- Before the electrical energy is carried to our homes through the national grid, the electrical energy passes through another transformer which decreases its voltage and increases its current.
Here is a sankey diagrams to show the efficiency of energy being transferred to other form of energy.
.
Burning 100 joules of energy in fuel gives you out only 35 joules and 65 joules of energy gets loss during the process. The amount of energy loss is more than the amount of electrical energy generated which is more likely that we need huge amount of fuels to generate every day.
Why should we reduce the amount of fossil fuels being used for electricity?
Fossil fuels play a big part in our world but they bring many problems as well as advantage. They are formed from plant and animals that died over 100 million years ago. Burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide and methane which is causing the earth to warm. This is called the global warming. Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy supplies because once they have been used they cannot be recycled or replaced.
Many scientists believe that rising levels of CO2 and other harmful gases can cause the earth’s climate to become warmer. The climate might become so warm that the sea levels will rise as the polar ice-caps melt. Many costal settlements will then be flooded. This will change the weather pattern all over the world. Burning coal and oil release sulphur dioxide gas, which causes breathing problems for living things and brings acid rain. It harms lakes and river as well as damages forest and building.
There are lots of alternative energy resources which we can use to generate electricity such as…
Solar power:
We use the sun's energy every day in many different ways. The sun heat’s the solar power, where the heat can be used to produce or to generate electricity.
Advantage:
The energy from the Sun is free and plentiful.
The sun does not produce greenhouse gases.
Disadvantages:
It is relatively expensive to build solar power stations.
When it is cloudy or at night there is not enough light so no electricity can be made.
Wind power:
Wind power is the exchange of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity. The kinetic energy of the wind is used to drive turbines and generators. In Europe, UK is one of the windiest places so we could generate electricity using wind power.
Advantages:
Wind is free and it will not run out so the cost is in building the wind turbines
Wind power generating does not create harmful or greenhouse gases
Disadvantages:
The amount of electricity generated depends on the strength of the wind. Sometimes there will be days with little wind and only small amount of electricity can be generated.
We need a lot of wind turbine to generate electricity. There will be no space to build enough wind turbines
Some people don’t like the way wind turbines look; they think wind turbines spoil the countryside
Tidal power:
Tidal energy is the energy obtained from the movement of waves. The blades are turned by the tidal current in the sea; the water builds up behind dam and gains gravitational energy. When the water is released the gravitational potential energy is transformed to kinetic energy and then to electrical energy in the generator.
Advantages:
Tides are free once the power station has been built and will not run out.
No greenhouse gases are produced when we making electricity.
We know exactly when the tides happen and tides are predictable so we know when electricity will be made.
It produces energy for the lowest cost and no expensive fuels are required
Disadvantages:
You may need to build a large wall called a dam to make the water flow through the generators.
This may not be good for plants and animals that live nearby.
The tides only happen twice a day, so can only produce electricity for that time.
Nuclear power:
Nuclear energy is energy in the nucleus of an atom. To generate electricity, nuclear energy should be released. It can be released from atoms in two ways: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.
- In nuclear fission, atoms are split apart to form smaller atoms, releasing energy.
- In nuclear fusion, energy is released when atoms are combined together to form a larger atom.
Advantages:
Nuclear fuel does not make harmful greenhouse gases.
You only need a very small amount of nuclear fuel to make a lot of energy
Disadvantages:
The waste that is produced when using nuclear fuel is radioactive and very harmful. It needs to be disposed of carefully
Nuclear power stations are at risk from terrorist attack and sabotage.
World uranium supplies may run out.
Geothermal power:
Water is pumped underground and gains heat energy from the hot rocks deep underground. The heat energy is then converted to kinetic energy in the turbine, which turn the generator to produce electrical energy
Advantages:
Geothermal energy does not produce greenhouse gases
The energy source is free and will not run out
Disadvantages:
There are not many places where we can build geothermal power stations
Harmful gases and minerals may occasionally come up from the ground below. These can be
difficult to control
We could change where we get electricity from to help to reach our target set by the European Union. We could build lot of wind turbines as UK is the windiest place in Europe. This will help us to generate electricity however when the day is calm with no wind we could also generate electricity using geothermal power which can hopefully reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being polluted in the atmosphere.
In UK high tides occurs approximately every thirteen hours and building a few tidal power will also help to generate electricity without both harming human and our world. There is no impact on the visual feature as tidal are underwater and has the most energy dense.