Energy Security
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- Created by: EloiseEggleston
- Created on: 09-02-16 12:22
Energy supply- Physical & Human factors
- Geographical location/ Proximity to resources (China Eastern coast coal fields)
- Government stability
- Infrastructre avalalible
- Ability to access resourses (Technological advancement)
- Political relationships (Ukarain and Russia)
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Renewable// Recyclable energies
Renewable:
- Hydro-Electric power
- Solar
- Wind
- Wave
- Geothermal
- Biofuels
Recyclable:
- Nuclear
- Biomass
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Nuclear energy
Pros: 72% Fracnce energy generated by nuclear power plants
- Practically carbon neural
- Greates efficiency out of all energy options
- output per kg significantly larger than coal (One uranium fuel pellet creates as much energy as one ton of coal)
- Reliable
- Supply of raw materials- over 100 years worth of reaw materia left
Cons: Fukashima plant Japan (leak during natural disaster) // Chernobyl Ukraine disaster (Human error)
- Terrorist attack target
- Nuclear weapon creation risk (Hiroshima Japan WW2)
- Waste issues
- Health implications when exposed to radiation
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HEP
Pros:
- Flexible- energy creation when needed
- Green- relatively non-polluting
- Increases water and energy security
- Safe
Cons:
- Limited by physical location
- Requires large investment
- Affects natural biodiversity- Fish migratory patterns and drought
- Displacement of people and ecosystems through flooding
Example:
- 3 Gorges dam China
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Solar energy
Pros:
- Ubundant resource
- No GHG production
- Sustainable
- Both small and large scale
Cons:
- Intermittent- Can't be produced consistantly
- Storage of energy expensive
- Huge space needed
- Expensive to install
Example:
- Morocco largest solar farm in Africa plan- power nearly half the country by 2020
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Wind Energy
Pros:
- Sustainable
- Can be built on existing farms
- Cost effective
Cons:
- NIMBY issues
- Expensive
- Larger scale project
- Intermittent
Example: UK
- Space of 3000 onshore and 4000 offshore wind farms
- Cheapest source of energy
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Biomass energy
Pros:
- Reduced dependancy on fossil fuels
- Reduces landfil waste
- Creation of new products (Biofuels)
- Can be regrown (ubundant resource)
Cons:
- Food insecurity issues as prices rise
- No evidence for biomass to be carbon neutral energy source
- limited to small scale projects (avalibility of biofuel in petrol stations etc.)
Example:India
- 64% populaytin has access to energy
- 74% use firewood for heating
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Fossil fules
Pros:
- Technology widely avalible
- Cheap and reliable
Cons:
- Limited avalibility
- Production of GHG
- Global warming risk
- Unsustainable
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Energy pathways
What are energy pathways:
- Ways we deliver energy resources around the world
- Increasingly significant to countries with little access to their own energy reserves.
Who provides the words energy resources?
- Russia- Gas & Oil supply to majority of Europe
- Western Europe is dependent on Russia; gas supplies were cut off for Ukraine by Russia following payment disputes
- Caused supplied in Germany and France to fall by 30%
- Middle East- OPEC
- Straits of Hormunuz
- By 2030 30% of the World’s oil is likely to pass through
- Straits are historically an area of conflict; Iraq War, Gulf War and the Invasion of Iraq
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Global Energy Uncertainty
- Scale to which we can switch to renewables
- Development of new technologies
- Size of undiscovered oil // gas reserves
- Impact of rising living standards
- Emerging economies (BRICs)
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Players in Energy security
- TNC’s (Exxon Mobil,Shell and BP)
- Develpment of new technologies
- Discovering new reserves
- OPEC (Organisation of petroleum Exporting Countries)
- responsible for a large percentage of global oil and gas production.
- Are able to control the amount that is produced at any one time, and determine the price.
- Individuals, groups and organisations
- Pressure groups include conservation and environmental organisations e.g. WWF & Greenpeace.
- International Organisations concerned with the trade in energy e.g. World Bank & World Trade Organisation.
- Households, industrial activities and public utilities.
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Demand for energy
- Economic growth – Rise of the BRICs, can the world afford them to develop the same way as currednt developed countries did?
- Efficiency – increased efficiency of the thinning resources may lower the demand. Governments encourage meaningful efficiency drive, the savings could be very large.
- Population growth – the uncertainty over the expansion of the population limits the inevitability over the demand of fossil fuels in the future.
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Synoptic links
Water
- Increasign the avalibility of water though dams e.g. 3 Gorges
Superpowers
- Securing energy sources- who owns the Arctic oil (Russia, USA & Canada)
Biodiversity
- Threats to biodiversity as we develop
- Can we reduce the impact through renewable energy use?
Tech Fix
- New ways to produce energy and reduce the impacts
- Carbon capture and storage
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