Hello friends ,
Today I am going to tell you about my favourite topic i.e Energy Sources.... Energy can be defined as capacity of doing work . It's unit is Joule. One joule can be defined as the work done , when one force of newton moves through one metre..... Energy is the most important and primary input for development. All living organisms need energy for their operations......
Energy sources are been classified as:
(1) Conventional Energy Sources : Energy sources which we are using from a long time at commercial scale are known as conventional or commercial source of energy.... These
sources includes fossil fuels (such as coal , natural gas and oil) , hydroelectric power , nuclear power....I think these sources contribute about 92% of the total energy consumption all over world. But they are available in limited amount , once exhausted cannot be replenished ..... they also cause pollution....
(2) Non-conventional Energy Sources - Rather new sources of energy such as solar,wind , sea , geothermal and biomass are known as non-conventional sources of energy... These sources are available in plenty and can be replenished naturally . They do not cause any pollution ..... they are not used very much because there energy yield ratio is very low and cannot be used all over the places and throughout the year.....
Energy is a key input in the economic growth of the nation , in other words we can say , there is close link between the availablity of energy and future growth of a nation...... Power generation and energy consumption are measure of economic development of any country as major sectors of economy depend upon the availablity of energy resources......
The standard of living of people of any country is measured by per capita energy consumption .... For example , In USA where per capita income is 50 times more than that of India , per capita energy consumption is 8000 k Wh as compared to 150 k Wh in India. USA with 7% of world's population consumes 32% of energy consumed in the world , while India with 20% world's population consumes only 1% of the total energy consumed in the world............
Industrial growth of a nation also depends the availablity of energy . Developing countries , usually export primary products such as food , coffee , tea , juite and ores etc . This does not give them full value of their resources . Developed countries import these items and processed them to better products and export them to developing countries at much higher rates . This happen because they have energy to process primary products , while developing countries lake the availablity of energy .........
IMPORTANCE OF SOLAR ENERGY
Solar energy is the energy produced and radiated by the sun, more specifically , the sun's energy that reaches to the earth. Solar energy which is the primary source of all kind of energy on the earth, originates in the sun as a result of thermo nuclear fusion reaction... Sun can be considered as a large sphere containing helium gas , which is continuously producing hydrogen through fusion reactions and liberating a large amount of heat energy.... This energy is radiated by sun in the form of electromagnetic radiations of which 99% having their wavelengths in the range of .4 micro metre.... Solar power reaching the top of earth's surface is 10 ^17 watts and that on earth's surface is 10^16 watts , while total power requirement of the world is 10 ^13 watts. So if we can use only 5% of this energy , it will be 50 times more than our requirement . Solar radiation can be converted into other forms of energy , such as heat , electricity etc.......
Solar energy keeps the temperature of earth above that in colder space , causes air currents in atmosphere and water currents in oceans , causes the water cycle and helps in photosynthesis in plants...
As our reserves of coal , oil, gas will last only for few more years and nuclear energy involves considerable hazards , solar energy can be a very important source of energy ... Since sun can radiate at this constant rate for over a few billion years , it can be considered as a in exhaustible source of energy..........
IMPORTANCE OF WIND ENERGY
Wind , which is air in motion is caused by two main factors :
(1) Heating and cooling of the atmosphere which generates
convection currents .. Heating is caused by absorption solar energy on the earth's surface and in the atmosphere....
(2) The rotation of earth with respect to atmosphere and its motion around sun.....
Due to motion , wind possess kinetic energy , which is called as wind energy.....
Wind is very potential source of energy . It has been estimated that about 2% of solar radiation falling on earth's surface is converted into kinetic energy of the atmosphere and nearly 30% of this kinetic energy is occurs in the lowest 1000m of elevation. If we can utilise this energy , it can help us in many ways......
The wind energy can be utilised to run wind mill which in turn drive a generator and produce electricity . Wind mills can also be used for water pumping.....
Wind energy is the renewable source of energy. Wind energy power systems are non-polluting , because it has no adverse effects on the environment .. They avoid fuel provision and transport.
But there are drawbacks of wind energy. They produce noise , they are dilute and fluctuating in nature.....
IMPORTANCE OF WATER ENERGY ?
Water energy is most conventional renewable energy source and obtained from water flow. Water energy is developed by allowing water to fall under the force of gravity from height. Generally hilly and highland areas suitable for generation of water energy......
Water power is used almost exclusively for electric power generation .... Potential energy of water is converted into mechanical energy by using turbines and this mechanical energy is used to develop electricity . Water power is much cheap in the locality where water power is easily available in abundance....... Although it's initial cost of hydroelectric power plants is higher as compared to other types of power plants but their operating costs are much less , as there is no consumption of fuel in operation of these power plants.
Hydro power is clean and non-polluting source of energy. It can be transmitted to the long distances with the help of wires or cables. This type of energy cannot be stored anywhere so as markets should be fixed before generation of this type of energy......
IMPORTANCE OF BIO-MASS ENERGY
Plants absorbs solar energy by photosynthesis , incorporating carbon from the caarbon dioxide of air in their tissues , and convert it into organic matter. This organic matter is known as biomass and basically a form of solar energy. Biomass is a renewable source of energy. It includes all the plant growth , residues and wastes , herbs , algae, agricultural and forest residues . biodegradable organic effluents from indusries like sugar , meat packaging plants, slaughter house , breweries , distillaries etc.....
They are classified into three groups :
(1) Traditional biomass , in solid form includes wood and agricultural waste...
(2) Non-traditional form , converted into liquid fuels such as ethanol and methanol....
(3) Biomass digested anaerobically to obtain a gaseous fuel called biogas....
The simplest way of getting energy from biomass is allowed them to dry out in the sun and burn them..... This method is appropiate for domestic heating and power generation , but does not provide substitute for oil or gas.....
Fermentation of sugar gives ethanol , which is good substitute for petrol and diesel..... pyrolysis of wood gives methanol which may be used as a gasoline...... Biogas is also used as a domestic fuel...........
IMPORTANCE OF NUCLEAR POWER ENERGY
Energy released during a nuclear reaction is called nuclear energy......... A small quantity of radioactive material can produce an enormous amount of energy . Atom in matter has high concentration of binding energy. Controlled fission of heavier unstable atoms such as Uranium-235 liberates a large amount of heat energy.
For example , complete fission of 1 kg of Uranium-235 , gives energy which can be obtained by burning 4500 tonnes of coal or 2200 tonnes of oil.......
The heat produced can be used in heat exchangers for production of steam, which in turn can drive turbogenerators.........
Nuclear power is very much at high potential but it is not very much in use because due to following reasons----
(1) High capital cost for nuclear power plants....
(2) Limited availablity of the raw material.......
(3) Requirement of skilled labour.......
(4) Danger of radioactive pollution.......
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