Energy resources

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Energy resources are the things we use to make our electricity. They all in involve changing another type of energy into electrical energy.
Currently we mainly rely on fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas. These fuels are called fossil fuels as they have been formed out of the fossilized remains of plants and sea creatures over millions of years. We use them by burning them to heat water into steam. This steam is shot at a turbine and the turbine spins the generator which puts out electricity (remember when water changes to steam it expands 1600 times which give s the force required to spin big turbines). There are 3 problems with using the fossil fuels.
1. Firstly they will run out. We are using them much faster than they are replaced.
2. Acid rain burning coal in particular produces sulphur dioxide which dissolves into the rain making it acidic. When this rain falls it pollutes rivers, lakes and the soil this kills fish and stops trees taking in water which kills them too. The acid rain can also erode buildings.
3. Global warming. Carbon dioxide is also released when you burn fossil fuels. The molecules of this absorbed heat passing through the atmosphere which would usually escape to space and so the temperature of the planet increases. this will lead to melting ice caps, sea level rise (mainly caused by the water in the sea expanding) which will lead to flooding and extream weather as there is more energy in the atmosphere.
So we need to look at alternatives. See the next post for these.