We explain what renewable and non-renewable energy resources are. Also, its importance and what nuclear energy is.
What are energy resources?
energy resources are the set of substances that can be used as a source of energy through different physical or chemical processes discovered by humans. These are a type of substances that generally have a natural origin, but that through industry allow us to obtain energy, especially electrical and caloric energy.
Energy resources can be of very different types and require different processes to release their contained energy. Even, from a certain perspective, the food we eat is an energy resource for our body, since through its digestion we obtain the chemical energy necessary to continue living.
Talking about energy sources is not the same as talking about energy resources. More than anything because energy sources are events, dynamics or cycles of nature that are constantly emitting usable energy, like the Sun, or that can be indirectly used to obtain it, like winds or waterfalls.
Unlike energy sources, energy resources are characterized by the fact that they require the transformation of matter to release the energy contained within.
See also: Clean energies
Importance of energy resources
In the contemporary world, energy is one of humanity's most precious assets, since can boost all types of industries that make our lives easier and more enjoyable, or that allow us to continue discovering new technologies.
Furthermore, with her we can mobilize transport, heat our homes when it's cold (or cool them down when it's too hot), cook our food or illuminate our dark nights.
Therefore, resources capable of providing energy are key today. Many of the world's political, social or economic dilemmas lie precisely in the struggles to have control over them.
Non-renewable energy resources
Non-renewable energy resources are, as their name indicates, those that are consumed when used. Their stock is not easy to replenish, so one day they will run out and disappear. Some because their quantities in the world are limited, and others because their origin processes are so slow or so difficult that it is not possible to create them at the rate at which they are consumed.
Some examples of non-renewable energy resources are:
- The oil Formed over billions of years, from organic matter from decomposing microorganisms and buried in the subsoil at enormous pressures and temperatures, this substance of fossil origin has an enormous energy capacity and is also a source of numerous chemical derivatives. useful to humanity.
- Mineral coal Of similar origin to oil, but related to immense deposits of ancient fossilized wood in the subsoil, it is also an important source of energy as fuel, and many of the world's energy industries depend on its exploitation.
- Natural gas Another fuel of fossil origin is a gas rich in hydrocarbons that is normally found in subsoil deposits, or even in oil fields in different proportions. It is basically a volatile mixture of light gases.
Renewable energy resources
On the contrary, renewable energy resources are those that they are not at risk of running out of stock in the foreseeable future given that they are either superabundant or can be obtained through relatively simple and fast processes.
Some examples of renewable energy resources are:
- The biomass It is organic matter of plant and animal origin that, accumulated and subjected to appropriate chemical and physical treatments, can become biofuels, such as bioethanol, biodiesel or biogasoil.
- Hydrogen The most abundant element in the known universe and also the simplest, it is a possible source of energy if we can control the nuclear fusion process that, within the stars themselves, causes an immense release of light and energy. This is, in fact, the energy resource of our Sun and is a technology still under research.
Continue in: Renewable resources
nuclear energy
Nuclear energy is that which consists of the exploitation of the chemical energy contained in atoms themselves, through the transformation of one element into others.
It is a process that can be used for peaceful purposes (as in nuclear power plants) or for war (as in atomic bombs). It represents one of the great achievements of modern physics in the 20th century.
Nuclear energy uses different types of energy resources, depending on the physical process that supports it:
- Fission It is the division of heavy materials such as certain isotopes of uranium and cesium, which, although rare, could be manufactured with effort in a laboratory.
- Fusion It is the union of light atoms such as hydrogen or helium, imitating what happens due to the effect of gravity in the heart of the stars themselves.
At the moment, we have mastered atomic fission, but not fusion.
References
- “Energy resource” in Wikipedia.
- “Energy resources” in e-ducativa (Spain).
- “Energy resources” in Learn with Energy (Chile).
- “Energy resources. How is the world supplied with energy today? (video) at King Juan Carlos University.
- “Energy resources” at Tulane University.
