engery sources Flashcards
Natural Resource
.materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain.
Renewable Resource
.can be used repeatedly and replaced naturally. Examples include oxygen, fresh water, solar energy, timber, and biomass.
Nonrenewable Resource
. Most fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal are considered nonrenewable resources in that their use is not sustainable because their formation takes billions of years.
Recycling
.convert (waste) into reusable material.
Fossil Fuel
. a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years.
Petroleum
.Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth’s surface. It is commonly refined into various types of fuels.
Natural Gas
.naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium.
Coal
. flammable black hard rock used as a solid fossil fuel.
Acid Precipitation
. including rain, snow, hail, fog, or dew, that is high in acid pollutants, especially sulfuric and nitric acid.
Smog
.fog or haze combined with smoke and other atmospheric pollutants.
Nuclear Energy
.Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant.
Chemical Energy
.Chemical energy may be released during a chemical reaction, often in the form of heat; such reactions are called exothermic.
Solar Energy
.is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal
Wind Power
.Wind power, as an alternative to burning fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, consumes no water, and uses little land.
Hydroelectric Energy
.Flowing water creates energy that can be captured and turned into electricity.
