Energy Resource Issues - Human Impact on the Environment - Lecture Slides, Slides of Geology

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Energy Resource Issues

• Natural Resources
• Renewable vs. Non-renewable Resources
• Sustainable Development
• Energy Demand and Production
• Peak Oil
• Energy Alternatives

Technology, Energy Consumption, and

Environmental Impact

There has been a dramatic increase in:

• individual energy use over time: 3,000 kcal/person

in prehistory - 300,000 kcal/person today

• the power of technology to change the environment:

think stone axe versus bulldozer versus atomic bomb.

• The scope and severity of environmental impacts.

Energy Resources

• Non-renewable Energy Source
  • Coal, Oil, Natural Gas
  • Nuclear Power/Uranium
• Renewable Energy Sources
  • Hydroelectric
  • Solar
  • Wind
  • Biomass Fuels

California Electricity

California's 1998 Energy Portfolio Renewable Resources 11.00% Biomass and waste 2% Geothermal 5% Small Hydroelectric 2% Solar <1% Wind 1% Coal 20% Large Hydroelectric 22% Natural Gas 31% Nuclear 16% Other <1% Total 100%

Enery Resources

California Energy Commission, 1999

What Do Various Electricity Technologies Cost? Source: U.S. EIA, 2012. http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm Docsity.com

Energy Production

Energy Production

Energy Production

California Geothermal (<5%)

The Geyers, Santa Rosa, CA

World’s Largest Geothermal Plant

California Wind (1%)

Wind Turbines along San Gorgonio Pass, Interstate 10, Palm Springs, CA

• Works profitably in very windy locations.
• Large and unsightly.
• Requires lots of land.
• Works well in windy deserts where few people live. Texas has huge potential.

Docsity.com

California Nuclear (16%)

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant, Central Coast

• Uranium is a limited, non-renewable resource.
• Nuclear power is inherently dangerous.
• Targets for terrorism.
• Earthquake risks.
• Inevitable radioactive waste.

California Hydroelectric (24%)

Shasta Dam, Lake Shasta, Mt. Shasta

• Clean, renewable energy, but damage to rivers.
• Little growth since nearly all rivers in the developed world damned.
• Globally dams are still being constructed aggressively.
• China recently completed The Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam ever! Docsity.com

Fossil Fuels: How much is left?

• Reserves (Proven and

Potential)

• Much oil thought to lie under South China Sea and in NW China
• North Dakota oil “boom.”
• Arctic oil thought to be under melting sea ice.
• “Fracking” is making much more natural gas available cheaply to U.S. market.

Oil Reserves By Country (CIA World Factbook)

Natural Gas Production By Country (CIA World Factbook)

Fossil Fuels: How much is left?

• Oil: at current rates of consumption , petroleum peaks in 20-

50 years; it’s gone in 100-200 years. Estimates are very

much tied to assumptions about growth, new discoveries,

and higher cost production quantities (tar shales, etc.).

Importantly, the rate of discovery is already lower than

increasing rate of consumption!

• Natural Gas: 100-250 years worldwide at current rates;

much less if world switches entirely from oil to gas – not

likely to happen. Chances are we’ll burn both fuels.

• Coal: hundreds of years if we were to burn all the most

polluting, bituminous coal.