energy

• Resources: The raw materials needed to produce a product, such as oil, coal, and iron ore.
• Non-renewable resources: Finite and non-sustainable as their exploitation and use will eventually lead to their exhaustion e.g. fossil fuels.
• Fossil fuels: Coal, oil and natural gas.
• Minerals: naturally occurring inorganic soils.
• Renewable resources: Resources that can be replenished at a rate that is equal to or greater than the rate at which they are used.
• Nuclear power station:

  • Usually found in MEDCS because the technology needed to produce nuclear power is expensive.
  • Close to a plentiful water supply for cooling the nuclear reactor.
  • In an area free from tectonic hazards.
  • Large area of flat, cheap land - need space for building.
• Nuclear waste:

  • Radioactive waste is one of the biggest problems the nuclear industry faces.
  • It generates heat and corrodes all containers, and would cause death within a few days to anyone directly exposed to it.
• Thermal power station:

  • Fossil fuels burned to create steam.
  • Water source to cool the steam that drives the turbines. Close to rivers. But not sea, salt attacks the pipes.
  • Large areas of flat land for building, parking etc.
  • Not too close to large concentrations of people.
  • Good transport links, close to train station.
  • Near oil refineries.
• CS: HEP station; Yangtze River, China:

  • River with high discharge and velocity to turn the turbine.
  • Narrow, steep sided valley made of impermeable rock to provide solid foundation to build the dam.
  • Large upstream area which can be flooded. Ideally area where few people need to be moved.
  • Access to electricity lines to transmit electricity to populated areas and industry.
  • 2km high, 100m long.
  • Completed 2008.
  • 38 main generators, 22,500 mW generating capacity
  • Supplies Shanghai with electricity.
  • HEP increases river navigational capacity and reduces risk of flood
• CS: Threat to natural environment, Poland:

  • Use of coal for generating over 3/4 of Poland's electricity pollutes the atmosphore.
  • Gases such as carbon dioxide/sulphur dioxide.
  • This causes acid rain, which damages forests in the Tatra mountains, and kills aquatic life.
  • Extraction of the coal in opencast mines around Katowice destroys landscapes and vegetation.
  • Gases created by burning the coal result in global warming/enhanced greenhouse effect.
• Fuelwood: wood used as fuel.
• Cycle of environmental deprivation:

  • Population growth. Increased demand for firewood.
  • More trees cut down. Soil exposed.
  • Fewer mature trees. Soil erosion. Farmland becomes desert.
  • People have to walk further for wood.
  • Even small bushes used. No vegetation left.
• CS: Problems of using wood/charcoal; Ethiopia:

  • Pollutes the atmosphere with smoke/chemicals such as CO2, in squatter camps such as in Addis Ababa, health problems caused such as chest complaints/asthma/breathing difficulties.
  • Lots of time collecting firewood, better spent education or working loss of income/little development.
  • In rural areas close to border with Eritrea deforestation leads to soils being exhausted and soil erosion. Soil cannot grow back. Leads to desertification.
  • Increase in lung cancer.
  • Increased risk of wind erosion as no soil protection.
• CS: Problems of using wood/charcoal; Ethiopia:

  • Risk of attack by animals and criminals.
  • In urban areas fuelwood has to be bought, eating up incomes of poor families.