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what are the three fossil fuels:
COAL, OIL and NATURAL GAS
Environmentally sustainable energy policies strive to:
- Extract smaller amounts of depletable resources:
- Rely on resources that are renewable;
- Rely on resources that cause less harm to the environment and human health
As a % of the world’s Total Primary Energy Supply (“TPES”) in 2016.
FOSSIL FUELS: 81% of TPES in 2016
+++Oil: 31.9% of TPES
+++Coal: 27.1% of TPES
+++Natural gas: 22.1% of TPES
NUCLEAR: 4.9 % of TPES
RENEWABLES: 13.7%
NATURAL GAS: advantages and disadvantages?
The advantages of natural gas:
- No sulfur emissions or Particulate Matter
- It only emits 60% of the GHG emitted by Coal, and a little less than those emitted by oil
Negative impacts of gas extraction/production:
- Drilling operations and transportation systems disturb vegetation and soil, often over large areas;
- The drilling disturbs subsurface geology and makes it unstable;
- air and water pollution is increased by the drilling activity
- Methane leaks are significant from drilling
- CO2 emissions are produced from the flaring of gas at wells.
what % does Renewables represent? and which are they
Biofuels and waste: 9.5% of TPES
- Hydroelectric power (2.5% of TPES)
- Solar, Wind, Geothermal, and Tidal power (1.6% of TPES)
What are the key harmful effects of (i) the extraction, processing and transportation and (ii) the use of fossil fuels?
Air pollution from the extraction
Water pollution:
Soil, water and air pollution
Ecosystem disruption and destruction:
Worker’s and nearby residents’ health:
Landscape degradation and destruction:
Geological instability
what are the FIVE factors that typically affect the choice of energy source:
1. The cost (of extraction, transformation/refining, transportation)
2. Energy Efficiency
3. Safety
4. Ease of use/convenience
5. Environmental impact
ELECTRICITY GENERATION: what are the primary sources used for electricity generation
- Coal 38.4%
- Renewables: 23.8%
+++Hydroelectric: 16.3% o Solar, Wind, Geothermal and Tidal power: 5.5% o Biofuels: 2%
- Natural gas: 23.6%
- Nuclear: 10.4%
- Oil: 3.7%
what is The “fracking boom”
to extract petroleum and natural gas trapped within sedimentary rock formations (“shale”) deep underground
The fracking boom is a key driver behind the fast rise in oil and gas production which is diminishing US dependence on fossil fuel imports.
what are the main RES:
- Solid biofuels: Wood, charcoal, animal waste
- Liquid biofuels: ethanol/biodiesel used for transportation;
- Hydroelectric power: run-of-the-river and water impoundment variants;
- Solar energy: solar heating and photovoltaic;
- Geothermal energy;
- Wind.
how do we address these risks and mitigate the environmental harm?
1. extract less and use less of these fossil fuels;
2. shift to energy sources that do not run the risk of running out, such as nuclear energy, hydroelectric, wind, and solar.
3. develop more efficient technologies (engines, machinery, plants, etc.) that use less energy and more efficient energy sources (that produce more energy with smaller amounts of energy).
There are inefficiencies in both the extraction of a source of energy and its conversion into energy. what are they?
Extraction efficiency: depends on how much energy is expended to obtain fuel.
- Conversion efficiency: depends on how efficiently the fuel/energy source is converted into useful energy (of the type we need).
The more efficient an energy source, the less energy is wasted in converting that resource into useful energy. The different sources of energy have different levels of efficie
Ranking fossil fuels in terms of the amount of GHG EMISSIONS they cause when burned
1) Coal: when burned it releases very large amounts
2) Oil (85% of coal);
3) Natural gas (60% of coal).
what are some of the generally accepted negative effects of fracking:
- Landscape destruction
- Water depletion: each well consumes between 2 million and 20 million gallons of water.
- Groundwater contamination due to drilling through aquifers
- Surface water and ground water contamination from the release of wastewater containing a variety of toxic substances
- surface spill of chemicals.
- Methane migration from gas wells into underground water. - Methane leaks into the air,
The public impact of oils spills:
- Santa Barbara, oil rig blowout, 1969, 11 million liters of oil spilled into the ocean
- Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground in Prince Williams Sound, Alaska, in 1989 (42 million liters)
- BP Deepwater Horizon, oil rig blowout, Gulf of Mexico, 2010 (780 million liters)
what are PRIMARY SOURCES and secondary sources of energy?
Primary: Coal, oil, natural gas, wind, and solar energy are
Electricity is a secondary source of energy that is generated by the conversion of a primary source (coal, gas, oil, wind, etc.) into energy.
what are COAL: advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of coal: - Abundance - Easy to mine - Easy to transport - Not much processing and refining needed
The health and environmental effects of coal:
- Miners’ are constantly exposed and fall victim to black lung disease
- Surface mining is highly destructive to the landscape and ecosystems involved
- is one of the principal producers of criteria pollutants
- Mountaintop removal
- coal ash
NUCLEAR ENERGY Nuclear energy is used essentially for electricity production.
The advantages of nuclear energy?
• No serious risk of depletion of natural resources
• No GHG emissions or other air pollutants
• Makes a country energy-self-sufficient and eliminated dependence on imported fossil fuels;
• No landscape or marine environment destruction.
what does SUSTAINABILITY requires?
(i) deplete as little as possible of the non-renewable resources
(ii) cause the least possible damage to the environment in the extraction, transportation and use of energy
(iii) preserve the environment as much as possible for future generations:
We should also consider the other inputs that go into the production of electricity or other energy. “EMBODIED ENERGY” refers???
- extract the fuel (exploration operations, building and maintaining the rigs, mining, etc.);
- build the plants used for the processing, refining fuel
- process the fuel;
- operate and maintain the power plants;
- transport/distribute the fuel or the electricity (building and operating the pipelines, the oil tankers, the trucks, and operating them, building the electricity transmission and distribution networks, etc.).
- store and/or dispose of the spent fuel and other waste produced.
OIL (PETROLEUM): advantages and disadvantages?
ADVANTAGES
Liquid: great for mobile combustion engines
It produces fewer pollutants than coal (including less GHG) but more than natural gas.
DISADVANTAGES
It produces GHG when burned
Oil extraction also releases some natural gas.
The refining involves contamination/leak/accident risks
Offshore exploration
Leaks and oil spills cause large-scale and long-lasting environmental damage;
The combustion of oil produces sulfur and traces of toxic metals
The FOUR KEY problems with nuclear power:
The extremely high economic costs of building new nuclear power plants
Safety concerns with respect to accidents and malfunctions
Nuclear waste management problems
May raise nuclear proliferation risks