1. Energy Sources

2. What is the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy resource?
A nonrenewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be re-made or re-grown at a scale comparable to the rate at which it is used.
Renewable resources are natural resources that can be replenished in a short period of time.

3. Fossil Fuels: Nonrenewable
Coal, Oil and Natural Gas are
called "fossil fuels” because they have been
formed from the fossilized remains of prehistoric plants and animals.
They provide around 66% of the world's electrical power, and 95% of the world's total energy demands

4. Advantages of Using Fossil Fuels
Very large amounts of electricity can be generated cheaply
Transporting it is easy
Very efficient
Power stations that use fossil fuels can be built anywhere

5. Disadvantages of Using Fossil Fuels
Produces carbon dioxide when burned, which contributes to global warming
Burning coal produces sulfur dioxide, causes acid rain
Oil spills
Mining coal is difficult, dangerous, and harms the land

6. Nuclear Power: Nonrenewable
Nuclear power is
generated using Uranium, which is a metal mined in various parts of the world.
Nuclear power produces around 11% of the world's energy needs, and produces huge amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel, without the pollution that you'd get from burning fossil fuels.

7. Advantages to Using Nuclear Power
Fairly cheap
Does not produce carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide, so it doesn’t contribute to global warming or acid rain
Produces huge amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel
Produces small amounts
of waste

8. Disadvantages of Nuclear Power
Although not much waste is produced, the waste is very, very dangerous.

9. Solar Power: Renewable
Solar Cells really
called “photovoltaic" or "photoelectric" cells) convert light directly into electricity.
In a sunny climate, you can get enough power to run a 100W light bulb from just one square meter of solar panel.

10. Advantages to Solar Power
Free
Does not produce pollution
Can be used in remote locations

11. Disadvantages to Solar Power
Doesn't work at night
Very expensive to build solar power stations
Power stations take up lots of space/land
Unreliable unless you're in a very sunny climate

12. Wind Power: Renewable The Babylonians and Chinese
were using wind power to pump
water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that.
Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind corn, which is where the term "windmill" comes from.

13. Advantages to Wind power
Wind is free
Needs no fuel to be produced
Produces no waste or pollution
The land beneath windmills can usually still be used for farming
Can be used in remote areas

14. Disadvantages of Wind Power
Unreliable
Can be expensive depending upon
land cost
Can kill birds
Affects television reception nearby
Noisy

15. Hydroelectricity: Renewable
A dam is built to trap water, usually in a valley where there is an existing lake.
Water is allowed to flow through tunnels in the dam, to turn turbines and thus drive generators.
Hydro-electricity provides 20% of the world’s power
This is how we get our electricity.

16. Advantages of Hydroelectricity
Free except for cost of dam
No waste or pollution
Much more reliable than wind, solar or wave power
Water is stored behind dam for use
Electricity can be generated constantly, unlike other renewable resources

17. Disadvantages to Hydro-electricity
Dams are very expensive to build
Building dams floods areas upstream, affects wildlife
Finding a suitable site can be difficult
Water quality and quantity downstream can be affected, affects wildlife

18. Biomass- Renewable Biomass includes plant and animal
wastes, trees, other living material.
Plant and animal waste is used to
produce fuels such as methanol,
natural gas, and oil. We can use
rubbish, animal manure, woodchips,
seaweed, corn stalks and other wastes.
Sugar cane is harvested and taken to a mill, where it is crushed to extract the juice. The juice is used to make sugar, whilst the left-over pulp, called "bagasse" can be burned in a power station.
Other solid wastes, can be burned to provide heat, or used to make steam for a power station.

19. Advantages to Biomass Recycles waste that would just be thrown away
Cheap
Less demand on the Earth's resources

20. Disadvantages to Using Biomass
Collecting the waste can be difficult
Must be burned, so generates pollution (carbon dioxide-global warming- and sulfur dioxide-acid rain)
Using trees cuts down on forests and contributes to global warming

21. Geothermal Power: Renewable
Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam. We drill holes down to the hot region, steam comes up, is purified and used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators.

22. Advantages to Geothermal Power
No pollution, does not contribute to global warming or acid rain
Not much impact on environment
No fuel is needed
Very cheap, once holes are drilled

23. Disadvantages to Geothermal Power
Not many suitable sites because hot rocks are needed and type of rock must be easily drilled through.
Site may "run out of steam”
Hazardous gases and minerals may come from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose of

24. Tidal Power: Renewable
Works like hydro-electric but dam is much bigger.
A huge dam (called a "barrage") is built across a river estuary. When the tide goes in and out, the water flows through tunnels in the dam.
The ebb and flow of the tides can be used to turn a turbine, or it can be used to push air through a pipe, which then turns a turbine. Large lock gates, like the ones used on canals, allow ships to pass.
Only around 20 sites in the world have been identified as possible tidal power stations.

25. Advantages to Tidal Power
Free once barrage is built
It produces no pollution
It needs no fuel
Reliable and predictable (because tides are predictable)

26. Disadvantages to Tidal Power
Barrage is very expensive to build
Barrage affects the environment for many miles upstream and downstream
Few suitable sites for tidal barrages
Only provides power for around 10 hours each day, when the tide is actually moving in or out.

27. sources http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/fossil.htm