Download ENERGY RESOURCES and POLLUTION KS3/4

ENERGY RESOURCES
Reassessment Review
REVIEW DIRECTIONS
Go through the PowerPoint by choosing “slideshow” and
“From Beginning”
As you go through take notes. Be sure to put them in your
own words. 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.
FOSSIL FUELS
Three fossil 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?
Once the
dam is built,
the energy is
almost free.
Hydropower is
renewable and
we won’t run
out.
Advantages
Water can be
stored above
the dam ready
for when it is
needed.
No waste or
pollution
produced.
DISADVANTAGES
The dams are very expensive to build.
Building a large dam disrupts the
environment causing problems for
animals that used to live there.
Finding a suitable area can be
difficult – what about the people, plants
and animals living there already?
Water quality and quantity downstream
can be affected, which can have an
impact on plant life.
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
Nuclear power
costs about the
same as coal, so
it's not
expensive.
Does not
produce smoke
or carbon
dioxide, so it
does not cause
pollution.
Nuclear power is
reliable.
Produces small
amounts of
waste.
Produces huge
amounts of
energy from
small amounts
of fuel.
DISADVANTAGES
Although not much waste is produced, it is very,
very dangerous.
It must be sealed up and buried for many years to
allow the radioactivity to die away.
Nuclear power is reliable, but a lot of money has
to be spent on safety - if it does go wrong, a
nuclear accident can be a major disaster.
People are increasingly concerned about
possible accidents and terrorism.
Nuclear energy from Uranium is non-renewable.
Once we've dug up all the Earth's uranium and used it, there
isn't any more. However, because only small quantities are
needed, we have enough for hundreds of years.
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
Geothermal
energy does
not produce
any pollution.
Geothermal energy is
renewable.
The energy keeps on
coming, so long as we
don't pump too much
cold water down and
cool the rocks too much.
Once you've built
a geothermal
power station,
the energy is
almost free.
The power
stations do not
take up much
space.
No fuel is
needed.
DISADVANTAGES
There are not many
places where you can
build a geothermal
power station.
Dangerous gases and
minerals may come up
from underground.
Sometimes a geothermal site
may "run out of steam",
perhaps for several years.
BIOMASS
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 power
 Other solid wastes, can be burned to provide heat, or used to make
steam for a power station
 We 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.
CONSERVING ENERGY
Conserving energy not only can reduce negative impacts on
our planet like land destruction and pollution, but it also saves
you money.
Some great ways to use less energy include:
Turning off lights when not in use
Unplug things when not in use (toaster, chargers, ect.)
Use a programmable thermostat that turns A/C off when your gone
Bike or walk whenever you can
Drive smaller cars with good gas mileage or electric cars
Buy local foods that didn’t have to be shipped in on big trucks
Which ones will you do???