What if we told you that waste can produce energy? Does it sound strange or dangerous to you? Well, know that it is our society that, for a long time, did not know how to look at what it produced with circularity. But we have good news, there are countless reasons why waste is a safe raw material for the production of renewable and clean energy.
The Limits of Renewable Energies
We already have important scientific studies showing that non-renewable energy sources, derived from fossil fuels, are a significant factor in global warming, which is causing environmental changes that lead us to a climate emergency.
We are increasingly understanding the need for investment and development of energy from renewable sources, whether to supply the power grid or transportation systems.
However, producing renewable energy can, depending on the technology, have various side effects or limitations for the success of these solutions. Let’s analyze the main renewable energies and compare them with energy produced from waste.
Hydropower
Energy from hydropower is the main source of electricity in Brazil. However, there are three challenges that make this model difficult to implement, especially on a global scale:
- Hydropower requires a lot of water: to produce energy from large hydroelectric plants for supplying a city or a country, a significant amount of water is needed. Global warming will lead to reduced water availability, making this technology potentially unfeasible in the medium term.
- It has an environmental impact: although it is renewable energy with lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil energy, hydropower has an environmental impact due to the need to flood surrounding areas, which can affect local flora and fauna.
Wind Energy
Wind energy is generated from wind turbines. This renewable energy requires abundant wind to be truly productive, limiting its capability to certain regions. In Brazil, for example, due to its geological position, the northeast region is the main producer of wind energy.
In addition to the dependence on unpredictable factors like wind, wind energy faces the impact of wind turbines, which are large structures requiring space to be built, threatening fragile biomes, such as the caatinga.
Lastly, animal species like birds and bats often collide with the turbine blades.
Solar Energy
This is undoubtedly the renewable energy with the greatest global visibility since the Sun is an abundant resource. However, the lack of sunlight in some areas makes solar energy difficult to develop in certain regions.
Moreover, with approximately 12 hours without sunlight (depending on the time of year and region), this energy cannot be produced at night.
There are also more significant environmental impacts, such as vegetation loss and consequences for animal life when large solar energy plants are built.
Biogas: The Renewable Energy Solution of the Future
Biogas is renewable energy produced by capturing gases emitted during the decomposition of organic materials. This energy model is less publicized but is experiencing exponential growth.
This renewable energy model can be developed through urban sanitation, which accounts for 74% of biogas generation in Brazil.
What’s incredible about using biogas for energy supply is that it not only meets the demand for renewable and cleaner energy but also solves another problem: waste management.
Humanity continues to grow in numbers, and organic materials will always be produced, requiring a more ecological destination. According to the ABRELPE, Brazil generated 81.8 million tons of urban waste in 2022, meaning 224 thousand tons were produced daily.
Thus, we can see that every day we generate tons of raw material that could be reintroduced into the industry, with the advantages of:
- Reusing materials already produced without the need to exploit new resources for energy generation.
- Addressing an existing problem by helping to reduce the impact of waste on nature.
- Not depending on unpredictable environmental factors, such as water, wind, or sunlight, making it applicable almost anywhere in the world and in any season.
Let’s transform our relationship with waste, realizing that every day we generate an important energy source.
There are even more solutions for waste valorization. You can learn about many of them at Orizon VR.
