Energy Resources

• Non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and nuclear fuel. Fossil fuels form naturally underground over millions of years - coal, oil, gas. They’re typically burnt to provide energy.
• Renewable energy resources are solar, wind, water waves, hydroelectric power, biofuel, geothermal and tides. These never run out. Most do damage to the environment but less than non-renewable. They don’t provide much energy and some are unreliable.
• Non-renewable e.gs: petrol, diesel cars, coal steam trains, natural gas in radiators, coal fireplaces
• Renewable e.gs: biofuel powered vehicles, geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, burning biofuel for heat

Wind power:

No pollution, very noisy, initially expensive but no fuel costs, no permanent damage to landscape, unreliable (if it’s not windy), visual pollution

Solar cells:

Used in calculators and watches. No pollution, reliable in sunny countries, small scale, only work in the day, initially expensive but no running costs.

Geothermal:

Reliable, very little damage to environment, aren’t many suitable locations for power plants, expensive to build power plants.

Hydroelectric power:

No pollution, floods valley (rotting vegetation, releases methane and co2, loss of habitats), reservoirs look unsightly, provides immediate response to electricity demand, reliable apart from drought, initially expensive but no running costs, small scale

Wave power:

No pollution, disturbs seabed and marine life, spoils view, hazard to boats, fairly unreliable, initially expensive but no fuel costs.

Tide power:

No pollution, preventing free access to boats, spoils view, alters habitats of wildlife, tides are reliable, height of the tide varies (amount of energy), initially expensive but no fuel costs

Biofuels:

Carbon neutral, reliable, can’t immediately respond to energy demands, very expensive to refine, uses up space and water for crops for food, causes deforestation.

Non-renewables:

Contribute to global warming, release sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain, coal mining messes up the landscape, oil spillages, nuclear waste is dangerous and hard to dispose, nuclear power is expensive, nuclear stations carry the risk of a major catastrophe e.g. chernobyl

Trends in energy resource use:

• UK electricity use hugely increased over 20th century
• Slowly decreasing in 21st century as appliances are becoming more efficient
• Trying to increase use of renewable energy resources.
• People want to use renewables because they are better overall, but their use is limited by reliability, money and politics