Chapter P3- Energy rescources Flashcards
What are the nine types of most common energy resources?
Solar, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, biofuel, hydroelectric, fossil fuels and nuclear.
What are the following energy resources:
Wind Power
Solar Cells
Geothermal Power
Hydro-electric
Wave Power
Tidal
Bio Fuels
Non renewables (eg fossil fuels and nuclear energy)
This involves putting lots of wind turbines in exposed places like on moors or round coasts. Each turbine has a generator inside it- the rotating blades turn the generator and produce electricity.
Solar cells generate electric currents directly from sunlight- often used in small electrical items (calculators or watches eg) and in remote places where there’s not much choice.
Geothermal is possible in volcanic areas or where hot rocks lie near to the surface. The source of the energy is the slow decay of various radioactive elements, including uranium, deep inside the Earth
Hydroelectric usually requires the flooding of a valley by building a big dam. Water is allowed out through turbines.
You need lots of small wave powered turbines located around the coast. The moving turbines are connected to a generator (like wind power)
Tidal barrages are big dams built across river estuaries, with turbines in them. As the tide comes in it fills up the estuary. The water is then allowed out through turbines at controlled speed. Tides are produced by the gravitational force of the Sun and moon.
Biofuels are renewable energy resources created from either plant produces or animal dung. They can be solid, liquid or gas and can be burnt to produce electricity or run cars in the same way as fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels and nuclear energy are reliable. There’s enough fossil and nuclear fuels to meet the current demand, and they are extracted from the Earth at a fast rate enough that power plants always have fuel in stock, meaning that the power plants can respond quickly to changes in demand.
What are the advantages of the following energy resources:
Wind power
Solar Cells
Geothermal Power
Hydroelectric
Wave Power
Tidal Barrages
Biofuels
Non renewables
There’s no pollution. There’s no permanent damage to the landscape.
There’s no pollution (although they do use quite a lot of energy to manufacture in the first place). In sunny countries very reliable source of energy but only in the daytime.
Brilliant free energy that’s reliable and does very little damage to the environment. Can be used to generate electricity or to heat buildings directly.
It can provide an immediate response to an increased demand for electricity. Can be useful to generate electricity on a small scale in remote areas.
There’s no pollution. Can be very useful on small islands.
There’s no pollution. Pretty reliable in the sense that they happen twice a day without fail and always near to the predicted height. Tidal power has the potential for generating a significant amount of energy.
They are supposedly carbon neutral. They are fairly reliable as crops take a relatively short time to grow and different crops can be grown all year round.
They are reliable. The running costs aren’t that expensive. Combined with fairly low fuel extraction costs, using fossil fuels is a cost effective way to produce energy.
What are the disadvantages for the following energy resources:
Wind power
Solar Cells
Geothermal Power
Hydroelectric
Wave Power
Tidal Barrages
Biofuels
Non renewables
They do spoil the view. 1500 wind turbines to replace one coal fired power station. They can be very noisy. Also problem of the turbines stopping when the wind stops or if the wind is too strong, and it’s impossible to increase supply when there’s extra demand.
You can’t increase the power output when there’s extra demand.
There aren’t very many suitable locations for power plants, and that the cost of building a power plant is often high compared to the amount of energy it produces.
Big impact on the environment due to the flooding of the valley (rotting vegetation releases methane and CO2) and possible loss of habitat for some species (sometimes the loss of whole villages). The reservoirs look very unsightly when they dry up.
Disturbing the seabed and the habitats of marine animals, spoiling the view and being a hazard to boats
Fairly unreliable, as waves tend to die out when the wind drops
Prevents free access by boats, spoiling the view and altering the habitat of the wildlife (eg who live in the sand).
Can’t respond to immediate energy demands. Cost to refine bio fuels is very high and in some regions large areas of forest have been cleared to make room to grow bio-fuels.
These fuels are slowly running out. If no new resource are found, some fossil fuels stocks may run out within a hundred years. They also create environmental problems (eg releasing CO2 gases and sulphur dioxide into the environment and damaging landscapes and affecting biodiversity).
What are the three characteristics of non renewable energy resources?
What are the three characteristics of renewable energy resources?
- They will all run out one day
- They all do damage to the environment.
- But they provide most of our energy
- These will never run out- the energy can be renewed as it is used
- Most of them do damage to the environment, but in less nasty ways than non-renewables
- The trouble is they don’t provide much energy and some of them are unreliable because they depend on the weather.
