Energy

Resources
Overview
Advances in civilization are closely linked on ways on how to find
and explore more energy sources. While there seems to be
numerous sources for energy conversion, the conversion of energy
from natural resources is the crucial and challenging aspect of it.
Since not all sources have the same rate of formation, regeneration,
and replenishment, the sources of energy are divided into
renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy.
In this lesson, you will know the different types of energy
resources and how the people of today transitioned from an
older and traditional way of gathering energy to a more
renewable and eco-friendly way.
MELCS
• describe how fossil fuels are formed;
• explain how heat from inside the Earth (geothermal) and from
flowing water (hydroelectric) is tapped as a source of energy for
human use;
Energy Resource/s
• A natural resource that can be converted by humans into other forms
of energy in order to do useful work
• is the total amount of any given material of potential economic
interest.
• The sun is our most important energy resource.
Natural resources
• are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few
modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics
such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific
interest and cultural value
• Has kinds: renewable and non-renewable
Non-renewable
Energy Resources
– are energy resources that cannot be replaced after they are used or can
be replaced only over thousands or millions of years
▪ Fossil fuels (includes coal, crude oil, or petroleum and natural gas)
and nuclear energy
Non-renewable Energy Resources
Fossil Fuels
• are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition
of buried dead organisms
• The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically
millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years
• contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum and
natural gas.
Non-renewable Energy Resources
Fossil Fuels
A. Coal
What is coal and how is it formed?
Like oil and natural gas, coal is a fossil fuel. It started forming over 350 million
years ago, through the transformation of organic plant matter.

Coal
• is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually
occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal
seams.
• obtained either by mining deep beneath the Earth’s surface or
by strip mining: in which rock and soil are stripped from the
Earth’s surface to expose the underlying materials to be mined

The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock
because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is
composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements,
chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
How coal-powered power
plants generate electricity?
Like all machines to run, it
needs fuel, and in the case
of this type of power plant,
coal is its fuel. How exactly
is it used?
▪ The coal is burnt in a
boiler room where the
chemical energy is turned
into heat energy.
▪ Next, water is pumped
into the boiler. As it is
pumped in, it gets
converted into steam
because of too much
heat.
▪ The pressure of the
steam reaches the
turbine through pipelines
which then turns it.
▪ The turbine is connected
to a generator which
then generates
electricity.
▪ Grid lines of the National
Grid Corporation of any
countries, are connected
to the transformer of the
power plant. This
supplies companies who
caters electricity to
people or homes.
Advantages of using coal:
1. Cheap to run, fuel is cheap.
Disadvantages of using coal:
1. Releases carbon dioxide (leads to global warming), sulfur dioxide
(leads to acid rain), and nitrogen (causing smog)
Non-renewable Energy Resources
Fossil Fuels
B. Oil
• formed from remains of marine animals and plants that lived
millions of years ago that accumulated on the sea bottom and
went through geologic forces and formations.
• Usually, it does not exist as a liquid mass but as a concentration of
oil within sandstone pores.
• Petroleum is usually found in rock layers folded by geological
forces.
• When oil are drilled, they are then delivered to a refinery to
undergo process of turning it to fuel; jet fuel, gasoline, crude oil.
Renewable
Energy Resources

– is a resource that can

be replenished
naturally over time. As
a result, it is
sustainable despite its
consumption by
humankind.
Renewable Energy Resources
A. Geothermal Energy
• comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and thermos (heat).
• It covers all techniques used to recover the heat that is naturally present in the
Earth’s subsurface, particularly in aquifers, the rock reservoirs that contain
groundwater.
• About half this thermal (or “heat”) energy comes from the residual heat
produced when the planet was formed 4.5 billion years ago and about half
from natural radioactivity.
• The temperature of geothermal water increases with depth, depending on the
thermal gradient — the average rate at which the temperature rises with
depth — of the region where it is found.
• The average value of the gradient worldwide is 3°C per 100 meters of depth,
but it varies between 1°C and 10°C per 100 meters depending on the physical
conditions and geology of the region.
The Different Types of Geothermal Energy
Geothermal technologies differ with the temperature of geothermal
water, which determines what can be done with it:
1. At 20°C to 90°C, geothermal heat and water are used for geothermal
heating. This is called low-temperature geothermal energy.
2. At 90°C to 160°C, the water is used on the surface in liquid form. It
transfers its heat to another fluid, which vaporizes at low temperature
and drives a turbine to generate power. This is called medium-
temperature geothermal energy.
3. At temperatures above 160°C, the water turns into steam when it
reaches the Earth’s surface. It drives turbines to generate power. This
is called high-temperature geothermal energy.
How is heat from the inside of the Earth tapped as a source of energy for
human use?
• Thermal energy, contained in the earth, can be used directly to
supply heat or can be converted to mechanical or electrical energy.
• Steam separates from hot water that is pumped from underground
to run turbine and generate electricity.
• After its use, the spent water is re-injected into the ground.
• The water is reheated and used again.
• This makes geothermal power a renewable energy source.
 Renewable Energy Resources
B. Hydroelectric Energy
• is the energy obtained from converting the kinetic energy of fast moving water
into electricity.
• Waterfalls, running rivers, tidal power, and ocean waves are great options for
hydroelectric power.
• In other cases, the water is collected in a dam or reservoir and is allowed to flow
constantly on a steep slope – manipulating the flow of water in a stronger and
faster flow.
• The kinetic energy generated by moving water has been used by humankind for
centuries, to drive watermills that produce mechanical energy.
• Modern hydropower, sometimes referred to as “white coal," is harnessed in plants
where electricity is generated.
• Hydropower accounts for 16% of electricity worldwide, behind coal and gas, but
ahead of nuclear.
 Types of Hydropower Plants
The type of plant varies with the site's configuration, the waterway and the intended
use.
• Run-of river plants produce energy using the flow of the river. With dams less than 25
meters high, these “small hydro” plants generate power continuously to meet daily
needs.
• Off-stream plants are modular, meaning that energy can be produced on demand, with
dams used to create reservoirs that can be released as required. On lakes, water falls
from a significant height (over 300 meters); on locks, from between 20 and 300 meters.
• Pumped storage power plants are specifically designed for modular operation. They have
two reservoirs at different heights. When demand requires, water is released from the
higher reservoir to the lower reservoir. When there is excess production — for example,
from wind or solar sources — the surplus electricity is used to pump water into the
higher reservoir.
How does Hydroelectric Power Plants use water to generate electricity?
• There’s gravitational potential energy in the water reservoir being held by the dam
or the huge wall.
• That potential energy will be turned to kinetic energy as water flows through the
penstock (like a pipeline or tunnel where the water reserve is connected to a
powerhouse which houses the turbine and the generator of the power plant).
• Because of this flow of water generated by the penstock, it spins the turbine with
its force or pressure.
• That turbine is connected to a generator, generator connected to a transformer
which then form or generates electricity.
A hydroelectric power plant has three main components:
− A dam that creates a large waterfall and stores enough water to supply
the plant at all times. As well as producing and storing energy, a dam
also helps to regulate flooding.
− A penstock that channels water from its natural environment (river or
lake) to supply the dam reservoir. It may be an open channel, a tunnel
or pipeline.
− A powerhouse that houses the turbines driven by the waterfall and the
generator driven by the turbines.
Water Resources • About 70% Of earths surface is covered with water.
• Water is important for living things
• in the modern human civilization, the quality of
water is as important as its quantity.
• Water must be free of pollutants which are mostly
bacterial in content, toxic chemicals, and
suspended soil substances.
• Oceans and other large bodies of water (marine
water) contain large amount of salts and minerals,
which is why they cannot be used by humans even
in commercial and industrial operations unless they
go through desalination (the process of removing
dissolved salts from water to produce fresh water).
• Groundwater is the most readily available source of
freshwater, representing 90% of world's readily
available freshwater source.
Water for human use may come from following sources
1. Rivers
• Are considered more useful or those that are flowing so that replenishment
is apparent
• Usually comes from larger fresh water sources upslope, water from
underground, snow, or from rainfall.
• Flow of a river fluctuates overtime
• Is crucial in determining if it can be primary source of water for community
use
2. Reservoirs or lakes
• These water sources usually are surface runoffs and maybe groundwater
seepage, or from rivers or rainfall that have accumulated in a low area.
• If reservoirs are to be used on a large scale, the amount lost due to
evaporation or seepage should be considered aside from the average
volume of water in the lake.
3. Groundwater
▪ Is important source of
water for small scale use.
▪ found beneath the earth's
surface
▪ Pumping groundwater
from whales is common
all over the world.
▪ Contains large amounts
of minerals.