WHAT IS ENERGY ?

It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems. Since work is defined as a force acting through a distance, energy is always equivalent to the ability to exert pulls or pushes against the basic forces of nature, along a path of a certain length.

WHAT IS A GOOD SOURCE OF ENERGY ?

The particular source of energy or fuel we select for performing some work depends on many different factors. A good source of energy would be one Which would do large amount of work per unit volume or mass. Be easily accessible. Be easy to store and transport. Be economical.

HOW TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY?

The simplest way to generate electricity is to use a turbine. A turbine is a simple machine which extracts energy from moving wind or any other fluid. A turbine consists of only one moving part that is its rotors. There is also a generator(dynamo) attached to it. When the turbine is rotated a shaft rotates which is connected to the dynamo.

Dynamo converts the rotational energy into electricity.

All the methods of electricity production are based on this method.

FOSSIL FUELS
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. The fossil fuels, which contain high percentages of carbon, include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon: hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal.

DISADVANTAGES
It causes a lot of air pollution when burnt. The oxides of carbon nitrogen and sulphur that are released on burning fossil fuels are acidic oxides. These lead to acid rain which affects our water an soil resources.

It also adds up to the process of the green house effect.

THERMAL POWER PANT

Large amount of fossil fuels are burnt every day in power stations to heat up water to produce steam which is used to rotate the blades of the turbine. This is used to generate electricity. The transmission of electricity is more efficient than transporting coal or petroleum over large distances. Therefore power plants are set up near coal fields. The term thermal power plant is used since fuel is burnt to create heat energy.

HYDRO POWER PLANT

Hydro power plants convert the potential energy of falling water into electricity. Since there are very few water falls which could be used as a source of potential energy ,hydro power plants are associated with dams.

For the production of hydro electricity water is collected in reservoirs at a height . This water is then allowed to fall on the turbines placed on the foot of the dam. The kinetic energy of water turns the turbine and the generator connected to it produces electricity.

DISADVANTAGES OF HYDRO POWER PLANTS

The dams can be constructed only in a limited number of places, preferably in hilly terrains . Large areas of agricultural land and human habitation have to be sacrificed for the construction of dams. The vegetation submerged under water in the reservoir rots aerobically giving rise to large amount of methane which is also a green house gas.

BIO MASS

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel. When wood is burnt in limited supply of oxygen, charcoal is formed. Charcoal burns without flame , smoke and produces more heat. Cow dung and other organic remains are decomposed in the absence of oxygen giving rise to bio gas. It is also a good source of energy.

PRODUCTION OF BIO GAS (GOBAR GAS)

The plant has a dome like structure built with bricks. A slurry of cow dung and water is made in the mixing tank from where it is fed into the digester. The digester is sealed with no oxygen. Anaerobic bacteria's break down complex compounds of cow dung. In a few days gases like methane, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen are produced. It is stored in gas tanks above the bio digester and are supplied to the power plants through pipes. Bio gas is an excellent fuel which burns without leaving any residue like ash. The slurry left behind is used as an excellent manure with adequate amount of nitrogen and phosphorus.

WIND ENERGY
Unequal heating of land mass generates air movement and causes wind to blow. This kinetic energy of wind is used to generate electricity. To generate electricity the rotary motion of the windmill is used rotate the turbine of the electric generator. Total wind power could be captured only if the wind velocity is reduced to zero. In a realistic wind turbine this is impossible, as the captured air must also leave the turbine. A relation between the input and output wind velocity must be considered. Using the concept of stream tube, the maximal achievable extraction of wind power by a wind turbine is 59% of the total theoretical wind power.

DISADVANTAGES
Can only be established at places where wind blows for the greater part of the year. The wind speed should be more than 15km/h to maintain the requires speed of the turbine to produce electricity. There should be some backup facilities for the time when there is no wind. They require a large area of land i.e. to generate 1MW of electricity 2 hectares of land is required. The initial cost of establishment of the farm is very high

The wind mill is exposed to natural phenomenon's like rain, storm, sunlight, cyclones, thus the maintenance cost can also be high sometimes.

SOLAR ENERGY
Solar energy, and heat from the sun, have been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar energy, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available renewable energy on earth. Solar powered electrical generation relies on heat engines and photovoltaic's. Solar energy's uses are limited only by human ingenuity.

A partial list of solar applications includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, potable water via distillation and disinfection, day lighting , solar hot water, solar cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes. To harvest the solar energy, the most common way is to use solar panels.

ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR ENERGY

They have no moving parts Require little maintenance Work nicely without any focusing device. They can be set up in remote and inaccessible locations or very sparsely inhabited area.

DISADVANTAGES OF SOLAR ENERGY

Silicon, which is used for making solar cells, is abundant in nature but availability of the special grade silicon for making solar cells is limited. Making solar panels is still very expensive.

USES
Artificial satellites and space probes like mars orbiters. Wireless transmission systems, radio, T.V. relay stations in remote locations use solar panels. traffic signals, calculators and many toys. Solar cells are fitted over roof tops so that more solar energy is incident over it.

TIDAL ENERGY
Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power - mainly electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power. Tidal power has suffered from relatively high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus constricting its total availability. However, many recent technological developments and improvements, both in design (e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and turbine technology (e.g. new axial turbines, crossflow turbines), indicate that the total availability of tidal power may be much higher than previously assumed.

WAVE ENERGY
Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water (into reservoirs). Machinery able to exploit wave power is generally known as a wave energy converter (WEC). Waves are generated by wind passing over the surface of the sea. As long as the waves propagate slower than the wind speed just above the waves, there is an energy transfer from the wind to the waves. The wave causes the turbine to rotate as shown below

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) uses the difference between cooler deep and warmer shallow or surface ocean waters to run a heat engine and produce useful work, usually in the form of electricity A heat engine gives greater efficiency and power when run with a large temperature difference. In the oceans the temperature difference between surface and deep water is greatest in the tropics, although still a modest 20oC to 25oC. The most commonly used heat cycle for OTEC is the Rankine cycle using a low-pressure turbine. Systems may be either closed-cycle or open-cycle. Closed-cycle engines use working fluids that are typically thought of as refrigerants such as ammonia .Open-cycle engines use vapour from the seawater itself as the working fluid.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Earth's geothermal energy originates from radioactive decay of minerals and from volcanic activity. Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, but these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those of fossil fuels.

NUCLEAR ENERGY
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and do useful work. In nuclear fission the nucleus of a heavy atom such as uranium plutonium or thorium when bombarded by low energy neutrons can be split into lighter nuclei. When this is done a large amount of energy is released if the mass of the original nucleus is just a little more than the sum of the masses of the 2 new products. This release energy is used to produce steam and generate electricity by rotating the turbine.

DISADVANTAGES
The disadvantages of nuclear power include: the storage and management of dangerous high level radioactive waste the possibility of proliferation of nuclear materials and potential terrorist applications the high cost of building nuclear facilities huge possibility of accidents.

ADVANTAGES

Production of electricity by nuclear power does not lead to the emissions of green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide etc. The amount of waste produced is much less than the waste produced in thermal power plants. The amount of energy released by nuclear reaction is much more than the energy released by coal of the same quantity.