Sources of Energy | Activities in Text Book with Solution
Activity 14.8
Gather information about various energy sources and how each one affects the environment.
✅Answer:
Fossil fuels:
- They release harmful gases like CO2, nitrogen and sulphur dioxides into the atmosphere.
- Increase in nitrogen and sulphur compounds is hazardous to human and cause breathing problems.
- These gases cause acid rains. Acid rains are harmful to plant, soil and historical monuments.
- Incomplete combustion of coal produces poisonous carbon monoxide.
- Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides etc. cause global warming.
Hydroelectric plant:
- It needs a large area for the storage of water.
- It leads to a change in the ecosystem of the environment.
- Many plants and animals bury inside the stored water producing methane (a greenhouse gas).
Nuclear energy:
- It is a clean fuel. It produces a large amount of energy.
- Radioactive elements are hazardous to organisms. They affect many organs of our body and causes deformity in newborn babies.
- Wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy and oceans thermal energy do not cause any impact on the environment.
Debate the merits and demerits of each source and select the best source of energy on this basis.
✅Answer:
- Fossil fuel: Causes pollution, Non-renewable.
- Hydroelectric dam: Renewable. It causes ecosystem imbalance, high construction costs.
- Nuclear energy: Highly efficient and clean. But accidental leakage cause radioactive pollution.
- Wind energy: It is pollution-free. But it can be installed only in hilly and ocean regions.
- Solar energy: Pollution-free. But can be used only during the day and in clear sky.