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P3 Sustainable Energy
(OCR 21st Century)

W Richards The Weald School

P3.1 How much Energy do we use?

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Energy Consumption

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The demand for energy is predicted to rise by a large amount in the next few decades:

What issues will this rise in demand cause?

Fuels

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A fuel is something that can be burned to release heat and light energy. The main examples are:

Coal, oil and gas are called fossil fuels. In other words, they were made from fossils.

Some definitions

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A renewable energy source is clearly one that can be _______ (renew = make again), e.g. _____, solar power, biogas etc. A ___________ energy source is one that when it has been used it is gone forever. The main examples are ____, oil and gas (which are called ______ ____, as they are made from fossils), and nuclear fuel, which is non-renewable but NOT a fossil fuel.

Electricity is called a ________ source because it is converted from other forms what would these forms be in batteries, wind turbines and solar panels?
Words non-renewable, coal, fossil fuels, wood, renewed, secondary

Pollution

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When a fuel is burned the two main waste products are _____ dioxide and ________ dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a _________ ___ and helps cause _______ _________. This is produced when any fossil fuels are burned. Sulphur dioxide, when dissolved in ________, causes ______ _____. This is mainly a problem for ___ power stations. Nuclear power stations do not produce these pollutants because they dont ____ fossil fuels. Words sulphur, coal, global warming, carbon, acid rain, greenhouse gas, rainwater, burn

Using Electricity

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Basically, electrical devices are used to transfer electrical energy to the environment:

This light bulb will transfer light and heat to the surroundings.

Energy and Power

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The POWER RATING of an appliance is simply how much energy it uses every second.

In other words, 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second

E P T

E = Energy (in joules)

P = Power (in watts)

T = Time (in seconds)

Some example questions

1) What is the power rating of a light bulb that transfers 120 joules of energy in 2 seconds? 2) What is the power of an electric fire that transfers 10,000J of energy in 5 seconds? 3) Rob runs up the stairs in 5 seconds. If he transfers 1,000,000J of energy in this time what is his power rating? 4) How much energy does a 150W light bulb transfer in a) one second, b) one minute? 5) Jonnys brain needs energy supplied to it at a rate of 40W. How much energy does it need during a 50 minute physics lesson? 6) Lloyds brain, being more intelligent, only needs energy at a rate of about 20W. How much energy would his brain use in a normal day?

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60W 2KW
0.2MW 150J, 9KJ 120KJ

630MJ

Power
Power is the rate of doing work. The amount of power being used in an electrical circuit is given by:

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P V I

Power = voltage x current

in W in V in A

We can use this equation to analyse power stations: 1) A transformer gives out 10A at a voltage of 50V. What is its power output?

500W 8.7A
400MW

2) An electric fire has a power rating of 2KW. If it runs on a voltage of 230V what is the current?
3) Electricity is transmitted along some lines in the National Grid at 400KV. If the current is 1KA what would be the power through the wire?

Electricity is measured in units called kilowatt hours (kWh). The kilowatt hour is a unit of energy but the Joule is too small to count so we use the KWh instead. For example
A 3kW fire left on for 1 hour uses 3kWh of energy

The Cost of Electricity

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A 1kW toaster left on for 2 hours uses 2kWh A 0.5kW hoover left on for 4 hours uses __kWh
A 200W TV left on for 5 hours uses __kWh

A 2kW kettle left on for 15 minutes uses __kWh

The Cost of Electricity

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To work out how much a device costs we do the following: Cost of electricity = Power (kW) x time (h) x cost per kWh (p) For example, if electricity costs 8p per unit calculate the cost of the following 1) A 2kW fire left on for 3 hours
2) A 0.2kW TV left on for 5 hours 3) A 0.1kW light bulb left on for 10 hours 4) A 0.5kW hoover left on for 1 hour

48p
8p

8p 4p

Reading Electricity Meters

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1) How many units of electricity have been used? 2) If 1 unit costs 10p how much has this electricity cost?

The 9 types of energy

Type Heat Kinetic (movement) Nuclear 3 example sources

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Sound
Light Chemical Electrical Gravitational potential Elastic potential

The Laws of Physics

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There are many laws of physics, but one of the most important ones is: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from one form to another

Energy changes
To describe an energy change for a light bulb we need to do 3 steps:

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1) Write down the starting energy:

2) Draw an arrow Electricity

3) Write down what energy types are given out:

Light + heat

What are the energy changes for the following? 1) An electric fire

2) A rock about to drop

3) An arrow about to be fired

Conservation of Energy
e.g. a light bulb: Electricity Light + heat

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In any energy change there is ALWAYS some waste energy:

In this example HEAT is wasted and it is transferred to the surroundings, becoming very difficult to use. Describe the following energy changes and state the waste energy or energies:

1) A vacuum cleaner
2) A TV 3) A dynamo/generator

Efficiency
For example, consider a TV:

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Efficiency is a measure of how much USEFUL energy you get out of an object from the energy you put INTO it.

Electrical Energy (200J)

Sound (40J)

Efficiency = Useful energy out Energy in

x100%

Some examples of efficiency

1) 5000J of electrical energy are put into a motor. The motor converts this into 100J of movement energy. How efficient is it?
2) A laptop can convert 400J of electrical energy into 240J of light and sound. What is its efficiency? Where does the rest of the energy go? 3) A steam engine is 50% efficient. If it delivers 20,000J of movement energy how much chemical energy was put into it?

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0.2 or 20%

0.6 or 60%

40KJ

Energy Transfer (Sankey) diagrams

Consider a light bulb. Lets say that the bulb runs on 100 watts (100 joules per second) and transfers 20 joules per second into light and the rest into heat. Draw this as a diagram:

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Input energy
100 J/s electrical energy

Output energy
20 J/s light energy

80 J/s heat energy (given to the surroundings)

Example questions
Consider a kettle:
2000 J/s electrical energy Wasted heat 150 J/s electrical energy

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Consider a computer:
20 J/s wasted heat

Sound energy

Heat to water

10 J/s wasted sound

Useful light and sound

1) Work out each energy value. 2) What is the kettles efficiency?

1) How much energy is converted into useful energy? 2) What is the computers efficiency?

Reducing Energy Usage

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How can we reduce energy usage?

P3.2 How can Electricity be Generated?

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Generators (dynamos)

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Electricity is convenient because it can be transmitted over long distances and can be used in many ways. But how is it generated? We need to use a generator:

Basically, a generator works by spinning a magnet near a coil of wire. Thats useful, but how do we get this magnet to keep spinning?

Using primary energy sources in power stations

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1) A fuel is burned in the boiler 2) Water turns to steam and the steam drives a

turbine

3) The turbine turns a generator if you want more electricity you have to burn more fossil fuels 4) The output of the generator is connected to a

transformer

5) The steam is cooled down in a cooling tower and reused

Efficiency of Power Stations

Heat Heat

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Heat

100J

Boiler

85J

Turbine

35J

Generator

30J

Heat

Kinetic

Electrical

Nuclear power stations

These work in a similar way to normal power stations:

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The main difference is that the nuclear fuel is NOT burnt. This means that they produce less pollution but they do produce radioactive waste instead.

Radioactive Waste - Ionisation

Radiation is dangerous because it ionises atoms in other words, it turns them into ions by knocking off electrons:

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Alpha radiation is the most ionising (basically, because its the biggest). Ionisation causes cells in living tissue to mutate, usually causing cancer.

Radioactive Contamination

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Simply being irradiated by a radioactive material doesnt have to be dangerous for example, we have background radiation around us all the time. However, being contaminated is far more dangerous. Consider the example of Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with polonium-210:

Timeline of Events Video of risks from polonium 210

Other ways of generating electricity

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Can we drive the turbine directly without burning any fossil fuels? Here are some examnples...

Wind Power

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Wave Power

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Hydroelectric Power

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Electricity reaches our homes from power stations through the National Grid:

The National Grid

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Power station

Step up transformer

Step down transformer

Homes

If electricity companies transmitted electricity at 230 volts through overhead power lines there would be too much energy loss by the time electricity reaches our homes. To ensure this doesnt happen, electricity companies transmit electricity at higher voltages instead.

P3.3 Which Energy source should we use?

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Which power station?

Type of power station
Coal Oil Gas Nuclear

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Commissioning costs
650 million 700 million 800 million 2 billion

Running costs (p per KWh)

4 12 6 3

Decommissioning costs
100 million 100 million 100 million 500 million

Life span (years)

40-80 40-80 30-40 30-40

1) Which power station is the most expensive to build and why? 2) Give one advantage of coal power stations 3) Why is nuclear fuel cheaper than oil? 4) Overall, which power station is the most expensive?

Matching supply and demand

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Hydroelectric power station might kick in here

Baseline power stations

Solar Panels and Thermal Towers

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What are the advantages and disadvantages of solar power?

Using Solar Energy in remote places

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Geothermal Energy

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Geothermal energy can be used in _______ areas such as ______. In a geothermal source cold water is pumped down towards ____ _____. The water turns to steam and the steam can be used to turn ______. In some areas the _____ rising at the surface can be captured and used directly.

Words steam, Iceland, volcanic, turbines, hot rocks

Non-renewable energy sources

Advantages
Cheap fuel costs

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Disadvantages
Costs a lot of money to decommission a nuclear plant

Good for basic demand Reliable Short start-up time for gas and oil Nuclear produces little pollution

Coal, oil, gas and nuclear

Fuel will run out

Pollution CO2 leads to global warming and SO2 leads to acid rain

Renewable energy sources summary

Advantages
Zero fuel costs Dont produce pollution

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Disadvantages
Unreliable (except for hydroelectric)

Hydroelectric is good for a sudden demand

Wind, tidal, hydroelectric and solar

Expensive to build

Solar is good for remote locations (e.g. satellites)

Tidal barrages destroy the habitats of wading birds and hydroelectric schemes involve flooding farmland

Electricity Supply in the UK

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Notice that, due to all these advantages and disadvantages, we use a variety of sources of energy in the UK: