Energy Use: Fuels, Electricity, and Power Production
Form and Energy Use
Either to perform daily activities, energy use is required. In other times, people could only resort to physical effort, animals, firewood, the force of air, or water. But fossil fuels contribute the most.
Fuels
Special combustibles with high energetic power, from wood to fossil fuels such as coal, oil, or gas, are used directly for cooking, heating, etc.
Electricity
Most machines and devices that we commonly use work with electric power. Inside, it transforms into light, sound, or color.
Matching Energy Systems
- Conventionals:
- Renewables: Hydroelectric.
- Non-renewables: Nuclear energy.
- Alternatives: Wind, solar, biomass, tidal.
Use of Combustibles
Fossil fuels constitute the most utilized source of energy in Spain and most countries.
- Carbon: The most abundant. It is in the form of mineral. Used in thermal and steel plants for steel production.
- Petroleum: Constitutes a mixture of solid, liquid, and gas hydrocarbons. Separated through distillation in refineries. Butane gas, propane, diesel, gasoline, kerosene, or fuel oil are obtained and stored. From oil and tar, gasoline can be used to make fertilizers, plastics, and medicines.
- Natural gas: Formed by very light hydrocarbons in a gaseous state. The most important is methane gas. Its application is similar to other domestic fuels. Its employment in thermal power plants and industrial furnaces is growing because it is less polluting. Its transportation is performed by gas pipelines and oil pipelines.
Electric Power Production
Electric power plants transform the energy of the sun, wind, water, or fuels into large quantities to produce electric power. Most of them employ turbine-alternator groups.
- Turbine: Constituted by a rotating shaft and blades impelled by the force of water or steam power.
- Alternator: Transforms the rotating movement of the turbines into electricity. It has two parts: rotor and stator. It is formed by large electromagnets and rotates around a moved axis. From the stator, two cables supply power to the grid in the form of AC.
Energy Distribution
The electrical energy produced in power plants is transported to inhabited areas by high-voltage cable lines. Transformation centers near populated areas lower the voltage levels for consumption.
Conventional Thermal Power
- Combustion power plant: Fossil fuels such as coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are burned to obtain water vapor pressure that will move a turbine-alternator group to produce electricity.
- Nuclear power plant: Fission of atomic cores of radioactive materials is produced to obtain water vapor pressure that will move a turbine-alternator group to produce electricity.
- Hydroelectric power plant: Uses the energy of a water jump dammed by a dam. It moves hydraulic turbines attached to alternators to produce electricity.
- Thermal solar energy: Solar energy is concentrated by mirrors to produce water vapor that moves a turbine.
- Solar photovoltaics: Solar radiation is converted into electricity through photovoltaic cells.
- Wind Energy: Wind causes the movement of the blades of wind turbines.