Comparing Energy Resources
3 guided lessons · 27 checks · 4. Energy Resources and Energy Transfers → Work, Power & Energy Resources
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Fossil fuels and nuclear
The two non-renewable heavyweights dominate today's supply because they are reliable and energy-dense. Their price is paid elsewhere: carbon dioxide and acid rain from fossil combustion, and radioactive waste plus accident risk from the atom.
What you know already
Every resource that can power a country asks for a different price: fuel, reliability, pollution or landscape. These lessons weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each large-scale generation method — the comparison exam questions are built on.
Key points of understanding
- Fossil fuels are reliable, respond quickly to demand changes, but are non-renewable.
- Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, and sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain.
- Nuclear power is reliable, emits no greenhouse gases during generation, and extracts large energy from small fuel amounts.
- Nuclear stations produce radioactive waste needing safe disposal for thousands of years and carry accident risk.
- Both resources are non-renewable, and nuclear stations are slow and expensive to build with no fast response to demand.
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1.Fossil fuels and nuclear
The two non-renewable heavyweights dominate today's supply because they are reliable and energy-dense. Their price is paid elsewhere: carbon dioxide and acid rain from fossil combustion, and radioactive waste plus accident risk from the atom.
Key points
- Fossil fuels are reliable, respond quickly to demand changes, but are non-renewable.
- Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, and sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain.
- Nuclear power is reliable, emits no greenhouse gases during generation, and extracts large energy from small fuel amounts.
- Nuclear stations produce radioactive waste needing safe disposal for thousands of years and carry accident risk.
- Both resources are non-renewable, and nuclear stations are slow and expensive to build with no fast response to demand.
Guided content from the SME authoring corpus — note rn_xdVXyYb6CH5MyXws, pinned at c40b8b284935 · promoted SyllabAI/syllabai-resources b3caaaa90c5e