KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

Lecture-01 : Classification of Energy

Resources.
KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

Contents
1.1 Learning Outcomes
1.2 Energy Source Definition
1.3 Non-Renewable Energy Resources
1.4 Renewable Energy Resources
1.5 Comparison between Non-Renewable and Renewable Energy
Resources

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ROE-086 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.1 Learning Outcomes

 The students will able to list different kind of energy resources.

 The students will be able to identify the difference between renewable

and non-renewable energy resources.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.2 Energy Source Definition

 Energy is the capacity of a physical system to perform work. Energy exists in several forms such as
heat, kinetic or mechanical energy, light, potential energy, electrical, or other forms.
 Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it only can be changed from one form to another.
According to physics energy is the quantitative property that must be transferred to an object in order
to perform work on, or to heat the object.
 According to google Energy is the power derived from the utilization of physical or chemical
resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines. The heat derived is mainly from
combustion process
 Basically there are two types of energy sources.
• Non Renewable Energy Sources (Conventional Energy Sources)
• Renewable Energy Sources

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ROE-086 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.3 Non-Renewable Energy Resources

 Non renewable energy is the energy obtained from the conventional fuels which are
exhaustible today or tomorrow with time.
 A non-renewable resource (also called a finite resource) is a resource that does not
renew itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction in meaningful
human time-frames. An example is carbon-based, organically-derived fuel. The
original organic material, with the aid of heat and pressure, becomes a fuel such as
oil or gas. Earth minerals and metal ores, fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas)
and groundwater in certain aquifers are all considered non-renewable resources,
though individual elements are always conserved.
 Example Coal, Oil, gas, Diesel power etc.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.3.1 Natural Gas

 Natural gas in its purest form is pure methane but before it is
refined, it also contains varying amount of ethane, propane,
butane and carbon dioxide. When refined, it is colorless and
odorless but can be burned to release large amounts of energy.
 Mixture
• 50–90% Methane (CH4)
• Ethane (C2H6)
• Propane (C3H8)
• Butane (C4H10)
• Hydrogen sulfide (H2S)

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ROE-086 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.3.2 Coal
 Coal releases large amounts of energy when it is burned because
of the density of hydrocarbons in the material. Coal is formed by
dead plants being put under significant pressure and temperature
for millions of years. There are four grades of coal: lignite,
subbituminous, bituminous coal and anthracite. Bituminous coal
is the best for releasing energy and is the most commonly mined
type of coal .
 Coalification:
• After plants died they underwent chemical decay to form a
product known as peat
• Over many years, thick peat layers formed.
• Peat is converted to coal by geological events such as land
subsidence which subject the peat to great pressures and
temperatures.
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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.3.3 Petroleum
 Petroleum is formed from the compression of animal and plant remains over millions of years.
Petroleum has to be drilled for because it is usually located deep below the earth's surface and is then
refined to produce a number of different products including gasoline, heavy fuel oil and diesel fuel.
Liquid mixture of hydrocarbons with S, O, N impurities. Impurities can create SO2and NOx air pollution
 Formed from remains of plankton, plants, animals in shallow seas millions of years ago.
 Important producers: OPEC, Alaska, Siberia, Mexico

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.3.3 Nuclear Power

 Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce
electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission,
nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast
majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by
nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power
plants.
 Nuclear power plants are thermal power stations that generate
electricity by harnessing the thermal energy released from
nuclear fission. A fission nuclear power plant is generally
composed of a nuclear reactor, in which the nuclear reactions
generating heat take place; a cooling system, which removes the
heat from inside the reactor; a steam turbine, which transforms
the heat into mechanical energy; an electric generator, which
transforms the mechanical energy into electrical energy.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4 Renewable Energy Resources

 Renewable Energy sources is the energy acquired from never ending sources of
energy available in nature. The main feature of this is, it can be extracted without
causing pollution.
 Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are
naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides,
waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four
important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation,
and rural (off-grid) energy services.
 Example Solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy etc.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.1 Solar Energy Source

 Solar energy is the energy derived from the sun through the form of solar radiation. Solar powered
electrical generation relies on photovoltaic and heat engines. A partial list of other solar applications
includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, day lighting, solar hot water, solar
cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes.
 Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the
way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include the use of
photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques
include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light
dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.1 Solar Energy Source

 Modern residential solar power systems use
photovoltaic (PV) to collect the sun’s energy.
“Photo” means “produced by light,” and
“voltaic” is “electricity produced by a chemical
reaction.”
 Commercial residential PV modules range in
power output from 10 watts to 300 watts, in a
direct current. A PV module must have an
inverter to change the DC electricity into
alternating current energy in order to be usable
by electrical devices and compatible with the
electric grid

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-3

1.4.2 Wind energy

 Wind energy is a free, renewable resource, so no matter how much is used today, there will
still be the same supply in the future. Wind energy is also a source of clean, non-polluting,
electricity. Unlike conventional power plants, wind plants emit no air pollutants or green
house.
 It's a clean fuel source. Wind energy doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on
combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, which emit particulate matter,
nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide—causing human health problems and economic
damages' gases.
 Areas where winds are stronger and more constant, such as offshore and high altitude sites,
are preferred locations for wind farms. Typical capacity factors are 20- 40%, with values at
the upper end of the range in particularly favorable sites.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-3

1.4.2 Wind energy

Airflows can be used to run wind
turbines. Modern wind turbines
range from around 600 kW to 5
MW of rated power, although
turbines with rated output of 1.5–3
MW have become the most
common for commercial use; the
power output of a turbine is a
function of the cube of the wind
speed, so as wind speed increases,
power output increases
dramatically.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.3 Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is heat from within the Earth.
We can recover this heat as steam or hot water and use it to
heat buildings or generate electricity.
It is a natural part of the energy flow within the Earth’s
depths.
Most of the commercial-grade production geothermal energy
is harvested along localized “geothermal systems”, where
the heat flow is near enough to the surface that hot water or
steam is able to rise either to the surface, or to depths that we
can reach by drilling.
The geothermal energy from the core of the Earth is closer to
the surface in some areas than in others. Where hot
underground steam or water can be tapped and brought to
the surface it may be used to generate electricity
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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.3 Geothermal energy

Three types of power plants are used to generate power
from geothermal energy: dry steam, flash, and binary.
Dry steam plants take steam out of fractures in the ground
and use it to directly drive a turbine that spins a generator.
Flash plants take hot water, usually at temperatures over
200 °C, out of the ground, and allows it to boil as it rises to
the surface then separates the steam phase in steam/water
separators and then runs the steam through a turbine.
In binary plants, the hot water flows through heat
exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine.
The condensed steam and remaining geothermal fluid from
all three types of plants are injected back into the hot rock
to pick up more heat.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.4 Biomass Energy

Biomass is organic material that comes from
plants and animals, and it is a renewable source
of energy.
Biomass contains stored energy from the sun.
Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called
photosynthesis. When biomass is burned, the
chemical energy in biomass is released as heat.
There are two main approaches to using plants
for energy production: growing plants
specifically for energy use, and using the residues
from plants that are used for other things. The
best approaches vary from region to region
according to climate, soils and geography.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.4 Biomass Energy

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.5 Hydro Power

 Hydro power is considered as
one of the most economic and
non polluting sources of
energy.
 Power generated from water
is termed as Hydroelectricity.
 Hydro electricity means
electricity generated by
hydropower or from the use
of the gravitational force of
falling or flowing water.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.6 Tidal power

Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of
hydropower that converts the energy
obtained from tides into useful forms of
power, mainly electricity.
Tides are more predictable than the
wind and the sun.
Among sources of renewable energy,
tidal energy has traditionally suffered
from relatively high cost and limited
availability of sites with sufficiently
high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus
constricting its total availability.

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ROE-086 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.6 OTEC
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
uses the ocean thermal gradient between cooler
deep and warmer shallow or surface seawaters
to run a heat engine and produce useful work,
usually in the form of electricity. OTEC can
operate with a very high capacity factor and so
can operate in base load mode.
Among ocean energy sources, OTEC is one of
the continuously available renewable energy
resources that could contribute to base-load
power supply. The resource potential for OTEC
is considered to be much larger than for other
ocean energy forms. Up to 88,000 TWh/yr of
power could be generated from OTEC without
affecting the ocean's thermal structure.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.6 Fuel Cell

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts
the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and
an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity
through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are
different from most batteries in requiring a
continuous source of fuel and oxygen (usually
from air) to sustain the chemical reaction, whereas
in a battery the chemical energy usually comes
from metals and their ions or oxides that are
commonly already present in the battery, except in
flow batteries. Fuel cells can produce electricity
continuously for as long as fuel and oxygen are
supplied.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.4.7 Thermoelectric Effect

The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of
temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa
via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a
voltage when there is a different temperature on each
side. Conversely, when a voltage is applied to it, heat is
transferred from one side to the other, creating a
temperature difference. At the atomic scale, an applied
temperature gradient causes charge carriers in the
material to diffuse from the hot side to the cold side.
The term "thermoelectric effect" encompasses three
separately identified effects: the Seebeck effect, Peltier
effect, and Thomson effect. The Seebeck and Peltier
effects are different manifestations of the same physical
process.

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.5 Global Energy use by Source

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KOE-074 Renewable Energy Resources Unit-1

1.5 Comparison between Non-Renewable and Renewable Energy Resources

Renewable Resources Non-renewable Resources
Depletion
Renewable resources cannot be depleted over time Non-renewable resources deplete over time
Sources
Renewable resources include sunlight, water, wind and also
Non-renewable energy includes fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.
geothermal sources such as hot springs and fumaroles
Environmental Impact
Most renewable resources have low carbon emissions and low
Non-renewable energy has a comparatively higher carbon footprint and carbon emissions.
carbon footprint
Cost
The upfront cost of renewable energy is high. – For instance,
Generating electricity using technologies running on renewable Non-renewable energy has a comparatively lower upfront cost.
energy is costlier than generating it with fossil fuels
Infrastructure Requirements
Infrastructure for harvesting renewable energy is prohibitively
Cost-effective and accessible infrastructure is available for non-renewable energy across most countries
expensive and not easily accessible in most countries.
Area Requirements
Requires a large land/ offshore area, especially for wind farms and
Comparatively lower area requirements
solar farms

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