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ENERGY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION - Coggle Diagram
ENERGY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION
Energy sources
it has different uses
household uses: the operating of electrical appliances, for example.
industrial uses: the operating of factories and companies,construction and so on.
we can clasify them in several ways
by origin
primary: obtained directly from nature, examples(crude oil natural gas, coal, nuclear energy and renewable energies.)
secondary: resulting from transformation of primary sources, examples(electricity, some petroleum derivatives.)
by use in each country
conventional. most commonly used in industrialised countries, example (energy that comes from fossil fuels)
non-conventional: alternative energy sources, in ealry stages of their technological development, solar and wind power.
by availability in nature and capacity for regeneration
non-renewable: may or may not be abundant, depleted when we use them all, cannot be renewed in a short period of time.
renewable: abundant and inexhaustible
by environmental impact
clar or non-polluting: low environmental impact, dont generate by-products that pollute the environment.
pollutants: sources that have negative impact in the enviroment, for example, they might generate by-products that severaly pollute the environment.
Electricity
electric power plants
how an electric power plant works
The turbine converts mechanical energy into the rotating movement of a shaft.
An alternator has a fixed part, called a stator, and a moving part, called a rotor, connected to the turbine shaft.
Electric power plants are facilities where primary or secondary energy is transfromed into electricity. Once electricity is generated, it must be transported into towns, cities or industrial parks.
transport and distribution of eletrical energy
electric power plants are usually located far away from the points were the energy is used- for safety reasons, space requirements or physical and geographical considerations.
electricity cannot be stored; therefore, it must be transported into consumption centers. This transport involves several procecess.
increasing the voltage into 220 000 V or 400 000.
transporting it by high voltage cables attached to towers.
decreasing the voltage at the electricity subtations to 3-30 kV
distribution. During this stage, the voltage is reduced to 230-400 V.
Conventional electric power plants
fossil fuel thermal power plants
combined cycle power plant
energy is generated as a result of two combined cycles; a cycle that uses air and gas and a conventional thermal cycle.
at this type of water plant, water is heated in a boiler by the heat generated of a combustion of a fossil fuel
nuclear power plants
this type of plants includes a nuclear fission reactor that porduces the pressurised stream needed to move the turbine motor.
hydroelectric power plants
gravity-driven hydraulic power plants
water used follows the course of a river and wont be reused
pump-driven hydraulic power plants
water descends into a reservoir located at a lower height, then pumped into a higher reservoir to be reused.
this type of plant uses the potential energy provided by the height of the stored water in a dam. there are two types:
Non-conventional power plants
solar power plants
these plants use energy of the sun. there are 2 types:
photo-thermal power plant
photo-voltaic power plant
geothermal power plants
they use the heat found in deep points of the earth. it can e used directly and indirectly
wind power plants and wind farms
they use the kinettuc energy of the air to move their turbines. they are a clean way of creating electricity, but they can only be installed in apropiate places
biomass thermal power plants
forestry and agricultural waste
specific crops, such as sunflower and sugar beet.
it consists of all the organic compounds that are produced through natural process. they can come from:
wate from agri-food industries
the main disadvantage of this type of power plants is that they produce way less energy, and their advantages are that they contaminate way less, they use renewable sources and they reduce the dependence of petrolium and natural gas
ocean power plants
they use the energy from seas and oceans. there are 3 types:
the mechanical energy from the tides
the mechanical energy from the waves
the energy from the ocean's thermal gradient
Environmental impact
environmental impacts
fuel transport
electricity generation
conventional thermal power plants can use numerous problems
nuclear thermal power plants are accompained by the risk of nuclear accidents
large hydroelectric power plants require covering large areas
extraction of natural resources
final energy use
when we turn on an electrical appliance, we are using energy that has already been used
environmental impact assesment
as a part of a technical project, its mandatory to carry out an environmental impact assesment to see what changes it would provoke in the environment
waste treatment
to reduce the waste generated by thermal power plants, several measures can be taken:
install special filters to the power plants
use coat with a low sulphur content
mantain and increase the size of large forested areas
waste from nuclear power plants is stored in drums in ocean trenches.
some solutions
energy diversification
use of renewable energy
objective is to produce most of our electricity through alternative power plants
energy savings
adoptions of more environmental friendly habbits
essential to reduce comsuption of all types of energy
efficiency
noticeably reduce the energy we consume
examples: electric cars, better home insulation...
energy efficience increases efficiency of devices