The most important challenges for engineering

In the 21st century , issues related to energy conservation is the main concern of every developed and developing countries. One of the main concerns is the use of fossil fuels . Besides fossil fuels , nuclear energy, hydro energy and solar energy are used as alternative sources of energy. Why is fossil fuels so important? Fossil fuels are largely used in the industry of aerospace, automobile and heavy industry. This is because fossil fuels are cheap , convenient to store, and easy to obtain.

Now, the great challenges are how do we deal with the decreasing of fossil fuels. It is estimated that fossil fuels will be used up in 50 years time. To minimize the use of fossil fuels and to obtain energy once fossil fuels is completely used up, engineers have think of alternative ways to solve it. Currently the use of solar energy is not ideal due to the high cost of materials and maintenance. In addition there is also limited energy to be stored since solar panel is only able to store energy during day time. This is the reason why the use of solar energy is not suitable to those country situated in the polar region. It will be great if we are able to think of ways to improve the efficiency of solar panel and use it as an energy storage. Using solar energy is environmental friendly unlike fossil fuel . We can directly obtain energy from sunlight without producing any waste product. However fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide that will lead to global warming. This will create a major concern to deal with global warming too.

In conclusion , to find alternative ways to replace fossil fuel is not an easy task . A lot of obstacles have to be tackled before it can be done. For example , political issues, safety and cost. All this issue create a great challenge for engineers.