APES UNIT 6

coal

solid, combustible mixture of organic compounds with 30 to 98% carbon by weight, mixed with various amounts of water and small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen compounds.

crude oil (petroleum)

gooey liquid consisting mostly of hydrocarbon compounds and small amounts of compounds containing oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen.

energy efficiency

use of less energy to perform the same task or produce the same result

hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

produces fractures in the rock formation that stimulate the flow of natural gas or oil, increasing the volumes that can be recovered

natural gas

Underground deposits of gases consisting of 50 to 90% by weight methane gas and small amounts of heavier gaseous hydrocarbon compounds such as propane and butane

net energy

Total amount of useful energy available from an energy resource or energy system over its lifetime, minus the amount of energy used (the first energy law), automatically wasted (the second energy law), and unnecessarily wasted in finding, processing, concentrating, and transporting it to users.

nuclear fission

The process by which nuclei of certain isotopes with large mass numbers (such as uranium-235) are split apart into lighter nuclei when struck by a neutron and release energy.

oil sands (tar sands)

Deposit of a mixture of clay, sand, water, and varying amounts of a tarlike heavy oil known as bitumen. Bitumen can be extracted from tar sand by heating. It is then purified and upgraded to synthetic crude oil.

active solar heating system

A system that uses solar collectors to capture heat energy from the sun and stores it as heat for space heating and water heating.

cogeneration

production of two useful forms of energy, such as high-temperature heat or steam and electricity, from the same fuel source.

feed-in-tariff

Requires utilities to buy electricity produced by homeowners and businesses from renewable energy sources at a guaranteed price.

full-cost pricing

Finding ways to include in the market prices of goods the harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using those goods.

geothermal energy

Heat transferred from the earth’s underground concentrations of dry steam (steam with no water droplets), wet steam (a mixture or steam and water droplets), or hot water trapped in fractured or porous rock.

hydrogen fuel cell

A device that combines hydrogen gas with oxygen gas to produce electricity and water vapor that is emitted to the atmosphere.

hydropower

electrical energy produced by falling or flowing water.

passive solar heating system

A system that, without the use of mechanical devices, captures sunlight directly within a structure and uses it to heat the structure.

photovoltaic cells

Device that converts solar energy directly into electrical energy

albedo

A measure of the reflectivity of sunlight by a surface such as ice and snow (high reflectivity because of its optical brightness, or whiteness), soil and desert (medium reflectivity), and ocean water (low reflectivity).

ocean acidification

reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere