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Flashcards in Energy Resources Deck (25)
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1
Q

What are the non-renewable energy resources?

A

Coal
Oil
Gas
Nuclear (uranium and plutonium)

2
Q

What are the renewable energy resources?

A
Wind  
Wave 
Tide 
Hydroelectric 
Solar 
Geothermal 
Food 
Biofuels
3
Q

How do power stations work?

A
  1. Fossil fuel is burned (chemical to heat)
  2. This heat is used to heat water to produce steam
  3. The steam turns a turbine (heat to kinetic)
  4. The turbine is connected to a generator (kinetic to electrical)
4
Q

What are the advantages of wind power?

A

There’s no co2 emissions
No fuel costs and minimal running costs
No permanent damage to landscape

5
Q

What are the disadvantages of wind power?

A

Visual Pollution
Can be noisy
Unreliable eg. No power when the wind stops
Initial high costs

6
Q

What are the advantages of solar cells?

A

Good for remote places
No co2 emissions
Very reliable in sunny countries
Free energy and minimal running costs

7
Q

What are the disadvantages of solar cells?

A

Only work in the day time(unreliable )
Initial high costs
Only practical on small scale

8
Q

What are the advantages of hydroelectric power?

A
No co2 emissions 
Provide immediate response to an increased demand for electricity 
No reliability issues (except drought)
No fuel costs and minimal running costs 
Small scale electricity
9
Q

What are the disadvantages of hydroelectric power?

A

Flooding of valley releases methane and co2
Loss of animal habitat
Initial costs are high

10
Q

What are the advantages of pumped storage?

A

Can cope with high demands of electricity

11
Q

What are the advantages of wave power?

A

There is no co2 emissions
No fuel costs and minimal running costs
Useful on small islands

12
Q

What are the disadvantages of wave power?

A
You need a lot of them 
Visual pollution 
Hazard to boats 
Unreliable 
Initial high costs
13
Q

What are the advantages of tidal barrages?

A
No co2 emissions 
Quite reliable 
Good for storing energy ready for peak demand 
No fuel costs and minimal running costs 
Can generate large amounts of energy
14
Q

What are the disadvantages of tidal barrages?

A
Visual pollution 
Altering habitats 
Prevents free access 
Tide is variable 
Initial high costs
15
Q

What are the advantages of geothermal energy?

A

Free energy

No real environmental problems

16
Q

What are the disadvantages of geothermal energy?

A

There are few suitable locations (volcanic areas)

High cost or power plant for energy you get back

17
Q

What are the advantages of biofuels?

A

Can be used in cars

Better for the environment than fossil fuels

18
Q

What are the disadvantages of biofuels?

A

Burning of vegetation increases co2 and methane emissions

Habitat loss to make room for biofuel growth

19
Q

Disadvantages of fossil fuels?

A

Releases co2 when burned
Contributes to greenhouse effect and climate change
Burning coal and oil Releases sulphur dioxide which leads to acid rain

20
Q

What is carbon capture storage (CCS)?

A

Works by collecting co2 from power stations before it’s released into the atmosphere
The captured co2 can be pumped to empty gas and oil fields like those under North Sea and stored without adding to the greenhouse effect

21
Q

What is the purpose of CCS?

A

To reduce the amount of co2 building up in the atmosphere

Reduce the strength of the greenhouse effect

22
Q

What is a nuclear reactor?

A

Nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium provides heat to Make stream to drive turbines ect

23
Q

Which power station takes the most / least time to start up?

A

Nuclear = most

Natural gas= least

24
Q

What are the disadvantages of nuclear power?

A

The over all cost is high despite fuel being cheap due to the high cost of the power plant and final decommissioning

Caries risk of major disaster

It is clean but nuclear waste is dangerous and difficult to dispose of

25
Q

What six things should you consider when comparing energy resources?

A
Set up cost
Reliability issues
Environmental issues 
Set up / decommissioning time 
Running fuel / costs 
Location issues