Generating Electricity
To make a generator spin, it is connected to THIS.
What is a Turbine?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- easy to transport
- relatively cheap
- good energy resource for transportation around the globe
What is Oil (petroleum)?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Clean - no pollutants are produced when making energy
- Free, as long as air is moving
What is Wind Energy?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Not reliable, does not produce energy all of the time
- Kills thousands of birds and bats each year
What is Wind Energy?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Land used to grow this energy resource could otherwise be used to grow food
- Some greenhouse gases are produced
What is Biomass Energy?
To spin the turbine, THIS is used. Examples of THIS include air or water.
What is a Fluid?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Reliable because engineers can control the flow of water
- Free, as long as there are no major droughts
- Cheap to make energy once facilities are built
What is Hydroelectric (hydropower) Energy?
THIS fossil fuel has advantages including:
- Plentiful (won't run out soon)
- Good for generating electricity
- Creates jobs
What is Coal?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Damming a river causes a great environmental impact for people, plants, and wildlife.
- Dependent on rainfall to fill reservoir
- Expensive to build a dam
What is Hydroelectric (hydropower) Energy?
THIS fossil fuel has disadvantages including:
- Spills can cause environmental devastation on both plants and animals
- Emits greenhouse gases when burned
- Harmful emissions can make people sick
What is Oil (petroleum)?
To turn the turbine, hydroelectric energy uses water and wind energy uses moving air as the fluid. Energy resources like fossil fuels, geothermal, nuclear, and biomass all use what to turn the turbine?
What is Steam?
- Cleanest burning fossil fuel
- Primarily used for residential and commercial heating
What is Natural Gas?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Does not use another fuel source to produce energy
- Uses natural heat from Earth's core to generate electricity
- Does not release harmful pollutants
What is Geothermal Energy?
THIS fossil fuel has disadvantages including:
- Greenhouse gases and pollutants are released
- Contributes to acid rain
- Mining has impact on land and on the health of the miners
What is Coal?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Inefficient - only around 20% of the energy is turned into electricity
- Weather can effect energy production
- Energy cannot be created at night
What is Solar Energy?
An electrical generator has spinning a coiled wire and THIS.
What is a Magnet?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Uses waste to produce energy
- Easily stored
- Releases fewer harmful pollutants than gasoline
What is Biomass Energy?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Is available in remote areas of the world
- Does not need to be connected to the power grid
- Is theoretically inexhaustible
What is Solar Energy?
THIS fossil fuel has disadvantages including:
- Leaks can be dangerous since there it is odorless and colorless
- Expensive infrastructure (power plants, pipes, etc.)
- Fracking dangers are not fully understood
What is Natural Gas?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Mining uranium has negative impacts on the land
- Radioactive waste is dangerous to living organisms for thousands of years
- Accidents could be devastating to surrounding areas
What is Nuclear Energy?
THIS is the only energy resources that does NOT use a turbine and generator to make electricity.
What is Solar Energy?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Power plants are relatively inexpensive to operate
- A little material is used to produce a lot of energy
- No pollutants are produced, only steam
What is Nuclear Energy?
THIS energy resource has advantages including:
- Utilize the natural movement of ocean water to create electricity
- No pollutants are released
- Reliable and predictable
What is Tidal Energy?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Can only be built along coastlines
- Energy can only be created at certain times of day
- Impact on aquatic life still not fully understood
What is Tidal Energy?
THIS energy resource has disadvantages including:
- Can not be used in all areas (bad in IL, good in Iceland)
- Not easily transported
- High cost of building power plant
What is Geothermal Energy?