31 OCTOBER 2020

THE EVOLUTION
OF ENERGY
Technological Institute of Veracruz / María Fernanda Uscanga
Tenorio

ABSTRACT
The three main elements to guarantee human survival are energy, water and food. Although
today the energies have been developed and improved, the physical principle remains the
same as it was years ago, which is the oxidation of carbon compounds at the time of breaking
their chemical bonds. The difference between the energy systems of our ancestors with the
modern ones consists mainly in that previously organic vegetable sources were exploited
while today the energy sources are mainly fossil sources, which has become the basis of the
world economy. Another big difference between the main sources of energy of the past
decades and the energy sources of today, is the way in which these are obtained and
produced, plant energy sources are converted into work by biological converters, while
sources fossils are transformed thanks to mechanical converters.

Keywords: Energy, developed, fossil sources, biomass, world economy, renewable

energies.

INTRODUCTION
As human beings, we are in a constant cycle
of changes, it is a natural process in which
the earth receives solar energy to release it
later. For at least three and a half billion
years there has been human life on earth,
thereby causing an evolution in the way
energy is used (Price, 1995).
Energy can be described historically as chro-
nological, geological and human
developments, that means that energy can be
considered as a universal bargaining chip just
because of energy represents at least 10% of
demand in economies. Energy is the cause of
each and every one of the stages of
evolution, industrialization and civilization,
also is presented in various forms: electro-
 31 OCTOBER 2020
magnetic, electrical, magnetic, nuclear,
chemical, thermal, mechanical, as well as all
the renewable energies (Kostic, 2015;
Malanima, 2014).
Fig. 1. Renewable energies (Torres y remaining 20%, 6% of the energy consumed
Bandala, 2014).
magnetic, electrical, magnetic, nuclear,
chemical, thermal, mechanical, as well as all
the renewable energies (Kostic, 2015;
Malanima, 2014).
The energy system in the world has had
several benefits although it also has
disadvantages, such as the climate change
that is produced thanks to the accumulation
of carbon dioxide, as well as greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, which are caused by
human activity (Teske, et al., 2012).
Even thought, energy can be considered as
a concern because of the impact that it has
on the consumption of energy on the
environment, especially the impact it has
had over the last two centuries (Malanima,
2014).
Energy development in the world requires
a new historical period, which is based on
the requirement of clean and low carbon
energy, it is there where renewable energies
and their high impact begin (Zou, et al.,
2016).
TWO DIFFERENT EPOCH
IN ENERGY
It is estimated that at the end of the 20th
century, the energy consumption worldwide
was 50,000 kcal per day, that is, about 76GJ
per year. Of the 100% of energy consumed,
80% of that energy was organic fossil sources
such as coal, oil and natural gas. Of the
was nuclear energy, 2% was hydroelectricity,
while the remaining 12% of energy consumed
was based on biomass, that is, organic plant
sources. The history of humanity and energy
can first be divided into two main epochs: (1)
The first epoch is considered from the birth
of the human species until about 5 centuries
ago, which is considered as the early modern
age, while that, (2) the second epoch is the
history of the last 500 years, where energy
had a more remarkable development as well
as it is the epoch where there was a higher
energy consumption (Beretta, 2017;
Malanima, 2014).
In the first epoch, the main source of energy
was biomass, considering animal fodder and
firewood, at this time energy was scare and it
was considered expensive, but it had a great
advantage, the environmental changes had a
considerable influence to help the
availability of this biomass. While in the se-
 31 OCTOBER 2020
cond epoch biomass was replaced by fossil
sources, these being the main sources of
energy (Malanima, 2014).
PRE-INDUSTRIAL ERA
Environmental historians have created
various stages of energy in human history,
these stages are divided according to the
biomass used to obtain and produce energy.
The three main sources of energy at the end
of the 18th century were 3 different types of
biomass, said biomass was changing
according to the age in which it was
discovered and developed. This is why
historians differentiate 3 stages during this
century, in the first stage the main source of
energy was food, in the second stage the
biomass was firewood and in the last stage
the biomass developed was the forage of the
animals of work (Malanima, 2014;
Valavanidis y Vlachogianni, 2013).
In the first stage, which was at the beginning
of the human species, about 5-7 million years
ago the only source of energy was food, at
this stage the only transformation of biomass
to obtain heat was metabolism, This
happened in two ways, the first one was by
being produced naturally by plants and
vegetables and the second one was by being
turned into meat by some animal that was
consumed by humans. The hyman body was
the first machine used to obtain movement
and heat, however the body of an animal can
not be used 100% as work, since it is
estimated that only about 15% and 20% of
the input of Food was transformed into
work, while the other 80% was used to
support the metabolism of the animal, which
was spread to the environment in the form of
heat and waste (Malanima, 2014).
For the second stage, fire was discovered,
this being the primary result in the history of
energy, fire is used mainly to obtain heat, but
also to heat, cook, illuminate, among other
things, in short, fire it is a key process for the
development of the ecosystem and human
life. It has its origins due to plants, since
these are responsible for two of the three
main elements for fire to originate: oxygen
and fuel, while the third element is a source
of heat. In the Paleozoic era, the oxygenated
atmosphere was capable of supporting fire,
however, thanks to the lack of fuels from
terrestrial plants, this restricted the
probabilities of fire, it was during the
Mesozoic era that fire became increasingly
important (Pausas y Keeley, 2009).
During the Mesolithic age, the third stage
was carried out, due to the end of the ice
ages and thanks to the increase in
temperature, the human being managed to
increase the cultivation of vegetables and
cereals. That is why energy in the form of
food increase the cultivation of vegetables
and cereals, however not all were
advantages, due to the spontaneous growth
of the population in certain regions of the
world, the availability of food per habitant
was not enough, as well as another
disadvantages was that a cereal based diet
was not entirely healthy, since it represent
complications in the health of humans. For
 31 OCTOBER 2020
the years 5,000 to 3,000 BC, agriculture had
a greater and better boom, this was due to
the domestication of animals such as oxen,
donkeys, horses and camels to be used in
agriculture and as transportation. During this
stage there were various optimizations,
which allowed a better use of energy, fuels
and animals, in this same stage the use of the
first renewable energy source was carried
out, which was the wind (Malanima,2014).
MODERN ERA:
INDUSTRIAL ERA:
At the beginning of the industrial era, the
way in which coal was transported for its
energy use was thanks to horse carriages,
this being very expensive, however thanks to
the fact that the most relevant and
representative novelty of this time was the
manufacture. Since primary engines, which
use heat from fuels, the cost was greatly
reduced, these fuels were a historical fact, as
energy was stored in fuels such as wood, coal
and oil, which meant that in any moment and
the energy of the place was acquired. Much
of the economic growth and opportunities
were reflected during this time, thanks to the
abundance of fossil fuels that as well as
energy independence and natural
phenomena such as waterfalls and wind. At
this stage, the use of fossil fuels was the most
predominant source of energy, representing
85% of total energy. Another of the most
notable and representative developments of
thistime were internal combustion engines,
electric motor, chemical products, amoung
others, these developments allowed an
increase in human activities, as well as the
growth of civilization. The industrial age
involved many more innovations, as a result
of which the energy supply increased
significantly and the quality of energy
sources improved before those used (Stern y
Kander, 2010; Kostic, 2015).
Social development during the modern era
symbolizes a continuation of the industrial
era thanks to the development of new
energies such as nuclear energy, for this era
various sources of energy were used
worldwide (Table 1), about 85.7% of
production Total energy was produced from
fossil fuels while renewable energies only
account for 1.4% of total energy production
(Kostic,2015).
Energy and the environment almost always
come hand in hand, today our planet faces
various problems such as lack of food,
environmental disasters, including global
warming, the energy crisis, among others, the
vast majority of problems before mentioned
are closely related to the use of energies
derived from fossil sources, which generates
a huge problem with the creation of
greenhouse gases, which in turn is the effect
of global warming. Another of the
consequences generated by the population
are solid, liquid and gaseous waste which
pollutes water, air and soil the vast majority
of this waste can be used for the production
 31 OCTOBER 2020
of sustainable bioenergy (Torres y Bandal,
2014).
FUTURE ERA:
At present, as already mentioned above,
most of the world's energy consumption is
based on fossil fuels, but today the reserves
of fossil fuels are being limited and it
continues in the same direction, it is
estimated that within after 250 years, the
coal will be completely exhausted, while oil
and natural gas remain 60 and 80 years
respectively. However, new reserves and
technologies are being discovered and
developed, the use of other renewable
energy resources is increasing, such as wind,
geothermal, biomass and solar energy. It is
important to note that some countries such
as Norway, Brazil, New Zaland, Australia and
Switzerland generate most of their
electricity from hydroelectric energy, while
France produces the largest part of its
electrical energy from nuclear energy
(Kostic, 2015).
THE RENEWABLE
ENERGY ERA:
The exponential growth of renewable
energy technologies such as hydroelectric,
wind, solar, geothermal, bioenergy as well as
other emerging renewable energies have had
a greater boom in the last decade
(Ecomagination and the Global Energy
Transformation, 2016).
Renewable energy sources are defined as
sustainable resources that in turn are
available for a long period of time at a lower
cost and that in the same way do not have
negative effects on the environment
(Alemán-Nava, et al., 2014).
Renewable energy sources range from
traditional technologies such as wind
turbines to innovative new technologies
such as hydrogen-based internal combustion
engines and hydrogen-based fuel cells
(Balcioglu, Soyer, and El-Shimy, 2017).
Biomass-based energy used mainly to cook
and heat certain rural areas presented 9.3%
of world energy demand in 2011,
hydroelectric energy supplied about 3.7% of
 31 OCTOBER 2020

world energy demand, the rest of the
energies Renewables supplied approximately
6% of the world's energy demand and, in
turn, have caused rapid growth in various
developed and developing countries
(Alemán-Nava, et al., 2014).
per square meter (Alemán-Nava, et al.,
2014; Vargas-Hernández y Ascencio
Espinosa, 2016).
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY in Mexico occupies
ninth place 4.5% of the total energy used for
public service in the country. In Mexico the-

¡Renewable energies are not just a trend, they are

the beginning of a new era!

RENEWABLE ENERGY IN
MEXICO:
From 1982 to 2012, it was recorded that in
Mexico 70.1% of the total energy used was
based on biomass, while solar energy
registered 19.2%, geotermal, wind and
hydroelectric energy registered 4.5%, 4.0%
and 2.2 % respectively (Figure 2) however
not all technologies were previously
investigated in this period of time (Alemán-
Nava, et al., 2014).
SOLAR ENERGY is carried out through the Fig. 2. Renewable energy sources in Mexico
from 1982-2012 Alemán-Nava, et al., 2014).
use of small plates which are called
photovoltaic cells, these are mainly
composed of silicon, which is one of the re are four geothermal fields which are
most abundant elements on earth. Cerro Prieto, Los Azufres, Los Humeros and
Worldwide, Mexico ranks 27th in the Las Tres Vírgenes, these are volcanic fields
development of solar energy, however it is with fluids sheltered by volcanic rocks
among one of the five potential countries to (Hiriart y Gutiérrez-Negrı́n, 2003; Alemán-
invest in the PV system, this is because in Nava, et al., 2014; Flores-Armenta y
Mexico solar radiation is higher than 5kWh Gutiérrez-Negrín, 2011).
 31 OCTOBER 2020
WIND ENERGY is a renewable energy, it is a
profitable solution for the generation of
electricity, since it can achieve a decrease in
negative environmental impacts such as
greenhouse gas emissions, the advantages of
this energy is that it doesn´t produced
emission of carbon dioxide, as well as, no
hazardous waste is produced. Wind energy
in Mexico ranks 34 with 4.0% of the total
energy used (Ayee, Lowe y Gereffi, 2009;
Alemán-Nava, et al., 2014).
Fig. 3. Infrastructure of a farm wind (Ayee,
Lowe y Gereffi, 2009).
HYDROPOWER is one of the renewable
energies that offers a significant reduction in
carbon emissions, this energy is carried out
thanks to the fact that the water energy
moves from higher to lower altitudes, it re-
quires a costly initial investment, however it
has a very long useful life and relatively low
maintenance costs, hydroelectric energy
contributes only 2.2% of the total energy
developed in Mexico (Kumar, 2011; Alemán-
Nava, et al., 2014).
BIOMASS is all kinds of organic matter, this
ranges from firewood to vegetables, it can
be converted into energy through various
conversion processes and it can be used in
thermal and/or electrical energy, in Mexico
this energy covers 70.1% of use, being with
this, of all renewable energies, the one with
the greatest development, occupying the
position number 20 worldwide (Khan, 2015;
Alemán-Nava, et al., 2014).
CONCLUSION
Over the years, energy consumption has
been in constant change, all this as new
sources of energy were discovered and
developed, thereby allowing a significant
change in the use of energy, wood was the
main source of energy, from our ancestors
until the end of the XIX century, after that,
oil and natural gas had a significant
development. However, the traditional
energies of fossil fuels such as oil, natural
gas and coal cause various damages to the
environment, which is why new techniques
and energy sources are being innovated,
which do not cause damage to the
environment and do not produce gases of
greenhouse effect, these energies are
classified as renewable energies.
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