energy sources

Primary energy sources

 The originated from nature

 No manufacturing processes
Primary energy sources
Primary energy converters
secondary energy resources
secondary energy resources
Renewable and non-renewable energy sources

 non-renewable. We cannot get more of them

during our lifetime. Other sources, such as wood,
are renewable.

 We can grow more trees if we need more wood.

 Some people think that renewable energy

resources can be used again, but that is not
correct.

 ‘Renewable’ means you can replace it fairly

quickly.
coal-fired power station
Power stations need to be built near a water supply such
as the sea, a river, or a reservoir

● In the power station the coal, oil, or gas is burned to

turn water into steam.

● The steam drives a turbine, which is like a giant fan

that spins round.

● The turbine is connected to the generator. This

produces a voltage in the coils around it.

● The steam is turned back to water in the condenser.

Burning fossil fuels in power stations produces carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. Large amounts of carbon dioxide can
affect the climate. Burning fossil fuels can also pollute the air.
How were fossil fuels formed?
 Fossil fuels formed from plants and
animals that lived millions of years ago.
 Millions of years ago trees grew near
swamps. When they died they were
covered by mud and sand.

 The trees did not rot because there was

no oxygen.
 Mud and sand piled up and compressed
the dead trees. Thermal energy from
beneath the Earth and the pressure of the
mud changed the trees into coal. Millions of years ago the sea was full of small sea creatures
with shells made of calcium carbonate. When they died they
were covered by mud and sand. Mud and sand piled up and
compressed them. The bodies of the sea creatures were turned
into oil and gas by the pressure and thermal energy.
Generating electricity
 Generating electricity means producing a voltage so that a current
(charges) can flow.

 Inside a generator : -
a voltage has been produced or induced in the coil of wire. If you
replace the voltmeter by a lamp or other circuit component, a current
will flow in the circuit.

 A student holds the magnet still and moves the coil of wire towards and
away from the magnet. sees the same thing happening on the voltmeter.
If she moves the magnet towards the coil the reading is positive, but if
she moves it away the reading is negative.

 to induce a voltage you need movement, but it does not matter if the
magnet is moving or the coil is moving
Inducing a bigger voltage
To make the induced voltage of her simple generator bigger.
She can:

 move the magnet (or the coil) faster

 use a coil with an iron core
 use more turns on the coil
 use a stronger magnet.
A simple generator

 The simplest example of a generator

is a bicycle dynamo. The dynamo
uses the motion of a bicycle tyres to
light the lamps on a bicycle.
Power station generators
 The generators inside a power station
are very, very big.

 They use moving electromagnets

instead of permanent magnets. This is
because electromagnets can produce a
much stronger magnetic field than a
permanent magnet,
 so the induced voltage will be bigger
Renewable energy: solar and geothermal
 A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, converts the energy
of light directly into electricity. Unlike a generator, a
solar cell has no moving parts. Each solar cell on its
own does not produce a big voltage so you need to
connect lots of solar cells together.

 As well as using solar cells in large power stations

people can use them to produce electricity for their
homes. Wherever you live, however remote, solar cells
can generate electricity. Solar cells work even if it is
cloudy, but they do not work in the dark.

 With your own solar cells you can generate enough

electricity for lighting and for electronic items like
phone chargers and radios, but not usually enough if to
heat your house.
Solar water heating
 Solar water heating is different from solar cells.

 A solar water heater consists of pipes inside a panel.

The pipes are connected to a tank so that cold water
flows into the pipes. It gets heated by the Sun and hot
water flows out. The pipes are usually made of copper
and are painted black.
 A solar water heating system can be used to heat a hot
water tank which is also heated by an electrical heater
if necessary. Sometimes the heater is called a solar
panel, but that name can be confused with the solar
cell.
 Geothermal power
 The centre of the Earth is very hot.

 Some of the energy was there when the Earth was

formed and some of it comes from nuclear
reactions in the Earth.

 If you drill down into the Earth the temperature

rises about 25 °C for every kilometre closer to the
centre of the Earth. This temperature rise can be
used to generate electricity.
 If you pump water down into the ground far enough
it is heated enough to be converted into steam. That
steam can be used to drive a turbine which drives a
generator. Geothermal power stations do not
produce much carbon dioxide while they are
running, but they are very expensive to build.
Building them produces lots of carbon dioxide.

 Some people use the thermal energy from the Earth

to heat their houses in the winter, or cool them down
in the summer, by using a heat pump. This pumps
water through pipes in the ground. The water gains
thermal energy which can be transferred to heat the
house.
Renewable energy: using water and wind
 Hydroelectricity is another method of generating
electricity that does not use fossil fuels.

 In hydroelectricity it is liquid water rather than

steam that moves a turbine. The turbine turns a
generator to generate electricity.

• A river fills up a big lake or reservoir behind a dam. To generate electricity the sluice gates are opened to allow water from the reservoir to
flow down pipes inside the dam. The water flowing in pipes drives the turbines.

• The water in the reservoir is a store of gravitational potential energy (GPE). The GPE changes to the kinetic energy of the water and
turbines. The generator generates electricity which is used to power homes and factories.

• Regions with mountains and lakes provide ideal locations.

• This type of power station is very expensive to build, and you need to connect the power station to houses and factories. However, you can
produce electricity whenever you need to. You just need to open the sluice gates.
Wind
 A wind turbine is a large windmill that is used to generate
electricity. Although it is called a wind turbine it contains a turbine
and a generator.

 Groups of wind turbines make wind farms. A wind turbine can

produce a power of about 2 MW.

 The output of a wind turbine is not always predictable because the

wind does not always blow. Some people like the way that wind
turbines look, but others do not. They can be noisy and can kill
birds. They are also expensive to build.
Wave power

 Wave power works like wind power. There is a

chamber on the shoreline. The waves force water up
and down inside it. The motion of the water forces
air backwards and forwards through a turbine, which
makes a generator spin to generate electricity.

 Wave power does not produce a constant supply of

electricity. It depends how often the waves come.
The chamber needs to be very strong because waves
can be very powerful. You need to find a suitable site
to build the chamber
Tidal power
 huge sea wall was built that contained ten large underwater
turbines. This is sometimes called a ‘barrage’.
 As the tide comes in the turbines spin and they drive generators to
generate electricity. They spin again when the tide goes out. Tidal
power is a bit like hydroelectric power.

 There are tides every day so a tidal power station can produce
electricity for about 10 hours each day.

 Some people are concerned that they can affect the environment.

 For example fish cannot swim upriver to breed. Tidal barrages are
very expensive to build. Like hydroelectricity and wave power,
greenhouse gases are produced while they are being constructed but
not while they are running
Energy for the future
Demand for electricity

 the energy from burning fossil fuels to turn water into steam
in our power stations. However, fossil fuels will run out. It is
difficult to predict how long they will last. We do not know
exactly how much coal, oil, or gas there is underground.

 We need to plan how we will generate electricity in the future,

and what we will use for transport.
 ● Could we use electric cars? Electric cars use large batteries
rather than burning fossil fuels.
 ● Should we use hybrid cars? Hybrid cars can run on either
electricity or fossil fuels.
Renewable sources
 We are using more and more renewable fuels.

 Each country in the world is considering how to make the best use of
renewable sources of energy.
 A government needs to consider the cost to the environment and other costs
that a family would not worry about.

 For example, there is an energy cost to building turbines.

 There is also a cost in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases, which
contribute to climate change, when you build turbines.
Biofuels
 Biofuels are renewable energy sources that we get from plants or animals. These
fuels have been used for thousands of years.

 Wood is one of the most common fuels throughout the world.

 However, there are lots of different biofuels that we can burn.

 Biodiesel is a fuel made from plant oils, and bioethanol is made from sugar.
Plant material used for fuels is called biomass.
 Wood fuel, rubbish, alcohol fuels, crops, and landfill gas are all biomass.

 All sources of energy have a cost. The energy from biofuels is not free.

 You need to buy a furnace to burn the fuel and a generator to generate electricity.
You could also buy a biogas digester.
 This uses the gas that is produced from rotting waste to generate electricity.
Fuels of the future
 New technology uses hydrogen fuel to provide a source of energy for cars.
 Hydrogen cars do not produce the polluting gases such as nitrogen oxides
that conventional cars do.
 The only gas that they produce is water vapour.
 Some cars can run on either hydrogen fuel or petrol (gas or gasoline).
 Others use fuel cells that make electricity by combining hydrogen and
oxygen.
 One of the problems with hydrogen as a fuel is that there are not very
many hydrogen fuelling stations in the world.
 Nobody knows exactly how we will meet the demands for energy,
 but the way we generate electricity and move around could be very
different to the ways that we do so today