7.1: Energy Resources

what source of energy supplies most of our commercial energy?

fossil fuels

86% of the world’s commercial energy comes from…

non-renewable resources

__ of non renewable energy comes from fossil fuels

82%

__ of non-renewable energy comes from nuclear energy

4%

the other 14% of energy produced comes from what kind of energy source?

renewable energy source

renewable energy sources (5)

hydro

wind

solar

biomass (wood

geothermal

US produces power with ___ coming from nuclear power and ___ coming from fossil fuels

8%

80%

what 3 countries are the largest users of energy

China

USA

Russia

3 biggest global energy consumption categories

3 smallest global energy consumption categories

Oil, Natural gas, coal

nuclear, hydroelectric, renewable

US primary energy consumption by energy source, most to least used

petroleum

natural gas

renewable energy

coal

nuclear electric power

world consumption and per capita energy consumption both grew steadily until around 1980s. why did WEC keep increasing, while per capita remained steady?

population grew too large to be able to produce energy for everyone

humans need ____ calories a day, and use _____ calories to power our machines and lifestyle

2000

600k

man’s first step to needing more calories of energy was…

use of fire, wind to sail ships, oxen to plow fields, water to turn mills

what became the renewable source of energy when steam power came about?

what was the consequence of this

firewood

burning trees faster than they could replace themselves

what replaced firewood as a source of energy for steam power

by 1885 the internals combustion engine used ______ and we completed the shift to _______

coal gasoline, heating oil

gasoline

nonrenewable fossil fuels

what energy breakthrough came about in 1950s

nuclear fission

what are the 3 criteria on how we should evaluate energy resources

amount of supply

environmental impact

how much useful (net) energy they provide

what can influence which energy source people use?

availability

price

government regulations

processes that take energy to produce energy

pumping oil, transporting to refineries, refine, transported to user

net energy

energy available to use minus energy expended to find and produce it

2nd law of thermodynamics

some high quality energy is used in each step and degraded to lower quality energy

for space heating, ___ has a high net yield. why?

oil

cheap to extract and accessible

______ has a low net energy. why?

nuclear energy

large amounts of energy needed for process

nuclear energy low net yield process factors

extract uranium and convert to nuclear fuel, highly radioactive wastes

dismantle old nuclear plants

energy put into nuclear power exceeds what will come from it

__ has a very high net yield? why?

passive solar

requires little energy input