The dominance of a single-energy system inevitably leads to excessive burden on, and eventually weakening, a particular aspect of the environment, and can cause environmental fatigue and failure (permanent damage) or even catastrophe if dominated for too long; thus it inevitably poses the health and environmental risk. This is the case for our currently fossil-fuel-based energy systems. In fact, each energy system, including renewables and alternative fuels, has its own unique adverse impact on the environment, as dictated by the second law of thermodynamics. A truly sustainable development may be achieved with the diversification and localization of energy sources and systems if the adverse impact of each energy system is sufficiently small and well within the tolerance limit of the environment. Energy diversification and localization would also provide a security for the energy supply and distribution as well for the energy consumers—a specifically important issue in the wake of blackout (electric power failure) in the Northeastern states to the Midwest of the United States and part of Canada on August 14, 2003. The idea of diversified energy systems for the good of humanity and environment is similar to many analogies in other fields, such as bio-diversity is the best means to prevent the spread and damage of diseases and pests, and diversified investment is the best strategy to guarantee the overall best investment return. It is concluded that the diversification and localization of energy systems is the best future energy systems that would be environmentally compatible, and allow for sustainable development as well as energy security for both supply and distribution to the energy consumers.
Worldwide energy consumption has been increasing rapidly (IEA, 2003), in fact almost exponentially, since the industrial revolution; and this increasing trend of energy consumption has been accelerated by the improvement of the quality of life, that almost directly relates to the amount of energy consumption; by the industrialization of the developing nations; and by the increase of population in the world. At present, the absolute majority of energy requirement worldwide is met by the combustion of fossil fuels (IEA, 2003) (i.e., coal, petroleum oils, natural gas, etc.), which have become an essential and integral part of modern civilization, being increasingly relied upon since the industrial revolution. Only a very small proportion from the nuclear and hydro powers, and even a much smaller portion from the renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, tidal wave, and so on, provides the rest of the energy demand.
This almost exclusive reliance on the combustion of fossil fuels has resulted in enormous amount of harmful pollutant emissions to our environment, has caused severe degradation of local and global environment, and has exposed the world population, from humans to animals and from plants to any form of lives on earth, to the hazards and risks created by the extensive use of fossil fuels. For example, air pollution resulted from the pollutant emissions poses a severe threat to the health of millions of population living in many of the world’s urban areas. In 1998, over 113 million people in the United States were estimated living in areas not meeting US National Air Quality Standards (Chalk et al., 2000). Combustion of fossil fuels continues to contribute significantly to the increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, thus intensifying the prospect of global warming and threatening the very existence of our civilization and mankind on the planet earth. In addition to the health and environmental concerns, a steady depletion of the world’s limited fossil fuel reserves also calls for alternative primary energy sources, and new energy technologies for energy conversion and power generation, which are more energy efficient than the conventional combustion engine with minimal or no pollutant emissions, and also compatible with renewable energy sources or carries for sustainable development. Many studies have pointed to the hydrogen economy as the perfect solution to our present dilemma arising from the dominance of fossil fuels based energy systems (Adamson, 2004; Barreto et al., 2003), and fuel cell has been identified as the promising and potential energy technology, which meets all of the above requirements for energy security, economic growth, and environmental sustainability.
Is hydrogen-based energy system a perfect solution to our plight or another “Pandora Box” waiting to be opened? In this study, energy systems and their inevitable negative impacts on the environment are examined, and the much-awaited hydrogen based energy system is analyzed. Historic lessons learned and analogy with other fields will be made. We conclude that the best approach to the issue of energy, environment and sustainable development is the diversification and localization of energy systems, which is also the best approach to the security of energy. In the following sections, we will first describe the energy systems and their impacts on the environment, and then the idea of diversification and localization of energy sources and systems will be developed as the only sensible and practically feasible solution to the goal of sustainable development and energy security.
The dominance of a single-energy system tends to weaken a particular aspect of the environment, and can cause permanent environmental damage or even environmental catastrophe if dominated for too long. It is argued that each energy system has its own adverse impact on the environment, as dictated by the second law of thermodynamics. However, if that impact is small enough and is within the tolerance range, environment can fully withstand the adverse impact and can fully recover from it. Thus, a truly sustainable development may be achieved with the diversification and localization of energy sources and systems, which would also provide a security for the energy supply and distribution as well. Therefore, it is recommended to promote energy diversity as the only sensible and practically feasible for sustainable development.
