EnvSci 1

• Affluence

  Higher income enables people to buy more, consume more and use more energy in activities such as travelling more, using less efficient vehicles, heating a larger home and having more energy-using appliances
• Affluent countries use significantly more energy to construct housing in the production of bricks, glass, tiles and fittings such as carpets, furnishings and appliances
• Energy shortages

  Limit transportation, the ability to access water, power equipment and preserve foods
• Supply and demand for energy resources set prices on the world market
• Social and environmental awareness

  regions and locations which historically had dificulty satisfying demand for energy often have a tradition of managing their energy use carefully. For example, Scandinavia had energy shortages in

  the past, especially in remote communities and this has driven a strong energy conservation culture.

  In the UK, access to large deposits of coal drove the industrial revolution and societys development, but it also meant that energy was used wastefully. As coal mining declined, acces to natural gas and oil from the North Sea, extended the extravagant use of energy.
• Petrol

  • Cheaper in the USA than in other countries
  • Larger less efficient cars that use more petrol can be used for the same cost
• Goods imported by developed countries

  • Steel
  • Copper
  • Aluminium
• The per capita energy consumption in countries like the UK has gone down in recent years
• Climatic conditions affect energy usage a buildings in locations with cold winters require heating

  and those in very hot areas require air conditioning, High winds increase hea losses while sunny

  weather increases passive solar heat gains.
• Agriculture and fisheries energy uses

  Manufacture of chemicals, for example, fertilisers

  • Food processing, for example, sugar refining, grain drying and milling

  • Transport of materials and harvested food.

  • Storage, especially for refrigerated foods

  • Fuel for fishing boats, water pumping, and aeration in aquaculture

  Machinery operation: excavators, rock crushing, pumps, presses, conveyor belts, mixers, cutters, lathes
• Other industries energy uses

  • Heat to melt materials for moulding & casting of metals & plastics

  • Energy for chemical reactions: smelting of metals, thermal decomposition of limestone in cement manufacture

  • Heat for baking, for example, pottery, bricks

  • Heat for distillation, for example, fractional distillation of crude oil

  • Water treatment for public supply

  • Sewage treatment
• Domestic energy uses

  • Space heating

  • Lighting

  • Running appliances, for example, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, cookers

  • Transport of goods - ships/trains/trucks/conveyor belts/pipelines.
• As countries and societies develop energy use changes in terms of the amount and the ways in which it is used.
• Energy consumption changes: industrial

  As countries such as Brazil, China and India have industralised, their use of energy has increased rapidly, especially in mining and manufacturing industries.

  As heavy industry and manufacturing activity have declined in the UK industrial energy use has
• Energy consumption changes: Income levels

  Increases in income mean that consumers can afford to pay more for energy, for example, in heating, lighting, and transport.

  Affluence enables higher consumption of goods increasing the energy required for manufacture and transport.

  Household appliances such as washing machines, TVs and refrigerators require energy to run.

  As segments of societies in developing countries such as India and China become affluent domestic consumption rises.
• Energy consumption changes: Population growth

  Total energy use increases with population growth even if the per-capita use remains the same.

  If the population of a developing country is growing rapidly it may struggle to increase national energy supplies fast enough to match demand
• Energy consumption changes: Changes in

  environmental awareness

  An increase in environmental awareness may lead to choices that lead to lower energy consumption, such as:

  • better building energy conservation

  • choices of vehicle type and usage

  • choices of consumer goods

  • food choices

  • level of recycling
• Renewable/non-renewable

  Renewable energy resources naturally re-form relatively quickly so using them does not necessarily reduce future availability, for example, solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal, and biofuel energy.

  Non-renewable energy resources are either not being formed, or re-form so slowly that current use reduces the amount available for future use EG all fossil fuels, uranium.
• Depletable/ non-depletable

  Depletable energy resources are those that use can reduce future availability.

  These include all non-renewable resources that also may be unsustainably exploited may reduce availability EG wood, where forests are felled faster than they re-grow.
• Abundance

  Abundance measures the amount of the resource that exists. This is not the same as the amount available for use as there may be other factors that restrict availability. For example: 📎 fossil fuels that are deep underground and cannot be extracted; 📎winds high above the ground where aerogenerators cannot be located;

  📎wave power far from the coast where the water is too deep to anchor equipment;

  📎low intensity sunlight that cannot produce high temperatures.

  New technologies and increasing energy prices may make resources that cannot currently be used viable in the future.
• Locational constraints

  Energy resources are not evenly distributed. Each has its own locational factors.

  Energy sources that can only be accessed via extraction, such as fossil fuels and uranium ore, must be located in favourable deposits. Energy sources that harness natural processes may depend on regional or local features including climate and topography.
• Energy resource : Fossil fuels

  Main locational factors & required conditions :

  Can only be extracted where economically exploitable deposits exist.

  Power stations require access to:

  • fuel supplies;

  • condenser cooling water (large river/lake/sea);

  • suitable construction sites.