Chemical energy
Easy to store and convert into heat energy that is usually required for most applications
High energy density
Makes them very useful for many applications
Applications of fossil fuels due to high energy density
Smelting of metal ores
Electricity generation
Vehicles including cars, trains, and planes
Finite
Exploitation means that they must eventually become depleted
Available resource
Total quantity available is very large, but many deposits aren’t exploitable with current technology or economic conditions
Level of technological development
Industrial societies have developed using fossil fuels so technologies used to exploit them are similarly well-developed. This means many changes must be made to the world’s infrastructure.