ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES
- Exploiting sources of energy disturbs the environment.
- Selection of an energy source depends on factors such as:
- Ease of extracting energy from the source.
- Economics of extracting energy from the source.
- Efficiency of the available technology.
- Environmental damage caused by using the source.
- Some energy sources are cleaner than others, causing very little environmental damage, e.g., solar energy, CNG.
- Some devices like solar cells are pollution-free, but their assembly may cause environmental damage.
HOW LONG WILL AN ENERGY SOURCE LAST US?
- Energy sources are classified as follows:
- Renewable source: They can be regenerated in nature, e.g., Sun, wind, moving water, biomass, etc.
- Non-renewable source: They cannot be regenerated in nature, e.g., coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc.
- Exhaustible sources: They will get depleted after a few hundred years, e.g., coal, petroleum, etc.
- Inexhaustible resources: They are unlimited and will not be exhausted in the future, e.g., biomass, Sun, etc.
- Non-renewable resources are exhaustible.
