Energy production
Energy: the ability to do work.
- Scalar
- Unit: J (joules)
- Law of conservation: in a closed system, total energy remains constant.
- Uses:
- Residential: heating, lighting, appliances
- Commercial: like residential but large scale
- Industrial: agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction
- Transportation: passenger, freight, pipeline
Work: transfer, or transformation of energy
Energy types
1 2
1. Kinetic: 𝐸𝑘 = 2
𝑚𝑣
- Internal thermal energy: avg. molecular kinetic energy, measure via a
thermometer.
2. Potential: 𝐸𝑝 = 𝑚𝑔ℎ (i.e is related to position and/or internal stress of objects).
- Rotational energy
- Chemical energy: intermolecular energy released during chemical reactions.
- Nuclear energy: repulsive electrical potential energy released during:
- Fission: Neutrons are absorbed by large nuclei, which breaks apart. The
2
released energy is equal to the missing mass, 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐
- Fusion: Light nuclei overcome their electrical repulsion and join together.
2
The released energy is equal to the missing mass, 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐
- Wave energy (both 𝐸𝑘 and 𝐸𝑝): energy is transferred by the wave disturbance of
the medium, without net transfer of matter.
- Electromagnetic energy: is in the form of EM radiation/waves, which consist of
perpendicularly coupled electric and magnetic fields. Can travel in vacuum.
- Electrical generator: a coil of wire rotates inside a magnetic field, resulting
in magnetic induction of current (as long as it moves).
, Energy Renewability & Sustainability
Renewability: rate and time-scale of energy creation VS rate and duration of consumption by
humans.
- Non renewable energy sources: are consumed faster than they can be replenished.
- Fossil fuels (e.g oil, coal, natural gas): were created by layered high-pressure
decay of plant materials during the carboniferous period.
- Nuclear Fission
- Renewable energy sources: are replaced through natural processes in the environment
in relevant human time frames.
- Nuclear Fusion
- Sunlight
- Wind
- Moving water (e.g tides, rivers, rains)
- Geothermal
Sustainability: using fuel at a rate that doesn’t exceed the limits of the resource itself.
Energy source types and efficiency
- Primary energy: is extracted and applied as found in nature, without being transformed
before (e.g wood, uranium, wind, tides, lakes, rivers).
- Primary energy source: is the input to systems that transform it into other energy forms,
thus they limit any subsequent conversions (e.g availability, costs, efficiency).
- Secondary energy source: has been transformed from a primary energy source.
Primary Energy type Energy Energy Conversion secondary
energy source name energy
Chemical Fossil fuels Oil Refinery Fuel for
potential vehicles
Chemical Fossil fuels coal/gas Fossil fuels Mechanical
Non- potential thermal work,
Renewable power station electricity
Nuclear Mineral fuels Uranium Nuclear electricity
potential thermal
power station
Electromagn Sun Solar Photovoltaic , Electricity
etic Direct Thermal
heating energy
Renewable panels
Furnace
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