Renewable Resources Flashcards
What is Renewable Resources?
Natural resources that can be replenished in a short period of time.
What examples are renewable resources?
Solar
Wind
Water
Geothermal
Biomass
What is Solar Energy?
Energy from the sun.
Inexhaustible and nonpolluting
Ultimate origin of most forms of utilized energy
But has a chief drawback = diffuse and intermittent
What are the two types of solar energy use?
Hot water and space heating
Electricity generation
What are the processes of electricity generation?
Convert solar energy into thermal energy and then generate electricity
EX: Parabolic troughs
Photovoltaic (PV) cells
Convert solar energy directly into electrical energy
What is Geothermal?
Energy from Earth’s heat.
How is Geothermal energy generated?
By harnessing naturally occurring steam or hot water produced by water contact with heated rocks in the earth’s crust
Where is geothermal energy usually available?
At magmas that are near the surface.
EX: recent volcanic activity above subduction zones
What is geothermal energy used for?
Electricity generation, heating, and cooling.
What is wind energy?
Energy from the wind.
What can windmills do?
Turn turbines directly, do not use any fuel, can e built rather quickly
What does wind power need in order to operate?
strong steady winds
what are the advantages of wind power?
Does not pollute air or water
Does not deplete scarce natural resources
what is the technological advances in design for wind power?
Lowered cost of electricity generation
What are the disadvantages of wind power?
Unreliable and intermittent because energy can’t be easily stored.
Wind power is most plentiful in isolated areas but needs to build new transmission line to move stored energy.
Aesthetic become bad
Bad for birb
What is Biomass?
Energy from burning organic or living matter
What are Biomass fuels made up of?
Organic materials produced by plants, animals, or microorganisms that can be burned directly as a heat source or converted into a liquid/gas
Is Biomass fuels the most common renewable source of energy?
Yes
What are the major sources of biomass?
Trees, grain, sugar crops, and oil-bearing plants
waste (crop residues, animal wastes, garbage, and human sewage)
What is the source of most biomass energy?
Wood
What is wood used for as the key source of energy in Biomass fuels?
Spaces heating
cooking
water heating
lighting
What happen if we keep on depending on wood?
Forest go byebye
What is Ethanol?
Alcohol produced from plants
What are the disadvantages of corn over sugarcane?
Corn require high maintenance of good land, fertilizer, and control of pest.
Sugarcane can grow on marginal soils
corn requires a lot ofland
sugarcane is more energy efficient
sugar cheap
corn overrun soil and wildlife conservation
corn make food expensive if convert to fuel
