POTENTIAL ENERGY SOLUTIONS FOR BETTER SUSTAINABILITY 1.1 Ibrahim Dincer 1, 2 , Canan Acar 3 UOIT, Oshawa, ON, Canada 1 ; YTU, Istanbul, Turkey 2 ; Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey 3 1. INTRODUCTION With increasing population and rising standards of living, global energy demand is rising significantly [1]. Currently, most demand is met by fossil fuel supplies, which are geographically restricted. As these sources have limited supplies, they are not expected to keep up with the increasing demand for a long time. At the same time, rising fossil energy consumption results in high levels of air pollution in rapidly growing megacities and contributes to global warming, with potentially large economic and environmental costs [2,3]. Making the most of energy sources is extremely important as energy has been an important part of our daily lives, especially since the Industrial Revolution. And due to increasing issues related to fossil fuel utilization, it is essential to develop reliable, affordable, and clean energy systems. There are various alternative energy resources, for example, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind, that are referred to as renewables since their reserves are restored more rapidly compared to their consumption rate [4]. Finding different resources is one way to address the increasing global energy demand. However, these resources should be handled more efficiently in order to get more outputs from the same amount of energy consumption. In the long term, scientific and technical developments might allow substi- tution of traditional fuels with new fuels and clean energy systems. For this to happen, the new resource or alternative energy system must perform at least as efficiently as the traditional ones. It is also expected for alternative and clean energy systems to have fewer negative environmental effects, for example, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and health-and-safety risks [5]. Past energy transitions show a trend toward cheaper, cleaner, more abundant, and more reliable new fuels, as well as the replacement of old energy-conversion technologies with new ones. For more than 200 years, societies have switched from wood, dung, and charcoal to diversified modern systems consisting of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas and low-carbon technologies like hydroelec- tricity, nuclear, and renewables [6]. This is a long-term trend toward less pollution and fewer carbon emissions. However, replacing one energy source with another type might require developing a new tech- nology and changing the energy structure entirely or partially. This might also involve changing the CHAPTER Exergetic, Energetic and Environmental Dimensions. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813734-5.00001-9 Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 3