Energy choices and security

Question 1

What is energy security?

Answer 1

The ability to secure affordable, reliable + sufficient energy supplies for the needs of a particular country

Question 2

Give an example of a backlash against nuclear power generation

Answer 2

Being phased out in Germany when people felt it was too dangerous after the Fukushima accident

Question 3

Ukraine-Russia gas disputes

Answer 3

• After break-up of USSR, Russia exported gas to Ukraine at below market prices
• 80% of Russian gas flows through Ukraine to European destinations
• In 2006, Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine as they hadn’t paid their debts + were using gas intended for the rest of Europe
• Dispute continued until 2010 when an agreement was signed

Question 4

USA tight oil and shale oil

Answer 4

• Tight oil = oil that has been discovered but not previously extracted as not economic to extract
• But w new technologies (fracking) + high oil prices, its become economic to extract
• Since 2008, US tight oil production has increased from 600,000 to 3.5million barrels a day
• Shale gas+oil is now also extracted in USA
• Some think USA will go from biggest importer to biggest exporter by 2020

Question 5

Wind turbines in Denmark

Answer 5

• 30% of energy requirements from wind
• in 1970s, government wanted to reduce carbon emissions
• there are shallow waters offshore where turbines can be sited + linked to national grid onshore
• Denmark linked to electricity grid of neighbouring countries + can buy energy from them if wind drops, or sell if they have surplus

Question 6

What are fossil fuels?

Answer 6

• stored solar energy
• compressed, decomposed remains of organic life from millions of years ago
• combustion of fossil fuels releases co2 that was locked up in photosynthesis when they were formed

Question 7

How long do we have until fossil fuels run out?

Answer 7

coal in 230 years
gas in 170 years
oil in 100 years

Question 8

Is coal’s use growing faster than that of oil and gas?

Answer 8

Yes

eg. in 2007, China was building 2 coal-fired power stations a week

Question 9

Coal is the dirtiest energy source, releasing co2 and sulphur dioxide when burned. How can we make it clean?

Answer 9

We can build power stations with carbon capture and storage technology

Question 10

How much energy does the EU produce from renewable sources?

Answer 10

The EU produces less than 7% of its energy from renewable sources, but there is a proposal to increase this to 20% by 2020

Question 11

Investment in research on making renewable energy sources more efficient is small compared with research into finding more oil or gas. Why is this?

Answer 11

• TNCs are committed to carbon economy // all machines are made to run on fossil fuels
• Cheaper to produce electricity from fossil fuels than from most renewable resources
• Countries are locked into resource they currently use (by trade agreements)
• All renewable resources are location dependent

Question 12

How responsible is co2 for the enhanced greenhouse effect?

Answer 12

Carbon dioxide is responsible for 2/3 of the enhanced greenhouse effect

Question 13

The Athabasca oil sands

Answer 13

• lots of oil in tar sands in Alberta, Canada
• only economic to extract if oil prices high
• growing on the land = boreal forest + musket ecosystems
• habitat to beavers, reindeer + mosses
• amount of oil in these tar sands is equal to rest of world’s reserves put together
• mined by open-pit mining which destroys vegetation + shape of landscape
• takes 1 barrel natural gas + 2 barrels water to extract 2 barrels of crude oil
• carbon emissions of Canada increasing

Question 14

Why biofuels?

Answer 14

• in theory, greener (fewer carbon emissions) as they’re carbon neutral
• all co2 emissions made from burning them are fixed by growing plants to replace them

Question 15

biofuels // what crops are used?

Answer 15

• sugar cane has been used for decades in Brazil to make ethanol by fermentation
• 80% cars in Brazil have hybrid engines // running on mixture of petrol + alcohol

Question 16

biofuels // whats the problem?

Answer 16

• cost of oil-based fertiliser applied to crop
• fertilisers release nitrous oxide 310x more powerful a GHG than co2
• maize ethanol requires 30% more energy to make than it contains
• less food is produced

Question 17

biofuels // consequences

Answer 17

• deforestation happening to plant crops for biofuels, releasing carbon trapped in trees
• Indonesia has planted so much oil palm on what was forest land that it is now the third largest carbon emitter in the world

Question 18

biofuels // what should be done?

Answer 18

cellulosic ethanol, from wood chips // straw, may be answer as its production will reduce far more carbon emissions than maize or soya bean growing