Energy

Energy sources

By availability in nature and capacity for regeneration

By origin

By use in each country

By enviromental impact

Renewable

Non-renewable

Abundant and inexhaustible

Can be not abundant and don´t regenerate

Primary

Secondary

Directly from nature

Coal, natural gas, etc

Resulting from transformation of primary sources

Electricity, petroleum derivates, etc

Conventional

Non-conventional

Commonly used in industrialised countries

Fossil fuels

Alternative energy sources

Solar and wind power

Clean or non-polluting

Pollutants

Low enviromental impact

Negative effects on the enviroment

RenewableSolar power

Petroleum

Wind power

Coal Coal

Electricity

It can be easily transformed and transported long distances without wasting so much energy

Electricity power plants

Conventional electricity power plants

Non-conventional electricity power plants

How do they...

Produce electricity?

Transport electricity

Turbine

Alternator

Converts mechanical energy into the rotating movement of a shaft

Rotor

Stator

Is conected to the turbine shaft, it moves

It doesn't move, electricity is pruduced on it's coils

By high voltage cables attached to towers

Fossil fuel thermal power plants

Hydroelectric power plants

Nuclear power plants

It has a nuclear fission reactor that produces steam to move the turbine. Uranium is used as fuel

Coal or natural gas is used to heat water and produce the steam needed to move the turbine

It uses the potential energy of the water stored in a dam coverting it into kinetic energy that moves the blades of a turbine.

Geothrmal power plants

Biomass thermal energy

Solar power plants

Ocean power plants

Wind power plants

It uses the kinetic energy of wind to move the blades of a turbine

Photovoltaic power plant

Phototermal power plant

It uses the heat of sun to produce steam that moves a turbine

Solar radiation is transformed into electricity directly by photovoltaic panels

It uses the heat founded in deep levels of Earth

It uses agricultural waste to produce heat that produces steam

It uses the mechanical energy of the waves and the ties