ENERGY CONSERVATION
PART ONE.
1) What is Energy?
2) Need for Energy Conservation.
3) Sources of Energy.
5) Why is Energy Conservation
important?
1))ENERGY. Energy is the property of objects
that can be transferred to other objects or converted into different forms
available to perform work. Energy can be obtained from different resources and
available in different forms such as below:
(a) Thermal energy obtained from Fossil Fuels(coal,oil,gas,diesel,petrol etc)
(b)Electrical Energy (c) Nuclear
energy (d) solar energy (e) Wind energy
(g)Geothermal energy (f)Hydro and
Tidal energy from water etc.
ENERGY CONSERVATION.
ENERGY CONSERVATION.
This term basically means reducing
the usage or consumption of energy by curtailing the operation of the consuming
equipment or by efficiently operating gadget or equipment while ensuring the
same or better performance with reduced input of energy sources.
The results of energy conservation
will be savings in cost of operations, better environment by reduction of
carbon footprint, national security and will prevent future resource depletion
along with many other advantages as will be seen ahead. By switching over to renewable
sources like Solar &wind power etc will result in CO2 abatement a big benefit
to the environment.
In order to know how and where energy
conservation will give us the above benefits we need to know the sources of energy,
how they are used and how conscious effective conservation efforts will bear
the desired results. Mainly by reducing usage of fuels and looking for
alternate sources of energy.
3) SOURCES OF ENERGY. The main sources of energy used around the world to produce electricity which is the driving force for most equipments or gadgets
ranging from manufacturing,
transport, ,refrigeration, comfort cooling, communication ,food processing, medical ,etc are as
follows.
1. Thermal Energy from Fossil fuels (coal,oil,natural gas
,derivatives of oil, etc)These fuels
are sources of energy that have developed
within the earth over millions of years.Since they have taken so long
to form they are considered non
renewable sources.
Picture shows Coal mining
above ground. Mining underground isalso carried out on a large scale.
Pictures show Oil Extraction using oil rigs on the high seas.
2)Solar power derives energy of the Sun through Solar Panels that can produce power .Solar Energy is now being harvested by many countries with the aim of reducing dependence on non renewable resources that are getting depleted day by day.
3) Wind energy. Wind energy is the process by which wind power is used to drive wind turbines to convert the kinetic energy in the wind to mechanical power that is connected to a generator to generate electricity .This power now generated can power residences ,businesses, education institutes etc.Wind power of the wind mills can also be used for specific tasks like grinding of grain,pumping water, or other uses in farms. Wind power is getting more popular with use of wind mills on wind farms in order to reduce consumption of fossil fuels as these fuels are not available at remote areas and transportation is difficult &expensive, and depleting.
Image Source
4) Geothermal Energy. It is the thermal
energy generated and stored in the earth. Thermal energy is the energy that
determines the temperature of the matter. This energy is clean and sustains itself and found at
different locations on the earth
which vary from hot rock and
shallow ground to hot water up to few kilometers beneath
the earth's surface. It is also available
still deeper to very high temperatures of molten rock called Magma. The process
of utilizing the thermal energy is to inject water to the high temperature
zones through pipes that will get heated and the steam generated will be used
to drive steam turbines that are connected to a generator that produces
electricity.
5) Hydroelectric Energy. This form of
energy is obtained from the potential energy in the water at an
elevated level reservoir is converted to kinetic
energy by gravitational force and
is used to drive a water turbine that is connected to a generator to produce electricity.
The water coming out of the turbine can be pumped back to the reservoir with a
low powered electrical pump.
6) Tidal Energy. The power from tides
also known as tidal power is also named Tidal Energy.
This is mainly hydro power as seen in
image that converts energy from tides to usable forms of power mainly electricity.
It is still not of wide use but has a potential for generation of electricity
useful to humanity. Tides are more predictable than wind or solar energy as per
studies.
Ocean waves contain large amount of
energy, which can be extracted through Ocean winds, Ocean currents, Ocean
Geothermal etc. if the barrage is built across the river, electricity can be
obtained by the flow of water through turbines as the tide rises and falls.
Wave
energy or wave power is essentially power drawn from waves.
When wind blows across the sea surface, it transfers the energy to
the waves. They are powerful source of energy. The energy output is measured by wave
speed, wave height, wavelength and water density.
Wave
energy is produced when electricity generators are placed on the surface
of the ocean. The energy provided is most often used in
desalination plants, power plants and water pumps. Energy output is
determined by wave height, wave speed, wavelength, and
water density.
8)Biomass energy :Biomass is the
plant and animal waste which is used as the energy. Biomass energy like manure
from livestock, plant waste etc can also be used to generate electricity. We get biomass energy directly from plants and indirectly from
the Sun.
4) What
is Energy Efficiency and how it contributes to Energy conservation.
Energy efficiency is basically
the efficient use of energy with the aim of getting a better
output with less amount of input energy. Fuel ,electricity or any other source of energy which will result
in reduced consumption of the input energy will contribute to energy conservation.
For example if a steam boiler is run with a very efficient burner ensuring perfect combustion of the fuel used
whether furnace oil, LDO etc then more
heat input will be achieved and the
consumption of fuel will be optimum adding to energy conservation compared to an inefficient burner burning more fuel in a given time
span with less heat output.
Energy efficiency is
important in use of all forms of Energy.Hence engineers and scientists are
working on improving the efficiency of all equipment and gadgets that use energy
whether from fossil fuels,electricity,solar,wind etc or any other source as
this will result in Energy Conservation which is the final objective.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
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