Solar power is a renewable source of energy. It is when Energy from sunlight is captured in solar panels and converted into electricity. It is expected to provide energy for less than 1% of the UK’s energy because the UK is too cloudy and there is not enough of sun available. The advantages of it are: it is clean way of receiving energy, it does little damage to the environment, there is no fuel costs, running costs are extremely small and it will never run out. The disadvantages are: they require large areas of land or water, they don’t always deliver when needed i.e. if the weather is not right, they do not provide that much energy and they initially cost a lot of money to build.
Wave power is a renewable source of energy. It is when water waves move into a narrow channel hitting the coast and forcing air into a turbine where it transfers it into a generator to produce energy. The advantages of it are: there is no pollution, there are minimal running costs, suitable for small islands and there is no fuel needed for it to generate electricity. The disadvantages are: you need lots of small wave generators located around the coast which also require a large area of land and water, spoils the view of the river, hazardous to boats on the coast, they are fairly unreliable as waves tend to die out when wind drops, initial cost is very high and is never likely to provide energy on a large scale.
Geothermal energy is a renewable source. It is when water is pumped in pipes down to hot rocks and returns as steam to drive a generator. The source of much of the heat is the slow decay of various radioactive elements (including uranium) deep inside the earth. The advantages of it are: successfully developed in New Zealand and Iceland, good source of free energy with no real environmental problems, there is no pollution and no fuel costs. The disadvantages of it are: it requires large areas of land, very expensive to drill down several kilometres to the hot rocks, very few places where it seems to be an economic option because hot rock needs to lie quite near to the surface (limited potential in the UK) and it doesn’t provide that much energy.
Tidal energy is a renewable source of energy. It is when the tide comes in to fill up the estuary to a height of several metres. This water can then be allowed out through turbines at a control speed. It also drives the turbines on the way in so it makes energy. The advantages of it are: there is no pollution, tides are pretty reliable in the sense that they happen twice a day without fail and always to the predicted height, tidal barrages are excellent for storing energy ready for periods of peak demand, no fuel is needed and minimal running costs. The disadvantages are: it prevents free access of boats, spoils the view, alters the habitat of the wildlife e.g. wading birds, sea creatures and creatures that live in sand, the height of the tide is variable (lower tides will provide less energy than bigger tides), the initial costs are moderately high and it can only be used in the most suitable estuaries.
Hydroelectric power is a renewable source of energy. It requires the flooding of a valley by building a dam. Rainwater is caught and allowed out through turbines. The advantages of it are: there is no pollution, there is an immediate response to increased demand, and there’s was no problem with reliability, no fuel required and minimal running costs. The disadvantages of it are: a big impact of the environment due to the flooding of the valley, possible loss of habitat for some species, the reservoirs can also look very unsightly when they dry up and initial costs are high.
By Inderraj Alg
