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AP®︎/College Environmental science
Course: AP®︎/College Environmental science > Unit 5
Lesson 1: Intro to energy resources and consumptionRenewable and nonrenewable energy resources
Nonrenewable energy sources are those that exist in a fixed amount and involve energy transformation that cannot be easily replaced. Renewable energy sources are those that can be replenished naturally, at or near the rate of consumption, and reused. Created by Khan Academy.
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How do you use your brain?(2 votes)- How do renewable resources get renewable.(0 votes)
- By getting used again and again.(1 vote)
- how do renewable resources renew(0 votes)
I think what it is saying is that wind, plants, and the sun will always be able for us to extract power from, while coal and natural gas won't.
However, I personally disagree with the statement that windmills and solar panels are renewable.
Windmills and solar panels need to mine rare earth metals for their relatively efficient batteries to be powered (which displaces natural habitats) not to mention the other metals and things required to make them. Then these windmills and solar panels can be used for comparatively short periods of time (if I'm correct its 20 to 40 years). Then they produce energy in areas relatively far from cities where environments need to be cut down to store these massive solar farms. Then energy cables must connect these wind and solar farms to cities which requires more metal and goods. Wind farms and solar farms harm birds and other animals. Then, when they are no longer usable, these massive quantiles of solar and wind equipment must be disposed of including their non-environmentally friendly batteries.
From what I can tell hydro and nuclear are the longest lasting, most efficient, and best at producing large amounts of energy. They have high upfront costs, but really cheap energy for a long time. They also take comparatively small landmasses to produce the same amount of energy as some other methods. And, both of these are very close to renewable.
I don't know if that's a good answer but I thought I'd try :-) Also, it's a debated topic so I understand that there are other viewpoints too.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] Today, let's
talk about energy resources. You've probably already
done something today that used energy resources, even beginning from
the moment you woke up. For me, the beginning of my day always starts with making tea. I use energy in every
step of this process. My car uses oil when I
drive to the grocery store to get the tea, my stove uses natural gas
when I boil the water, and my water heater uses
coal-sourced electricity when I wash my mug in
hot water afterwards. We use energy constantly
in our daily lives. Since the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot
be created nor destroyed, where does it all come from
and will we have enough? When we talk about energy resources, we could split it up into two groups: renewable energy and nonrenewable energy. I can always remember what
renewable resources are because the prefix re means again and the root new refers the
origin of the energy source, so renewable energy sources are the sources that we
can use again and again and are quickly restored
by natural processes. Renewable fuel sources
include sunlight, wind, moving water, biomass
from fast-growing plants, and geothermal heat from the earth. The lifespan of renewable
resources looks like a circle. We can use them and then
we can use them again without worrying about them running out. Nonrenewable energy
sources on the other hand, are sources that exist in a fixed amount and cannot be easily replaced. These energy sources must
be extracted from the earth, and they include things like
nuclear fuel and fossil fuels, which are things like
coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels were formed
in the geologic past from the remains of ancient organisms. Plants and animals that
died millions of years ago became buried in the soil,
partially decomposed, and were exposed to a
lot of heat and pressure. This heat and pressure
chemically rearranged the energy contained within their bodies into the fossil fuels we use today. Because they take so long to
form, we have a finite amount of nonrenewable resources
in the earth right now. The lifespan for fossil
fuels is a broken loop, a one-way ticket. First, the fossil fuel is found, then it has to be extracted. Extracting fossil fuels can involve destructive mining processes that can pollute surrounding habitats. It then has to be transported
to wherever it will be used. And using fossil fuels means burning them, which releases greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Also, it can take energy to refine and process
some types of fossil fuel so that they're more helpful to us, like turning crude oil into petroleum gas, diesel, and jet fuel, and burning the fossil
fuels transforms that energy into a less organized form
of energy like heat and ash.