replaced quickly enough to be used again

Renewable resources

 renewable

resources can be depleted if over-used

Nonrenewable resources

cant be replaced or replaced too slowly to be useful

Example of nonrenewable energy resources fossil fuels:

petroleum (oil) coal natural gas

Made from the undecomposed remains of plants and animals Fossil fuels are NOT the same as fossils

Fossils - skeletal remains of plants and animals (body parts replaced by minerals)

body tissues converted, but still contain stored energy

Fossil fuel formation

Coal formed from remains of huge ancient forests

Fern remains in coal - pretty cool!

Coal

in U.S., 50% of electricity comes from coal-fired power plants unlike oil and natural gas, we produce more coal each year than we use and export about 4% of U.S. coal production annually mining hazardous and causes a lot of environmental damage (both tunnel mines and strip mines) water pollution and destruction of habitat are key issues in mining coal burning coal releases large amounts of air pollutants: sulfur dioxides, ash, and, of course CO2

U.S. has only 2% of the world's oil reserves but consumes 25% of the world's oil leaves us vulnerable to fluctuations in the global oil market

recent analysis of world's oil reserves suggests that oil production may peak within the next decades and then begin to decline predicted that oil prices will rise much higher

Potential oil supply from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) vs. oil savings from improved vehicle fuel economy (testimony to Congress, April 2000)
(USGS is U.S. Geological Service: manages country's mineral resources )

so, imagine you're a member of Congress. what did you learn from the previous slide? what did the graph show? is it economically useful to exploit ANWR for it's oil reserves? in your risk/benefit analysis, don't forget to consider the cost of opening the refuge to exploitation, building roads, pipelines, etc. vs. the amount of useable oil we'll retrieve another thought for consideration: how many years would it take to develop the wells and pipelines?

Another problem with petroleum use: oil spills

boom surrounds part of an oil spill at sea

Generating electricity
principle of an electric generator rotating a coil of wire in a magnetic field induces a flow of electricity in the wire

Turbines generate commercial power

most widely used technology energy source boils water and creates steam steam drives turbine turbine connected to generator to rotate the coil

Turbines Generate Commercial Power

most commonly used to produce the steam: coal, oil, nuclear energy alternative sources to boil the water include burning refuse, solar energy, etc. however, steam isn't the only way to turn the blades in the turbine

any source of power that can turn the blades can be used to generate electricity (wind power, hydroelectric, wave power, geothermal, etc.) so this can give us some alternatives to fossil fuels

Other Types of Fossil Fuels

(also called oil sand or tar sand - bitumen is a viscous, tar-like hydrocarbon)

Bitumen

many deposits are too deep to mine cost effectively

Oil sands

Oil shale

sedimentary rock containing kerogen - a thick, wax-like hydrocarbon when heated, releases vapors that form a type of crude oil can be refined into gasoline and other petroleum products conversion low efficiency - about a ton of oil shale yields only half a barrel of oil production damages large areas of land plus needs lots of water (in short supply in the Western U.S. where oil shale is most abundant)

Methane Hydrate
immense volumes of gas and the richness of the deposits may make methane hydrates a strong candidate for development as an energy resource downside: methane is a greenhouse gas, 10X worse than CO2 for causing global warming

vein of methane hydrate (white) in marine sediments

Locations of methane hydrate deposits

Natural gas

use in U.S. increasing about 15% of annual use now comes from imports, mostly from Canada by pipeline increasingly being used to generate electricity in addition to space heating vehicles can be modified to run on natural gas (costs about $1,000 for a car) cleaner burning - still produces CO2 so a problem for global warming, but releases few hydrocarbons or sulfur dioxides that contribute to air pollution

Offshore natural gas drilling platforms - Biloxi, Mississippi

Conservation is needed to bridge the transition to renewable fuels

Dihatsu GFE prototype 169 mpg