Energy Sources and Power Stations Flashcards
How many types of energy resources are there?
12.
What are these energy resources put into?
Two broad types.
Renewable and non-renewable.
What are the non-renewable resources?
3 fossil fuels and nuclear.
Name the 4 non-renewable resources.
Coal.
Oil.
Natural gas.
Nuclear fuels.
Give examples of nuclear fuels.
Uranium.
Plutonium.
Describe non-renewable resources.
All run out one day.
All damage the environment.
Provide most of our energy.
Name the 8 renewable energy resources.
Wind. Waves. Tides. Hydroelectric. Solar. Geothermal. Food. Biofuels.
Describe renewable energy resources.
Never run out.
Do damage the environment, less nasty way.
Don’t provide much energy and are unreliable as they depend on weather.
Energy sources can be burned to do what?
Drive turbines in power stations.
What is most of the energy we use?
Generated from the 4 non-renewable sources of energy in big power stations, which are all pretty much the same apart from the boiler.
Name the process that happens in a nuclear reactor.
The fossil fuel is burned to convert its stored chemical energy into heat energy.
The heat energy is used to heat water to produce steam.
The steam turns a turbine converting heat energy into kinetic energy.
The turbine is connected to an electrical generator, which transfers kinetic energy into electrical energy.
Name the basic features of a typical power station.
Fuel. Boiler. Turbine. Generator. Grid.
Name the energy processes in order that happen in a typical power station.
Chemical energy.
Heat energy.
Kinetic energy.
Electrical energy.
What is a nuclear power station?
Mostly the same as a nuclear reactor, but with nuclear fission of uranium or plutonium producing heat to make steam to drive turbines.
What is the longest and shortest start up times for power stations?
Nuclear power stations take the longest time of all the power stations to start up.
Natural gas power stations take the shortest time of all the fossil fuel power stations.
