Studied by 0 people
What are the fossil fuels?
Coal
Natural gas
Crude oil
What are fossil fuels made up of?
Formed from remains of plants and animals
Chemical energy stored in fossil fuels from sunlight
Energy from sun transferred to chemical energy stores vis photosynthesis
Animals ate plants and energy transferred to their chemical store
What are the advantages of fossil fuels?
Readily available on daily basis
Reliable for large scale energy production
Efficient - high energy
What are the disadvantages of fossil fuels?
Non-renewable
Prices increase as demand increases but supply is decreasing
Produced harmful gases: CO2, sulfur dioxide - greenhouse effect, acid rain respectively
Oil spills can occur during transport, damage environment
Prices fluctuate rapidly
Supplies can be affected by conflict and political disagreements
What are uses of fossil fuels?
Transport
Generating electricity
Heating
What are majority of vehicles in world powered by?
Petrol, diesel, kerosene
What is an advantage and disadvantage of electric vehicles?
Advantage: produces zero carbon emissions
Disadvantage: when vehicle is charged, connected to national grid, which uses non-renewable and renewable energy sources
Why is the energy demand increasing?
Higher demand for food leads to more intensive farming, requiring more energy for machines, light, heat
Increasing industry requires energy for heating, lighting, machinery
More transport needs more energy
Urbanisation increases with development = more domestic appliances
Increased wealth = buying more appliances, requiring energy
What are the renewable energy sources?
Solar
Biomass
Hydropower
Wind
Wave and tidal
Geothermal
How do solar cells work?
Energy from sun falls on earth is transferred by radiation
Visible light and IR converted to electricity
What are solar PV cells?
Transfer energy from sunlight to produce current and generate electricity
Energy can be stored in batteries for later use
What are solar PV cells made out of?
Semiconducting materials
What are the advantages of solar PV cells?
Renewable
Reliable in sunny countries
No greenhouse gases/pollution
Useful in remote places
Small/large scale
What are disadvantages of solar PV cells?
Need to be large scale to produce large amounts of electricity, expensive to set up
Uses large areas of land
Visual pollution
Unreliable (not enough sunshine)
Describe solar thermal panels
Transfer energy from sunlight to the thermal store of the solar panels which is used to heat water in pipes
What are advantages of solar thermal panels?
Renewable
Reliable
No greenhouse gases/pollution
Can cut cost of energy bills for households
What are the disadvantages of solar thermal panels?
Additional energy is still needed to heat water to a higher temperature in domestic households
Not reliable as sun doesn’t shine regularly
What are biofuels?
Renewable fuels from organic materials (plants/animal waste)
What is a difference between biofuels and fossil fuels in terms of energy density?
Biofuels are less energy dense
What are the advantages of biofuels?
Renewable
Some vehicles can be powered with this
Carbon-neutral
No sulfur dioxide produced
What are the disadvantages of biofuels?
Crops must be grown that take a long time
Growing crops takes lots of land and takes resources needed for food productions
Buring biofuels releases CO2 into atmosphere
What is hydropower?
When water stored above ground level has GPE and energy can be transferred to KE
Flowing water turns turbine to generate electricity
What are the advantages of hydropower?
Can respond to demand quickly so is reliable and available
Can generate large scale amounts of electricity in a short period of time
Often in sparsely populated areas
What are the disadvantages of hydropower?
Expensive to build and maintain
Creating reservoirs sometimes results in need to flood valleys, which destroys habitats, towns, villages
Pumping systems release large amounts of greenhouse gases
Dam traps sediment which can affect ecosystems downstream
Visual pollution
Prevents fish movement and migration upstream
What is wind power?
Renewable source that uses wind to generate electricity, rotating blades transfer KE to generator, which converts it to electrical energy
What are the advantages of wind power?
Renewable, sustainable
No GHGs
Reduces dependence of fossil fuels
Creates jobs in manufacturing
Small/large scale
On land/offshore
Cheap to run
What are the disadvantages of wind power?
Wind not constant so availability fluctuates
Electricity generation depends on wind speed and consistency
Visually intrusive
Wind farms requires large areas of land
Birds may collide with turbines, impacting on local wildlife populations
What is wave and tidal power?
The rise and fall of wave/tide can turn turbine and generate electricity
What are the advantages of wave and tidal power?
No pollution
Reliable and can produce a large amount of electricity
Renewable
Useful for small islands
What are the disadvantages of wave power?
Expensive to build and maintain
Damages fragile habitats
Very few suitable locations
Technology not advances yet for large scale production
What is geothermal energy?
Caused by heat that is generated from within the Earth. water into steam, which turns turbine and generates electricity (for homes)
What are the advantages of geothermal energy?
Renewable
Reliable source of energy
Geothermal power stations are small compared to nuclear/fossil fuel power stations
What are the disadvantages of geothermal power?
Few locations suitable so small scale only
Can result in release of GHGs underground
Expensive to build and maintain
What is nuclear energy?
Energy stored in the nucleus can be released when nucleus splits - fission. Produces steam to turn turbines to generate electricity
What are the advantages of nuclear energy?
No pollution into atmosphere
Nuclear reactors are safe
Can generate electricity on large scale
Small amounts of uranium needed
Reduces reliance on fossil fuels
Increases energy security
What are the disadvantages of nuclear energy?
Uranium is finite
Produce radioactive waste - stored for thousands of years
Safe ways of storing radioactive waste expensive
If accident occurs, radioactive waste can leak out and spread
