Bio-fuels are made from Plants and Waste

• Bio-fuels are renewable energy resources created from either plant products or animal dung. They can be solid, liquid or gas and can be burnt to produce electricity or run cars in the same way as fossil fuels

• Are supposedly carbon neutral, although there is some debate about this as its only true if you are planting plants at the rate you a burning things

• Bio-fuels are fairly reliable, however they cannot respond to immediate energy demand. To combat this, they are continuously produced

• The cost to refine bio-fuels is very high and some worry that growing crops specifically for bio-fuels will mean there isn’t enough space or water for crops for food

• In some regions, large areas of forest have been cleared to make room for bio-fuels, resulting in lose of habitat and increasing methane and C02 emissions

Non-Renewables are Reliable

• Fossil fuels and nuclear energy are reliable. There’s enough to meet current demand and can respond to changes in demand.

• However, they are slowly running out.

• While the set-up costs of power plants can be quite high, the running costs aren’t.

But they create Environmental Problems

• Coal,oil and gas release CO2 into the atmosphere when they’re burnt. All this CO2 adds to the greenhouse effect, contributing to global warming

• Burning coal and oil also release sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain-which can be harmful to trees and soils

• Acid rain can reduced by taking the sulfur out before the fuel is burned or cleaning up the emissions

• Coal mining makes a mess of the landscape

• Oil spillages cause serious environmental problems, affecting mammals and birds that live in and around the sea

• Nuclear power is clean but the waste is very dangerous and difficult to dispose of and carries the risk of a major disaster