Physics
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Energy sources
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Energy sources
In prehistoric times and for most of human history, sources of energy used by man were: human and animal muscle energy to produce work, the combustion of wood or, more generally, biomass, to produce heat. Later, sailing and water and windmills, introduced a first diversification regarding inanimate energy sources. The energy available per capita, before the nineteenth century, in the West, was reduced: this resulted, in pre-industrial societies, in a low mobility of people as a whole, reduced movement of goods, reduced health care, discontinuous availability of food resources, with periodic famines.
During the twentieth century there has been a significant increase in energy consumption, which has practically doubled from 1973 to 2004. This poses problems, both from an environmental point of view (for example, the greenhouse effect or waste disposal) and from a geopolitical point of view. The choice of an energy source has become a complex and important socio-political fact, which depends on the availability of resources, the cost of a source in relation to the particular conditions of a nation, the reliability of energy production plants and the protection of the environment.
The sources used today for the production of electricity are essentially the combustion of fossil fuels (coal or hydrocarbons), hydroelectricity, atomic energy from fission, wind, geothermal and solar energy.
World energy resources are the estimated maximum capacity for energy production given all available resources on Earth. Energy sources can be categorized as renewable and non-renewable.
A renewable resource is a resource that can be used repeatedly and replaced naturally (that can replenish itself at a similar rate to its use by people). Renewable and non-renewable energy sources can be used as primary energy sources to produce useful energy such as heat or used to produce secondary energy sources such as electricity.
A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that is used up faster than it can be made by nature. It cannot be produced, grown, or generated on a scale which can sustain how quickly it is being consumed. Once it is used up, there is no more available for the future.
Fossil fuels (such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas), types of nuclear power (uranium), and certain examples. Resources such as timber (when harvested sustainably) or metals (which can be recycled) are considered renewable resources. Non-renewable resources are also called exhaustible resources.
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