. It is only whenever he brought fire under his control was he capable to invent artifacts that enabled him to do things he could never do before. Coke, coal energy-guzzling life-styles we have nowadays.

The table gives a comparison among what might be termed as economic technology and provident technology, both of that have contributed to the utilization of energy resources for fulfill a variety of human requirements.

                                             Table: Economic Technology v/s Provident Technology

The tables provide two various classifications of our energy resources, from two different point of view. The terms renewable (i.e., income) and non-renewable (i.e., capital) used for explaining energy resources necessarily reflect man’s time awareness. The next table shown below provides a categorization of “terrestrial” energy resources (i.e., excluding fossil and fissile resources) into “solar” and “non-solar” kinds, highlighting our enormous dependence on the sun for our energy requirements.

                                              Table: Renewable and Non-renewable Sources of Energy

                                           Table: Income and Capital (or Fund) Sources of Energy

                                         Table: Classification of Terrestrial Energy Resources