If a certain energy technology or source of energy might not

be viable, or has many challenges facing its adoption on a

global scale, is it still worth investing in it?

Over the years it has been the assumption that renewable energy is the way to go, but is that really
true? Is fossil fuel really that bad, This assignment seeks to asses and compare one form of fossil fuel
extraction and one form of renewable energy extraction and try to find which is worth investing in.

Fossil Fuel: Fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, natural gas, oil shales, bitumens, tar sands, and
heavy oils.

Fracking -is one of the most used method of petroleum extraction its popular because of it has many
benefit for its users.

Advantages of Fracking
Accessibility to more gas and oil

Fracking allows countries using this method to access larger quantities of oil and gas. It’s an advanced
technique which replaces traditional methods of accessing oil and gas. This process enables us to access
large amount of natural deposit such as Natural Gas.

Boom in the Economy

Fracking has been economical beneficial to countries around the world especially countries like the USA.
Due to the significant increase of oil and gas in the US, they have now become less dependable on oil
producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and for natural gas in Russia. According EIA report which
stated that the “US, fracking has enabled a decline of around 37.5% in the natural gas imports between
2007 and 2013” (Seth, 2018). “Further fracking may lead to the US becoming a net exporter of natural
gas and the largest oil producer in 2020, leaving behind Russia and Saudi Arabia” (Seth, 2018).

Creation of Employment Opportunity

With the lengthy process, drilling activities and the transportation in fracking of oil and gas deposits as
well as the increase of production of oil and gas this, has provided many job opportunities. According to
the Daniel Yergin Vice Chair of Global consulting firm “today, the industry supports 1.7m jobs a
considerable accomplishment given the relative newness of the technology. That number could rise to 3
million by 2020. In 2012, this revolution added $62 billion to federal and state government revenues; a
number that is projected could rise to about $113 billion by 2020”. This has risen employment to 67%,
from 118,400 employed in 2003, to 198,400 in December, 2012.” (Rinkesh 2009).
Environmental benefits (Lesser Carbon Emissions)

Fracking is relatively eco-friendly, as compared to fossil fuels and coal, because it releases far less CO2, a
major greenhouse gas which can take thousands of years to breakdown.

Disadvantages of Fracking
Pollution

The process of fracking involves the release of chemicals into the atmosphere such as benzene and
methane (Rinesh, 2009). This occurs right after the gas has been tapped, before production starts.
During the process of Fracking, these gases are not captured, thus releasing into the atmosphere
contaminants where humans and animals reside (Rinesh, 2009).

One of the primary chemicals used in the fracking method is methane, and during extraction, it is
predicted that 4% of this gas is released in the atmosphere (Horton 2018). Because methane has a
higher heat trapping potential, the release of this gas is harmful to the quality of air surrounding
Fracking sites (Horton 2018).

Noise and Light Pollution

Fracking can disrupt the activities of the animals living in the ecosystem surrounding the plant. The loud
noises and bright lights from the plant could prevent diurnal animals from sleeping and expose
nocturnal animals that are either hiding from predators or stalking their prey.

Water Pollution

Because fracking fluid is pumped into the ground in huge amounts (around 100 times as much as in the
usual gas extraction techniques previously employed), more and more problems are being found in and
around areas where fracking takes place. The water that is pumped into the ground is supposed to be
extracted after the process of fracking. It has been admitted that sometimes, not all of the water gets
extracted. That remaining water can find its way into other water bodies and the chemicals can greatly
affect the biota relying on that water source.

Exposure to Toxic Chemicals

Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as Lead,
Uranium, Radium, Methanol, Formaldehyde, Hydrochloric Acid, Mercury, and Ethylene Glycol.
Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing. During the process of fracking,
methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and degrade nearby groundwater. Methane
concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells.
Renewable Energy Sources

Wind Turbine

Advantages
Wind has a number of advantages these are listed below:

. Wind is environmentally friendly because it does not emit any greenhouse gas.

. Generating electricity from wind energy reduces the need to burn fossil fuel alternatives such
as coal, oil, and gas.

. Wind energy is completely free. Anyone can make use of the wind and it will never run out.

. Wind turbines aren’t just limited to industrial-scale installations (such as wind farms.) They can
also be installed on a domestic scale. As a result, many landowners opt to install smaller, less
powerful wind turbines.

. The wind energy industry has boomed since wind turbines became commercially available. As
a result of this, the industry has created jobs all over the world.

Disadvantages
Wind seems to be the ideal energy source but to extract because wind is everywhere and its
free easily accessable, but wind extraction to make energy has man disadvantages:

. Although wind energy qualifies as a renewable resource, wind speeds fluctuate each day. This
can be a big disappointment to wind turbine developers who will commit every penny and
every ounce of energy in the project only to end up with fluctuating wind patterns.

. The cost to install wind turbines are extremely expensive even though a lot has been done to
try to subsides this. When talking about offshore wind turbines, the cost becomes more
pronounced. This is because it’s a daunting task to install wind turbines offshore than onshore.

. Wind turbines impact the natural beauty of the landscape. When a lot more wind turbines are
set up, the area becomes unsightly, its also documented that the constant spinning of wind
turbines can trigger a person with epilepsy to go into an epileptic fit.

. A National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) review of peer-reviewed research found

evidence of bird and bat deaths from collisions with wind turbines and due to changes in air
pressure caused by the spinning turbines, as well as from habitat disruption. [ CITATION Uni13 \l
1033 ]

. Wind turbines are a noise nuisance the sound they produce can be heard clearly from a very
far distance away.

. In the last couple of decades, the frequency of tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones have
increased considerably. Now these severe storms can cause extensive damage to the wind
turbines and can be a safety hazard to the people working in these wind farms. The damage
may cause huge damage to wind turbines.

. Wind turbines are suited to the coastal regions which receive wind throughout the year to
generate power. Therefore, countries that do not have any coastal or hilly areas may not be
able to take any advantage of wind power. [ CITATION Rin18 \l 1033 ]

Comparison between Fracking and wind Energy

The argument in this paper would almost seem as though it’s an argument of economist versus
an environmentalist. This is said because Fracking has the most negative environmental factors
but produces the most revenue and would not as much as wind energy would on the same
scale, and wind energy on the other is on the opposite side off the coin whereby they have the
least amount of environmental implications. But generate way less revenue than fracking, and
to do wind energy on the large scale as fracking will cost much more than it would for fracking.
This predicament is what we face in the world today how can fix this? As environmentalists we
should still believe that renewable sources of energy is the best way to go but economically
does it even make sense? Then the question still remains which method of energy extraction is
worth investing in, is it viable?
Bibliography