Consuming energy resources

ok we pop out at 1 in the morning (quite literally KILL ME)

Why is demand for energy increasing?

• Wealthier

• More trade/transport

• More industry factories

Example of recyclable energy

Reprocessed uranium for nuclear power + biofuel

Explain why different resources are used in different places

• As there is a lot of wind, wind energy is used in California, 16000 large turbine. provided 6.9% of total energy requirements

• Organic matter used in biogas plants in rural villages as large amount from farming, used for enrgy

Solar - key info

• SEGS solar farm- 354mw

• 2014, global total 178,391

• Top leading producers: Germany, China,Italy

• US has largest solar power plants in Mojare desert

Adv of solar

• Creates thousands of jobs around world

• Requires little maintenance once panels installed and running at maximum efficiency

• No noise

Dis of solar

• Large solar farms can used up land taht cpuld be used for crops - thoigh can often be used for grazing

• Manfacturing photrailic plants can be harmful to environment from silicon + toxic metals like mercury, lead, cadmium

• Desert habitats fragile and easily damaged during farm construction

Wind - key points

• 16.5% rise in wind generating capacity in 2014 - 3% of global energy production in 2014

• 3% of global energy production

• China leading producer - 115GW per year

• Become more powerful + cheap

Adv of wind

• Clean fuel source

• Large offshore wind farms can create generating capacity of hundreds of megawatts of energy

• Onshore wind one of cheapest renewable energy sources for consumer

HEP key points

• 20% of world’s energy supply

• Countries like Norway produce almost all energy from HEP

HEP adv

• Reliable + consistent energy source w/ v few fluctuations

• Power plant production can easily be altered with changing consumption patterns

• Building of dams + resevoirs help conserve water supplies

Dis of HEP

• power plants expensive to build + can be see to ruin landscape

• displacement of farmland and villages to make room for dams to be built

• power plants can cause change in river flow - impact on fish + other wildlife

Hydrogen

Future tech - costs higher than benefits

Adv of hydrogen

• clean

• made from water - no fuel reserves

• located in a few countries and ecologically sensitive areas

• efficient - couldd be big part of a country’s energy mix

Adv of biofuels

• burning produces less carbon emissions + toxins compared with fossil fuels

• growing demand could see this being a cheapter option than biofuels

• manufactured from crop waste, manure, + other wate products reusing materials otherwise wasted

Dis of biofuels

• Need lots of water to grow biofuel crops which could compete with other uses like farming + homes

• increased demand means increased comp for land, sometimes at expense of growing food crops

• increased deforestation

Open cast mining

• China’s industrialisation has led to a rapid increase in energy demand

• Coal is its biggest energy resource, providing 70% of China’s energy

• instead of drilling underground mines

• Eg Shengli Coalfield

• concerns of scars on landscape and lose bils of tonnes of water to extract coal

Drilling for oil at sea

• BP’s Deepwater horizon oil rig exploded and sunk in gulf of mexico causing deaths and coated ocean surface, killing marine + bird life

• tried to control using floating booms, controlled burning and oil dispersant chemicals.

• Dead baby dolphins

• fined $13bil over US’s clean water law

HEP dev and deforestation

• Belo Monte Dam largest HEP dam

• in Para, Brazil

• 43% of energy from renewable energy resources in Brazil and HEP produces 85% of all electricity used

• Flood 400km² of Amazon, causing loss of vegetation, harm to animals and change in fish migration routes

How is access to energy resources is affected by geology?

• Fossil fuels found in sedimentary

• Countries in Middle have 48% of world’s oil and 43% of gas reserves

• Coal - major reserves in USA, Russia + China

• Geothermal energy for countries in plate boundaries like New Zealand + Iceland

How is access to energy resources is affected by relief and climate?

• high rainfall + suitable relief good locations for HEP - e.g: the Three Gorges Dam in China

• Exposed areas generate huge amounts of wind (Northern Scotland)

• long + instense sunlight good for solar parks

• China building huge solar power in Gobi desert, could produce enough energy for 100mil homes

How is access to energy resources affected by accessibility and development?

• part of sub saharan africa have large oil + gas reserves but largely exported - potential to help renewable ergy sources but lack investment

• remote areas expensive to exploit

• 620mil don’t have access to electricity grid

Energy use changes with economic change and technology.

Example: In 1970, industry in the UK used 40% of energy and homes used 24%. By 2013, industrial use declined to 21% and energy use in homes increased to 27%, with a growing population, better heating and more technology. However in India, there is an increase in industrial energy consumption

Oil

• non renewable

• for heating, powering, machinery, transport

• reserves - quantities of oil already discoered, recoverable + commercial

How is oil made?

remains of organism build up as layers, resulting pressure turning it into sedimentary rock - oil shales

What is OPEC

• International organisation for countries with oil

• meet monthly and regulate pricings as a cartel of oil

• Controls amount of extraction

Why do oil prices fluctutae?

• OPEC control pricings

• Supply and demand - low supply means high demand so high prices

• War such as in Iraq can means less is extracted so higher prices

Global energy supply

• Saudi Arabia, USA and Russia produce most oil. Around 66% of oil reserves from Saudi Arabia. As tech improves new supplies found and accessed more easily. Huge, barely touched reserves in South America, Africa + Arctic

• USA, Russia, + China have largest coal reserves. Around 70 countries have them + can last 112 yrs

• Russia, Iran, Quatar have highest natural gas reserves. Around 40% natural gas from North Sea in UK although production has decreased as profits have fallen. Globally, there is enough natural gas to last for around 50 years.

• Aus, Kazakh, + Russia have largest uranium reserves. Expected to last aother 90 years

fossil fuel supply

decreasing, still searching for new reserves

tar sands

• occur naturally

• mix of sand, clay, water, v sticky form of petroleum called bitumen

• Bitumen extracted by injecting hot steam underground, making sand less sticky

• Adv - Energy, employment

• Dis - climate change, deforestation, loss of habitats, harm for water supply

shale gas

• natural gas trapped underground in shale rock

• shale impermeable so any gas inside cant be reached or pumped out w/ conventional virtical drilling

• fracking used

What is fracking?

• Drilling down underground injecting shale rock with high pressure mixture of water, chemicals + sand to release gas

• large amounts of water, raising concerns about water scarcity and contamination. 

• The chemicals in the fracking fluid can potentially pollute groundwater. 

• Fracking has been linked to small earthquakes in some areas. 

• The process can also cause air pollution due to emissions. 

Arctic

• Largely unexplored natural resources

• believed to be oil + gas rich

• ecologically sensitive area - unique wildlife habitats

• oil + gas companies know there’s up to 25% of world’s remaining oil and gas

• Several countries lay claim to arctic - companies have damaged parts of Alaska + Siberia

• Exxon valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989 devestated wild life + local ecology

• Gazprom - $4bil spent to dev tech to search for oil and gas beneath the sea in region that could hold 6.6mil tonnes of oil. Cold, fragile, remote - challenging. Opps from green peace

• Exploring remote places - huge revenue help drill in areas before thought too expensive. Drill tech, seismic imaging, liquefaction of natural gas easy to transport

• The Ichthys LNG project - 220km off coast of North-Western Australia, one of the biggest off shore gas fields, below 260meters of water. It produces 10million tonnes of liquefied natural gas / day to meet demand in Asia. 900 jobs were created in pipeline construction

Explain why companies have invested heavily in extracting oil from difficult

environments like the Athabasca tar sands (4 marks).

• estimated 180billion barrels of Bitumen here which can be refined into petroleum.

• expensive process but dwindling oil supplies elsewhere, the rising cost of oil and the development of new tech made it worthwhile.

• However, its exploitation has led to concern about a number of serious environmental impacts.

How SUSTAINABLE is London’s transport network?

• green buses - diesel-electric, half co2 of diesel buses

• ulez - daily charge for high polluting cars

• lime bikes + cycle lanes

Ford edge - hydrogen fuel

• found in combination of elements like carbon (oil, natural gas) or oxygen

• once separated can be just as powerful as oil but no harmful emissions - only water

• CaH2Net – the first hydrogen highway