E n e r g y
Welcome to the Energy Eco-topic. Below the Energy facts you will find information on:
It’s A Fact! · The Sun gives out more energy in 1 second than all the people in the world could use in 1 million years. Wow. · The average British family uses as much energy in a day as a family in India uses in a week. · Around 2% of the world's carbon emissions are generated by the UK. · A European uses 14 times as much energy as somebody living in India. · The earliest known use of coal was in China, 3,000 years ago. The Chinese thought it was a stone that could burn. · Oil has been used for 5,000-6,000 years. The ancient Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians used crude oil and the ancient Egyptians, used liquid oil as a medicine for wounds. · Natural gas has no smell and it’s invisible. · Cow poo can be used as a fuel, a good example of biomass energy.
Why Energy is an Eco-topic
Just as we need energy to move, grow and function properly in our bodies we also need energy for our houses, schools and most other things. Energy can come from a variety of sources. Every type of energy has advantages and disadvantages. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas have been used in Scotland and throughout the world for many years, particularly since the industrial revolution. However, burning fossil fuels releases gases. Scientists now think that these gases are causing very serious problems in our atmosphere. They are insulating the earth and stopping heat escaping from the earth. This is adding to global warming which is causing ice-melt and sea levels rises. Fossils fuels are also non-renewable, read below to find out what this means.
It is important to use clean types of energy where possible. If your school chooses the Energy Eco-topic, you will learn about the energy that the school uses and you can develop a plan to reduce the amount of energy you use.
Energy in the World
Energy use throughout the world is unequally shared. We in Scotland and the other developed countries of the world use much more energy than the many people in developing countries. The developing countries tend to use more energy than we need but the developing countries don’t have enough. With more energy, developing countries could improve the lifestyle of the people who live there by improving their economies. Scotland and the UK are trying to reduce the use of energy that creates air pollution to stop damaging the environment. Energy can come from a range of places, some energy is non-renewable and some is renewable.
Non-renewable and Renewable Energy
A ‘non-renewable fuel’ means that once the fuel is used up it is finished and gone forever. We can think of a non-renewable drink such as a can of orange juice. Once the can is opened and drank, we don’t use the can again to drink from. Instead the can is put into the can-bank for recycling. Non-renewable types of energy are the fossil fuels coal, natural gas and oil. When these run out they are finished.
Renewable fuels are ones that can be used again either because they do not run out or because they can be grown again within our lifetime. We can think of this as a glass of water, yum. When the glass is drunk we can go to the tap and fill it up again. Renewable types of energy are wind, water, solar, geothermal and biomass.
Nuclear power is a tricky one. Some people say it is renewable, because more can be made in our lifetime. Other people say it is non-renewable (because the metal Uranium that it uses is non-renewable) and environmentally polluting. Hmmm, what do you think? Click here to go to our polls page.
Sources of Energy
Below is a selection of sources of power that has been used or may be used in Scotland. If you choose the Energy Eco-topic these are some of the sources you may learn about.
Fossil Fuels; Coal, Natural gas and Oil
Fossil fuels take many thousands of years to form and are a non-renewable source of energy. This means that when they are used up, they are gone forever. Coal is a black coloured rock-like material and is found beneath the ground. It is made from dead vegetation that has been under the ground for a long time. Coal is still mined in Scotland but the mines are open cast rather than the deep pit mines that were commonly used throughout the last century. Coal mining is an important part of Scottish history, many Scots have worked and died in the mines. Oil and natural gas also play an important role in Scotland. Aberdeen is known as the oil capital of Europe. Oil is a rich dark liquid that is formed from dead sea creatures. Natural gas is usually found near oil, deep beneath the ground. To extract oil and natural gas, large drills dig down to reach it then it is pumped up to the surface. They then usually travel through pipelines or by ship. Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the air and this is causing big problems to the environment.
Scottish Miners
(from http://www.scan.org.uk/education/coal/index.html)
Opencast mining (From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4309849.stm) North Sea Oil: Aberdeen 
Wind
Wind turbines use the power of the wind to turn blades that turn a rotor to create electricity. Wind turbines vary in size, deign and power output. There are many wind farms across Dumfries and Galloway. Some people like them and others do not like them. The Scottish Executive is aiming to produce 40% of Scotland’s energy from renewable sources by the year 2020. This includes the 10-11% of energy that is already made from hydroelectricity. Wind power will play a big part in this too.
Windy Standard, Dumfries and Galloway (From: http://www.cc.gla.ac.uk:443/layer2/envirostudies/enviro_sustainability.php)
The graph below shows the energy generated from wind farms in the world from 1997 to 2006 in blue. The green bars show how much energy it is thought wind farms will produce in future years. The energy from wind farms is thought to increasing greatly in the future and wind farms in Scotland will probably play an important role in this.
Solar
Solar panels (photovoltaic cells) use the sun’s energy
to make electricity to run appliances and lighting. They
can be small and portable or large like the ones in the
picture below on the roof of a building in Dumfries and
Galloway. Solar panels need daylight, not direct sunlight
to make electricity. A photovoltaic cell is made of one
or two layers of semi-conducting metal, usually silicon.
When light shines on the cell it creates and electric field
and causes electricity to flow. Solar panels do not make
any greenhouse gases, they are a clean form of energy
production.
Brighouse Bay, Dumfries and Galloway
(From: http://www.hightae-heating.co.uk/solar.html)
Geothermal
Geothermal energy is gained from below the ground. Many people think of Iceland when they think of geothermal energy but it is used in Dumfries and Galloway too. In the picture below the house has heating pipes laid in the garden. The pipes absorb the heat from the ground and heat the water in the house.
Geothermal solutions in Dumfries and Galloway
(From: http://www.hightae-heating.co.uk/giothermal.html)
Biomass
Biomass energy is gained from burning organic material. Organic material is something that used to be alive, like wood or animal dung. In some countries where houses don’t have electric or gas cookers, animal dung is good fuel for burning. Burning biomass as a fuel is generally thought of to be ‘carbon neutral’. This means that although carbon is released when the fuel burns, carbon is also absorbed when it grows. The picture below shows the plans for the new biomass plant at Lockerbie. The biomass plant will burn willow trees. This is a carbon neutral energy source. Burning the trees releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, but growing more trees balances this out.
Lockerbie Biomass Power Station, Dumfries and Galloway
(Due to be operational in December 2007)
(From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4335356.stm)
Water; Hydroelectric, Tidal and Wave
We certainly have a lot of water in Dumfries and Galloway. Water can be used to make energy in a number of ways. Below is a picture of a hydroelectric dam. Water is blocked by the dam and stored in the reservoir behind it. The water is then passed through turbines to generate electricity. Hydroelectric energy plays an important role in making renewable energy. The European Marine Energy Centre was opened at Stromness in Orkney in August 2004. It is the focus for research into generating electricity by the natural movement of waves and tides.It is likely that tidal and wave energy will be used more in the future.
Tongland Hydroelectric Power Station, Dumfries and Galloway
(From: http://www.cc.gla.ac.uk:443/layer2/envirostudies/field_work.htm)
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is a controversial energy source. Nuclear energy is created by splitting up the nucleus of an atom. Atoms are too small to see with our eyes but are tiny particles that make up everything in the world. The nucleus is even smaller and is inside the atom. The energy that holds the atom together is enormous and when an atom is spilt apart it gives off a lot of energy. This energy is used to heat water, which turns into steam and turns turbines to makes electricity. The fuel for nuclear power station’s is a special type of the metal Uranium, which is mined and imported into the UK. Nuclear energy does not make greenhouse gases but the waste nuclear fuel is dangerous and takes many years to break down.
Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station
(Now being decommissioned)
(From: http://www.cc.gla.ac.uk:443/layer2/envirostudies/field_work.htm)
The Importance of Energy Conservation
We need to use energy in our lives but it is important to use it wisely.
Apart from the fact that it makes sense, there are three main reasons for conserving energy. The first reason for conserving energy is environmental. A very serious problem for the world is the air pollution that comes from burning the fossil fuels coal, natural gas and oil. The less fossil fuels we use, the less pollution there will be in the air and that is good news for the environment.
The second reason for conserving energy is the social benefits. If inventors made new products that used less energy there would be jobs to make these things. It would also make grumpy people who complain about wasting energy a lot happier.
The third reason is about money, the economic reason. We spend a lot of money on energy. You may not know this, but every week or month your family at home pays money for the heating, lights, electricity and phone. At school too, a lot of money is spent on keeping you warm and in the light and computers use a lot of energy. So, if we can use less energy, we can spend less money. If we were spending less money on energy then we would have more money to spend on nice things, like organic food, fair trade clothes and donations to charity.
What Can You Do?
The first thing to do in your school is to gather as much information as you can about how your school uses energy. It’s a good idea to do an energy audit for this. You can find out more about the energy audit in the Eco Schools Scotland Handbook.
From the audit, you will learn what area you need to tackle. Here are some ideas for action:
- Create good posters to remind people to turn off the lights when they are not needed.
- Introduce energy saving light bulbs into the school
- Never use standby on computers or television as it uses valuable energy
- Can you turn down the heating by a degree or two?
Eco Schools Objectives
- To raise awareness of the importance of monitoring energy consumption by regularly tracking the school’s use of gas, electricity and oil.
- To make pupils aware of the link between energy supply, use and the potential for environmental damage
- To make pupils aware of the link between energy use and financial cost
- To establish partnerships with energy providers, helping to put into place effective energy-saving measures
- To show that simple low – or no-cost measures to conserve energy can be effective and bring about significant savings
- To consider using alternatives sources of energy
Learning Outcomes
Pupils should be enabled to:
- Discuss the importance of renewable and non-renewable resources
- Understand the processes of energy transfer and conservation
- Carry out an audit of energy use in the school
- Suggest ways to make the school more energy efficient
- Collect, interpret and present data in different forms, using Information and Communications Technology, where appropriate
- Make presentations on reducing energy consumption to different audiences, such as other pupils, parents and the local community
- Work cooperatively with others