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Abstract(s)
Economic growth and increasing human demands are among the most important factors for growing world energy consumption. Energy is present in everything around us: it is a property of all objects and is essential to life. We find various forms of energy in the world around us. When plants grow, for example, they are converting sunlight energy into chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates and other compounds stored in your body (e.g. sugars). The form of energy that man uses most today is the chemical
energy contained in fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas. About 80% of the energy we use comes from these sources. However, these sources are very polluting, since their use releases substances harmful to the environment and to public health. An example of this is the increased concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which is a cause of climate change. In addition to
pollutants, these sources of energy are non-renewable, which means that they are being consumed at a faster rate than is necessary for their production, so their availability is decreasing.
Due to the increasing oil and natural gas prices, reduced fuel reserves and the requirement for reduced CO2 emissions to avert climate change, the use of alternative energy sources is both financially unavoidable and environmentally preferable (UN, 2015). Hence, generating renewable energy is nowadays one of the most relevant endeavours for research. Countries worldwide now recognise the need to incorporate renewable energy resources in their energy policy as an alternative to finite fossil fuel
resources in order to achieve future energy security and to mitigate the effects of climate change induced by human activities. Today, renewable energy is now firmly entrenched as the world's fastest growing energy sector (IEA, 2017).
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Universidade do Algarve. Centro de Investigação marinha e Ambiental