other renewables (4%) viclear (4%) hydro (754) oil (4%) natural ges (24%) coal (27%) Figure 7.2: vorid energy use, by fual. This chart shows people's energy consumption of different fuels across the world in 2018. Around 85% of all energy comes from fossil fuels. Renewables and non-renewables Figure 7.2 shons that most of the eneray supplies ne use are fossil fuels ~ coal, oil and gas. Oil and natural gas ‘are expected to run out this century but reserves of coal should last another 200 years, They are described as non-renewables. Once used, they are gone forever. ‘Other sources of energy, such a5 wind, solar and biofuel, are described as renewables. Ths is because, when ‘ve use them, they will Soon be replaced. The wind will blow again, the Sun will shine again, after harvesting a biofuel crop, we can grow another crop. ‘Ideally, our eneray supply should be based on renewables, Then ne would not have to worry about supplies running out. As we will see, non-renewable resources also cause significant environmental problems. Burning fossil fuels causes global warming while nuclear power produces dangerous radicactive waste. Energy direct from the Sun In hot, sunny countries, solar panols are used to collect energy transferred by light from the Sun. The Sun's rays fall on a large solar panel, on the roof of a house, for example, This absorbs the eneray of the reys, and ‘water inside the panel heats up, This provides hot water for washing. Tt can also be pumped round the house, through radiators, to provide a cheap form of central heating. We can also generate electricity directly from sunlight (Figure 7.3). The Sun's rays shine on a large array of solar cells (also known a5 a photocells or photovoltaic cells). The solar cells absorb the energy of the rays, and electricity is produced. ‘while solar power {from solar panels and photocells) is renewable and does not contribute to global warming, it unreliable because the intensity of sunlight varies (and érops to zero at night) and a large area of solar panels is required to capture the energy. Wind power Wind and waves are also caused by the effects of the Sun, The Sun heats some pats ofthe atmosphere more than others, Heated air expands and starts to move around ~ ths ls a convection curent (see chapter 11). This Js the ogin of winds, There are many technologie fo extracting energy from the wind. Windmills have been Used fora long time for grinding ané pumping, and madern wind turbines can generate electichy (see Figure 7.4).|wind is renewable and does not contribute ta global warming. However, it i unrellable because the speed of the wind can vary and on calm days no power Is produced. Wind turbines need a minimum wind speed of about 5 m/s and are switched off when wind speeds exceed 25 m/s to prevent them being damaged. Wind is a dilute energy resource. It would take a ‘wind farm’ of several hundred wind turbines (spread over ‘several square kelometres) to produce the same energy as a typical fossil fuel power station. Wind turbines are also noisy and many people think they spoil the appearance of places where they are located. Hydroelectric power ‘One of the smallest contributions to the chart in Figure 7.2 Is hydroelectric power. For centurtes, people have sed the kinetic energy of moving water to turn water wheels, which then drive machinery. For example, they are used to grind carn and ather craps, pump water and weave textiles. Today we have hydroelectric power Stations (see Figure 7.5). Water stored behind a dam is released to turn turbines, Which make generators spin. This is a very safe, clean and reliable way of producing electricity, but itis not without its problems. a new reservalr floods land that might otherwise have been used for hunting or farming. People may be made homeless, and wildlife habitats destroyed. Hydroelectric power stations have a very short start up time (the time between switching on a power station ‘and energy being delivered). This makes them very useful for storing eneray until there Is @ sudden surge (increase) in demand. The demand for electricity varies during the day: its highest during the daytime (when ost people are awake) and lowest during the night. Power stations that use fossil fuels and nuclear fuels take ‘a lang time to start up and stop 0, ance started, thay are allowed to continue running. Tt would take too long to stop them when demand is low and then start them again for the next rise in dernand. This means that ‘sometimes (usually at night) too much electricity is supplied and battery technology is not currently good ‘enough to store large amounts of energy, [n some hydroelectric power stations (called pumped storage systems), the turbines can be reversed so that water can be pumped back up 4 mountain to the reservoir so that energy can be stored as gravitational potential energy. This water can be allowed to fall back down the mountain to produce electricity when demand rises. Biomass fuels For many people in the world, wood is the most important fuel. It waims their homes and provides the heat necessary for cooking their food. Wood Is made by trees and shrubs. It stores eneray that the plant has captured from sunlight in the process of photosynthesis. When we burn wood, we are releasing eneray that came from the Sun in the recent past, perhaps ten or a hundred years ago, \Wood is just one example of a biofuel. Others include animal dung (Figure 7.6) and biogas, generated by rotting vegetable matter. Fossil fuels Oil, coal and gas are all examples of fossil fuels. These are usually hydrocarbons (compounds of hydragen and carbon). When they are burned, they combine with oxygen from the al. In this process, the carbon becomes carbon dioxide. The hydragen becomes dihydrogen monoxide, which we usually cal water. Eneray Is released, We can write this as an equation: hydrocarbon + oxygen — carbon dioxide + water + eneray Hence, we can think of a Fossil fuel as a store of chemical energy. Where has this energy come from? Fossil fuels (Figure 7.7) are the remains of organisms (plants and animals) that live in the past. Many of the Earth's coal reserves, for example, formed from trees that lived in the Carboniferous era, between 286 and 360 milan years ago. (Carboniferous means coal-producing.) These trees captured energy from the Sun by photosynthesis. They grew and eventually they died. Their trunks fell ito swampy ground, but they did not rot completely, because there vas insufficient oxygen.|As material bult up on top of these ancient trees, the pressure on them increased. Eventually, milions of years ‘of campression tuned them into underground reserves of coal (Figure 7.7). Today, when we burn coal, the light that we see and the warmth that we feel have their origins in the energy from the Sun trapped by trees hundreds of millions of years 290. Col and gas are usually found together. They are formed in a similar way to coal, but from the remains of tiny ‘shrimp-like creatures called microplankton that lived in the oceans. The oilfields of the Arabian Gulf, North africa ‘and the Gulf of Mexico, which contain half of the world’s known oil reserves, all formed in the Cretaceous era, 75 to 120 milion years ago. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This enhances (increases) the greenhouse effect and is the cause of recent global warming, Coal produces more carbon dioxide than oll and natural gas, Burning coal and cil usually siso produces sulfur dioxide, which leads to acid rain and damage ta ecosystem ‘and buildings. Nuclear fuels Nuclear power was developed in the second half of the 20th century. It is @ very demanding technolagy, which requires very strict controls, because of the serious damage that can be caused by an accident. The fuel for 3 nuclear power station (Figure 7.8) is usually uranium, sometimes plutonium. These are radioactive materials. Inside a nuclear reactor, the radioactive decay of these materials Is speeded Up so that ‘the energy they store Is released much more quickly. This Is the process of nuclear fission. Geothermal energy ‘The interior ofthe Earth is hot. This would be a useful source of energy, if we could get at it. People do make use of this geothermal eneray where hot rocks are found ata shallow depth below the Earth's surface. These rocks are hot because of the presence of radioactive substances inside the Earth. To make use of this energy, Wwater is pumped down into the rocks, where it bolls. High-pressure steam returns to the surface, where it can be used fo generate electncity. Suitable hot underground rocks are usualy found in places where there are active volcanoes, Iceland, for example, has several geothermal power stations. These also supply hat water to heat nearby homes and buildings. While energy from geothermal resources has no obvious disadvantages, there are few places on Earth Where Its avaiable Tidal energy [Atal power station is similar to a hydroelectric power station: electical paver Is generated by moving water. ‘A barrage (dam) ts bull across a river estuary (where 2 river meets the sea) creating a reservatr As the tide Goes in and out, water passes through turbines inthe dam. Tidal power has the advantage of being renewable. Also, tides are predictable making ita fairly reliable energy resource. However, By floeding estuaries, a tidel power station can destroy wetlands, an important habitat for ‘wldlfe, parsculariy migrating birds that use to feed and rest before the next leg of thelr Journey. The barrage Can also block shipping routes, Using energy resources to generate electricity Many of the eneray resources in this chapter produce electricity so that it can be transferred to where Its needed. The thermal eneray praduced when fossil fuels are burned (Figure 7.9) ar when nuclear fission takes place is used to heat water in @ boiler to form steam. The steam turns the blades of a turbine, transferring ‘thermal energy into kinetic energy. The turbine is linked by an axle to a generator where a voltage is induced in conducting wires when they move in a magnetic field. You wil learn more about generators in Chapter 23.‘The source of the Sun’s energy ‘The Sun releases vast amounts of energy, but itis not burning fuel in the same way as we have seen for fossil fuels. Its not a chemical reaction. The sun consists largely of hydrogen, but there is no oxygen to burn this (gas. Instead, energy Is released In the Sun by the process of nuclear fusion. In nuclear fusion, four energetic hydrogen atoms colide and fuse (Join together) to form an atom of helium. ‘Nuclear fusion requires very high temperatures and pressures. The temperature inside the Sun is close to 15 million degrees. The pressure is also very high, so that hydrogen atoms are forced very close together, allowing them to fuse. At this temperature all the atoms are fonised. All the electrons have been removed from all the atoms, creating plasma of positive nucle! and negative electrons. Atomic nuclei all have a positive charge and like charges repel so a temperature of about 100 million degrees (and high pressure) is required to overcome this electrostatic repulsion and get the nuclei close enough to fuse, The mass of the final nucleus is slightly less than the combined mass of the intial nuclei and the difference in mass is turned into energy according to Einstein's famous equation: E = mc2. The energy, F, released Is big because the mass, m, is multiplied by the speed of light, c squared (which is @ big number). Nuclear fusion reactors ~ artificial Suns on Earth? ‘Scientists have been trying to recreate the same process arbficially here on Earth since the 1950s as It offers @ lean source of almast unlimited energy. I will not produce greenhouse gases or nuclear waste. tis essential to hold the hot plasma in place for long enough for fusion to take place. In the Sun, the star's ‘enormous gravitational field prevents the plasma escaping. In the 1950s, Soviet physicists came up with the {dea of a tokamak (Figure 7.11) to contain the plasma. ‘This is a container shaped like a torus (or doughnut) with a complicated arrangement of magnets to stop the plasma touching the walls. Ifthe plasma were to touch the container walls, it would cool (and fusion would 5t0p) and the container walls would be damaged. This s why fusion is @ very challenging engineering problem. Fusion reactors on Earth will fuse deuterium and tritium (two isotopes of hydrogen) to produce helium and 3 neutron. Only charged partices (that are moving) can experience a magnetic force and be confined by 3 ‘magnetic field. Neutrons are neutral (have zero charge) so cannot be confined by the magnetic field and so they hit the walls of the tokamak. These colisions produce thermal energy. Heat exchangers in the walls conduct the thermal energy to heat up water to make steam to turn a turbine and produce electricity.