What About the Earth?

Air, Fire, Water… What am I missing? Ah yes, Earth. Earth refers to the substances that create the environment around us. So how can we harness these substances to provide us with energy? Well, there are various different ways, but the main types are through:

• Bioenergy – burning decaying waste or organic material (biomass e.g. plants, wood) to produce energy such as heat and electricity. Only sustainable if organic material used is replanted and replaced.
• Geothermal Energy – This harnesses energy from earth’s natural heat through volcanoes. Water is fed underground in volcanic regions. Water is heated until it turns into steam, which then drives turbines.

Energy such as geothermal, is naturally renewable as it does not require depleting any of the earth’s resources. However, bioenergy does deplete biomass resources and thus to be sustainable and renewable, biomass needs continual replacement. For this reason, biomass may be more maintenance than other energy sources. However, this has not necessarily deterred nations from investing in bioenergy. In Kenya, there is a significant developing bioenergy market, particularly for SMEs (World Bank, 2014). The East African region in particular, is expected to receive an investment of $2.4 billion, $1.4 billion of which will be accessible to SMEs. The developing world however does face significant barriers to entry in the bioenergy market in terms of funding and skills. The following two World Bank graphs illustrate the investment into and the value of the clean tech market in East Africa.

Notice that the geothermal energy market is quite large in East Africa. This is largely due to the 18 active volcanoes in the region (US Geological Survey, 1999). The biofuel and bioenergy market however, is indeed existent, and receiving investment. Other energy sources such as geothermal are preferred to bioenergy in regions such as East Africa, as they can capitalise on their natural resources. Despite the fact that geothermal energy is the cheapest energy resource at 5 cents per kWh, and biomass is only 10 cents per kWh, in terms of efficiency, both biomass and geothermal energy are quite low down on the list...

Nonetheless, this IEA Pie Chart below shows that in 2012, biofuels actually accounted for 10% of the global energy market:

Furthermore, of the US renewable energy market in 2010, biomass energy accounts for more than half of energy consumption  (EIA, 2011). Despite these energy sources not being entirely efficient, they are receiving significant investment. In particular, these energy sources could be invaluable to capitalise on if the geographical region has an abundance of resources to use. These regions tend to be developing regions, which are still exploited for their natural resources through neo-colonial relations. Perhaps this is a market which developing nations can really capitalise on and gain a unique advantage which former colonial powers cannot exploit.