Unlike other energy sources, harnessing solar power has no harms. The heat from the sun can be directly transferred to heat other things with solar water heating. However, it is most common to use photovoltaic (PV) solar cells to convert sunlight directly into electricity. With Photovoltaics, photons in sunlight are absorbed by semiconductors like silicon. Electrons get knocked loose from their atoms allowing them to flow through the material and produce electricity. This process takes the electric energy from the sunlight and converts in into usable direct current (DC) electricity.
Wind power is another renewable resource. It uses wind which is created by the uneven distribution of heat from the sun in our atmosphere. Wind power is a relatively simple concept. The wind has some mass from particles in the air and they have kinetic energy. When they collide with the rotors of a wind turbine, they cause it to spin which spins a generator and creates electricity, turning kinetic energy into electricity.
Biofuels have only become popular very recently as a renewable alternative to gasoline and fossil fuels. The end product, for example Biodiesel, is very similar to regular gasoline or diesel. It can start from almost any biodegradable organic material such as corn, fast food grease, or even feces. The material is fermented without oxygen (called anaerobic digestion) using bacteria to create a gas. The gas produced depends on the beginning material but can include methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The final purified Biofuel is the distributed for use like normal gasoline in cars.
A 100 watt light bulb needs 876 kWh to power it for a year. It would require 23.91 U.S. gallons of regular gasoline to power that bulb for a year. It would take 23.69 gallons of Biodiesel to power the light bulb which is very similar and is only slightly less than regular Diesel. 714 pounds of coal would be required to power the bulb while only 143 pounds of natural gas would be needed, making it clear that the natural gas holds a lot more energy. A nuclear power plant would only require 0.035 pounds of uranium to power the light bulb for a year because uranium has so much energy. That means that it needs 20400 times more coal than uranium. A 1.5 MW wind turbine operating at 25% capacity (normal conditions) would need to work for 2 hours, 20 minutes and 9 seconds to keep the light bulb going for a year. In a dam, a 339 kW water turbine operating at 80% efficiency with 500 ft3 of water per second falling from 10 ft. (normal conditions) would need to run for 2 hours and 35 minutes, very comparable to the wind turbine.
Country: England
- Is your country using/developing these sources? If so, how much are they using?
Yes, the United Kingdom has been a major energy user for a long time. They account about 2% of the world energy use per capita.
- What is the current energy policy of your country? (Do they have government agencies regulating it, like our Nuclear Regulatory Commission, etc.?)
Similar to the United States, England has national departments devoted to work with energy like the Department of Energy & Climate Change. The current energy policy of the entire United Kingdom is set in the Energy White Paper of May 2007 and Low Carbon Transition Plan of July 2009.
- Are there people/groups fighting for control of the energy rich regions?
There are currently no groups trying to take the energy of the UK. However, England has used foreign resources for energy.
- How does your country export / import energy?
As local fuel reserves have been drying up, the UK has built a reliance on foreign oil and gas. It imports a lot of gas from nations close to it and Russia, often using large pipelines for transport over long distances.
- How much of each type of energy does your country use? For example, USA is about 20% nuclear, 1% hydro, etc.
The United Kingdom gets its energy from about 38.0% Oil, 37.7% Natural gas, 16.7% Coal, 5.8% Nuclear power, and 1.8% renewable power sources (i.e. Wind, Solar, and Biofuel).
- What are the regional societal impacts of the energy extraction in your country?
England has not suffered major impacts from energy extraction like oil-rich countries of the Middle East. However, the most of the resources that the UK did have are gone as they were nonrenewable and have been used up.
- What is the energy consumption per capita in your country?
The United Kingdom’s energy use has been about 9.85 exajoules per capita. That is about 2% of the estimated 474 EJ worldwide energy consumption. The UK holds less than 1% of the world’s population showing some unjustness between the population and their energy usage.
- Is your country a user of renewable energy sources?
Yes, it has done extensive research in fields of renewable energy. It has also been a catalyst for implementing alternative methods of energy. They use biofuels from creative processes using materials such as sewage for clean, sustainable, renewable energy.
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