Wind, solar and geothermal

Question 1

Wind power

Answer 1

1) Involves lots of wind turbines up in exposed places like on moors or around coast
2) Each turbine has generator in it - rotating blades turn the generator to produce electricity
3) No pollution but spoils view . You need 1500 wind turbines to replace one coal fired power station and 1500 covers a lot of ground = big effect of scenery
4) noisy and annoying for people living nearby
5) wind stops or too strong = impossible to increase supply when there’s extra demand
6) wind turbines produce electricity 70-85% of the time
7) initial costs high, no fuels costs and minimal running cost
8) no permanent damage to landscape - remove turbines -> remove noise and view return to normal

Question 2

Solar cells - expensive but no environmental damage

Answer 2

Solar cells generate electric currents directly from sunlight. There the best source of energy to charge batteries in calculators and watches ( not use much energy )
2) Often in remote areas where there’s not much choice to power electric road signs and satellites
3) no pollution
4) reliable source in sunny countries - daytime but also cost effective in cloudy countries (UK)
5) impossible to increase supply when there’s extra demand
6) initial costs high free to run and very minimal running costs
7) solar cells usually used to generate electricity on a relatively small scale

Question 3

Geothermal - energy in underground Thermal energy stores

Answer 3

1) possible in volcanic areas or where hot rock near surface. Source of much of the energy is the slow decay of various radioactive elements including uranium, deep inside the rock.
2) free energy that’s reliable and does very little damage to environment.
3) used to generate electricity or heat buildings directly
4) aren’t very many suitable locations for power plants and cost of building a power plant is high compared to amount of energy it produces