2/21/25 - Fossil Fuels + Energy Alternatives

Fossil fuels:

• Human demand for energy drives global use of fossil fuels formed from living organisms from earlier geological eras

• More than 80% if all the energy used to power modern lifestyles comes from fossil fuels.

What are they and how important are they today?:

• Oil and gas are hydrocarbons, materials made from hydrogen and carbon molecules derived from ancient solar energy-capturing photosynthesis

• Fossil fuels began forming over 100 million ago

• Coal is another carbon based fossil fuel created from ancient tropical swamps that were buried and subjected to millions of years of high pressure

• Conventional reserves: easily obtained deposits of fossil fuels

• Unconventional reserves: difficult to extract deposits

• All reserves are nonrenewable resources

Power and Productivity:

• New energy technologies expanded human access to power, the rate at which work is done

• Productivity is the amount of inputs required to attain a certain level of output

What drove the rise of fossil fuels?:

• Coal, oil, and gas were once alternative energy sources that replaced firewood

• After coal became the main heating fuel in England in the early 1600s, it took 300 years for it to surpass wood

• When oil was commercialized in the 1850s, it took 100 years to bypass coal

• From the 1930s to 2015, coal was the top energy source for electricity until it was surpassed by natural gas

Economic forces and the rise of fossil fuels:

• James Watt’s invention of the steam engine could power water pumps and conveyors to bring coal from the deeper depths more efficiently

• Technological advances can make resources more available and expand proven reserves

• The total amount of fossil fuels remains fixed and is depleted with use over time

• Up front costs are associated with new energy technologies that may limit initial adoption rates

Government action and the rise of fossil fuels:

• Governments played a powerful role in spurring adoption of fossil fuels

• Governments can regulate competing energy sources and technologies and support their development through tax structures

• Governments can also provide public goods that cannot be profitable produced because it is difficult to exclude nonpaying customers

• Government funding for energy research is another public good

What are the environmental impacts of obtaining and using them?:

• Coal was the first fossil fuel to be widely used and is still the most abundant

• Coal is the 2nd largest source of electricity in the US

• Coal is extracted from underground surface mines

• Some regions use mountaintop removal that strips off entire mountaintops to scoop out underlying coal, followed by deposition of waste in adjacent valleys

• Water that drains from coal mines is often acidic and contaminated with heavy metals

Oil:

• The refined form of oil is gasoline

• Oil is the most consumed fuel in the world, with global reserves sufficient to provide a roughly 50 year supply at current levels of production

• Oil deposits are extracted from rocks by drilling and pumping, forcing the oil to the surface

• Secondary extraction is where water is injected to increase pressure, forcing more oil to the surface

• Horizontal drilling is now used to access thin layers of oil and prepare rock for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) which uses a mix of water, sand, and chemicals pumped at high pressures into an oil/gas

Policy response:

• Governmental policies like pollution regulations, taxes, and market mechanisms to increase the cost of fossil fuels can encourage energy conservation and development of alternative energy sources

• Carbon capture and storage takes CO2 captured and diverted from power plant emissions and injects it underground to prevent emissions from escaping into the atmosphere

Why are wind and solar power use growing?:

• Business predict opportunities for wind and solar power growth will continue to improve

Wind power:

• Wind turbines use flowing air t turn large blades that in turn power a generator and create electricity

• Wind power is freely accessible is nondepletable has not air or water emissions and doesn’t require water for heating or cooling

• A challenge of wind power is variable generation as generating capacity changes according to the time of day, weather conditions, or other factors

• When wind speeds are slower than 27-55 mph, turbines only generate 10-40% of their max potential

Solar power:

• Most common solar power energy technology is photovoltaic solar panel which is made of silicon and produces and electric charge when exposed to sunlight

• A concentrated solar thermal plant captures heat from the sun by using mirrors to focus sunlight toward liquid filled pipes or a centrally located “power tower”

• Solar power can also provide basic heating functions

• Heat exchange tech use solar collectors on the roof to heat water during the day

Hydropower:

• Uses flowing water to spin turbines and generate electricity

• Produced by construction of dams and reservoirs that allow adjusting water flow through turbines of the dam

Nuclear power:

• Generated through fission when the nuclei of unstable uranium atoms are split, releasing large amounts of heat energy

• Nuclear power releases no CO2 emissions, generates little air pollution, and globally accounts for about 4.5% of total energy consumed

• Nuclear fission utilizes a larger share of atomic potential energy than chemical reactions that make fossil fuel energy

Geothermal:

• Generated by heat from below the earth’s surface

• Geothermal power plants bring hot water and gases to the surface to turn steam turbines and generate electricity

• Emissions from geothermal power are very low but toxic gases must be treated

• Ste