ENERGY
The energy we consume has many different uses:
Household uses
Industrial uses
Energy sources are natural resources from which we obtain different forms of energy that can be transformed for a specific use.
We can classify energy sources in several ways:
By availability in nature and capacity for regeneration
By origin
By use in each country
By envioromental impact
Electricity is the most widely used form of energy industrialised societies for two reasons:
It can be easily transformed
It can be transported long distances
Electric power plants are facilities where primary or secondary energy is transformed into electricity.
Electrical power plants use an external source of energy to produce electricity
Eletricity cannot be stored; therefore, it must be transported to consumption centres.
This type of plant includes a nuclear fission reactor that pressurised the steam needed to move the turbine rotor
Electricity power plants are usually located far away from the points where the energy is used — for safety reasons, space requirements or physical and geographical considerations
NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
This type of plant tm.ludes a nuclear fission reactor that produces the pressurised steam needed to move the turbine rotor.
Uranium
is the main fuel used.
FOSSIL FUEL THERMAL POWER PLANTS
At this type of power plant, water is heated in a boiler by the heat generated from the combustion of a fossil fuel, usually natural gas or coal.
The steam that's generated moves the turbine connected to the generator
HIDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS
This type of power plant uses the pontencial energy provided by the height of the stored water in a dam, converting it into kidnetic energy
This energy moves the blades of the turbine
Two types
Gravity- driven hidraulic power plants
Pump-driven hidraulic power plant
The environmental problems caused by conventional power plants have led to the creation and development of non-conventional or alternative energy power plants
Wind power plants and wind farms
Solar power plants
Geothermal power plants
Biomass thermal power plants
Ocean power plants
The building and operating of an electrical power plant results in an ecological change in that region. This is due both to the construction of the necessary infractusture and the waste that this activity generates
Envioromental impact assessment
Extraction of natural resources
Fuel transport
Electricity generation
Final energy use
Waste treatment
Reduce thermal power plants (filters, low suphur content, forested areas)
nuclear power plants