Research Jour nal of Envi ronmental and Earth Sci ences 2(2) : 55-75, 2010 ISSN: 2041-0492 © M axwell Sci entif ic Organi zati on, 2010 Submitte d Date: October 19, 2009 Accepted Date: November 12, 2009 Publishe d Date: Apri l 20, 2010 55 Sustainable Energy Development and Environment A.M. Om er 17 Ju ni pe r C our t, For es t Roa d Wes t, Not ti ngh am NG 7 4 EU, UK Abs tract: The increa sed avail abili ty of r elia ble and ef fici ent ener gy servi ces sti mulates ne w development alternati ves. This art icle discuss es the pot entia l for such int egrate d systems i n the st ationa ry and port able power market in response to the cr iti cal need f or a cl eaner ener gy technol ogy. Antici pated pat terns of fut ure energy use and consequent environment al i mpacts (ac id prec ipit ation, ozone deplet ion and t Res. J. Environ. Earth Sci ., 2( 2): 55-75, 2010 56 effl uent gas emissi ons and global warming. Ach iev ing solut ions to envi ronmental pr ob lems that we face today requir es lon g-te rm po tential ac tions fo r sustain able dev elopm ent. In thi s regar ds, re newable energy r esources appear to be the one of the most efficient and eff ec tive solut ions since t he int imate r elat ionshi p between renew able ene rg y an d su st ai nab le dev el opme nt. Mo re rati onal use o f energ y is an impo rtant brid ge to h elp trans iti on from to day ’s fossil fuel d ominated worl d to a worl d p owered by non-poll uting f uels and adva nced technol ogies such as Phot ovoltai c (PV) and Fuel Cel Res. J. Environ. Earth Sci ., 2( 2): 55-75, 2010 57 Fig. 1: Annual and est imated wor l d population and energ y demand, Million of barrels per day of oil equivalent (MBDOE) Fig. 2: Wo rld oil pro ductions i n the next 1 0-20 years Fig. 3: Volume of oil discovered worldwide r esources and degradi ng the envi ronment t hroug h pollut ing emissi ons, oi l spi lls and toxi c by- prod ucts. A one -kilow att PV system prod ucing 150 kW h eac h mo nth prev ents 75 kg of fossi l fuel from bei ng mined. 150 kg of CO 2 fr om e n teri ng the at mosphere and keeps 473 l of wa te r from bei ng consumed. Elect rici ty fr om fuel cel l s can be used in t he same way as gri d power: to run applia nces and li ght bulbs and eve n to power cars si nce each gall on of gasol ine produc ed and used in a Res. J. Environ. Earth Sci ., 2( 2): 55-75, 2010 58 The equipment and infrastructur e for energy su p ply and use are des igned wit h long l ifet imes, and the prem atu re turnover of capi tal stock i nvolves si gnifi cant costs. Economic benefi ts occur if ca pital stock i s repl aced with more eff icie n t e quipment i n step wit h its normal replac ement cycle . Likew is e, if opportuni ties to reduc e future emissi ons are t aken in a time ly ma nne r, they sh ould be less cost ly. Such a fle xible approach would al low socie ty to take acco unt of e volving s cient ifi c and t echnologi cal knowledge, whil e gaini ng experi ence i n designi ng policies t o address climate change (Bos et al ., Res. J. Environ. Earth Sci ., 2( 2): 55-75, 2010 59 requirements. Ho wever, because renewable ener gy sources are stoc hastic a nd g eog raph ic ally diffuse , their ability to match de mand is det ermined by adopt ion of one of the fol lowing two approaches ( Parikn et al ., 1999) ; the util isat ion of a capt ure area great er tha n that occupied by the comm unity to be sup plied, or the reduction o f t he comm unity’s ene rg y de mand s t o a l eve l c omm ensu rate with the locally avai lable renewable resources. Energy and popul ati on growth: Urban areas t hroughout t he world have i ncreased i n size dur ing rec ent de cades . About 50% of the wo rld’s pop ulation and a ppro xima tely 7.6 % in more de veloped countries are urb