ENERGY RESOURCES Reassessment Review

Review Directions

Go through the PowerPoint by choosing “slideshow” and “From Beginning”

As you go through take notes. You must include the following for each resource:

1.What is it

2.How it works

3.Advantages

4.Disadvantages

Feel free to take notes in any way you feel is best – using separate note cards, creating a chart, a bulleted list, etc.

Memorize the information.

Key Words

Energy – being able to do work. Example - food gives us energy, so that we can move

Fuel - Fuel is anything that is

burned or altered to obtain energy

Fuel gauge

Solar power Most of the Earth's energy comes from the sun

What is it? Solar power is energy from the sun

How it works. There are two main ways that we use the Sun's

energy

1. Solar Cells / Panels collect sun light and convert it into electricity.

2. Solar water heating which is when the sun directly heats water.

Why Use Solar power?

Advantages Solar energy is free - no fuel, no waste or pollution. In sunny countries, easy to use in remote places with no

electricity It is renewable & we won’t run out

Disadvantages Can’t collect at night or on cloudy days. Very expensive to build solar power stations.

ENERGY FROM FOSSIL FUELSFossil fuels are coal oil and natural gas

coal oil natural gas

What are they?Fossil fuels were formed from dead plants and animals over millions of years. They were quickly buried by sediments in swamps. Over millions of years the pressure & heat turned them into coal oil and natural gas. Coal comes from dead trees and oil and gas from dead plants & animals. When we burn fossil fuels, we’re actually using the SUN’S energy that has been stored as chemical energy underground for millions of years!!!

fossils

ENERGY FROM FOSSIL FUELS

How they work.•Fossil fuels are mined or pumped from deep in the earth.

•They are burned to heat water and make steam.

•The moving steam spins a generator and generate electricity.

Why use fossil fuels to make electricity?Advantages Electricity can be generated fairly cheaply. Transporting oil and gas to the power stations is easy. Gas-fired power stations are very efficient. A fossil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere. 

Disadvantages Pollution. Burning any fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide,

which pollutes the air. Mining coal can be difficult, dangerous and ugly. Fossil fuels are a non- renewable energy resource.

Once we've burned them all, there isn't any more and our use of fossil fuels has nearly doubled every 20 years since 1900. This is a particular problem for oil, because we also use it to make plastics and many other products.

Wind power

What is it?Wind comes from the earth spinning and from warm air rising and other air moving in to replace it.

How it works.The moving wind blows the propeller round, which turns a generator to produce electricity

We tend to build many of these towers together, to make a "wind farm" and produce more electricity.

The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the propellers, the more electricity we can make!

Why use wind power?Advantages Wind is free. Produces no waste or greenhouse gases. The land beneath can usually still be used for farming. Wind farms can be tourist attractions. A good method of supplying energy to remote areas Wind power is renewable. Winds will keep on blowing.

Disadvantages The wind is not always predictable - some days have no wind. Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where land is

expensive. Some people feel that covering the landscape with these towers is ugly Can kill birds. Can affect television reception if you live nearby. Can be noisy.

Hydro-electric power What is it?Hydro-electric power is energy generated from falling water. Nowadays there are many hydro-electric power stations, providing around 20% of the world's electricity.

How it works.A dam is built to trap water, usually in a river valley.Water is allowed to flow through tunnels in the dam, to turn turbines

and thus drive generators to produce electricity.

(http://www.wvic.com/hydro-works.htm) 

Advantages - Why use Hydro-electric power?

Disadvantages

NUCLEAR POWER

What is it?Nuclear power is energy created from splitting atoms. It 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 pollution.

Advantages of using nuclear power

disadvantages

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

What is it? Heat from inside the earth.

How it works 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 generators to make electricity.

Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places such as Iceland and New Zealand.

http://keller.clarke.edu

Advantages

disadvantages

BIOMASS - ENERGY FROM ORGANIC MATERIALS

What is it?

Biomass is energy from burning organic materials like wood, trash and manure (poop!).

How it works:Sugar cane can be used to make alcohol, which can be burned to generate powerOther solid wastes, can be burned to provide heat, or used to make steam for a power stationWe can use rubbish, animal manure, woodchips, seaweed, corn stalks and other waste

Advantages It makes sense to use waste materials where we can. The fuel tends to be cheap. Less demand on the Earth's resources. Biomass is renewable, as we're going to carry on making

waste products. We can always plant and grow more sugar cane and more trees, so those are renewable too.

Disadvantages Collecting the waste in sufficient quantities can be

difficult. We burn the fuel, so it makes pollution. Some waste materials are not available all year round.