ENERGY 102

The Role of Renewable Energy

Nonrenewable Renewable
Energy 7% Energy
Crude Oil Biomass
Oil was formed from the remains of animals Biomass energy is produced from non-
fossilized materials derived from plants.

Nonrenewable
and plants that lived millions of years ago.
Through heat and pressure they are turned
into “crude oil”. The word “petroleum” means Hydropower
“rock oil” or “oil from the earth.” energy will run out. Hydropower is electricity produced from

Renewable energy
flowing water. The Grand Coulee Dam on
Natural Gas the Columbia River in Washington State is
Millions of years ago, the remains of plants

will never run out.

the largest single electric power facility in
and animals decayed and built up in thick
the United States.
hard layers. Heat and pressure changed
some of this organic material into natural
Wind
gas—tiny bubbles of odorless gas.
Wind turbines can convert wind into electricity
when a constant wind is blowing at near to
Coal the optimum speed. The electricity generated
The energy in coal comes from the energy depends on the strength of the wind.
stored by swampy plants that lived hun-
dreds of millions of years ago. Layers of wa- Geothermal
ter and dirt covered the bottom of swamps, Geothermal energy is energy from the
trapping the energy of the dead plants. Heat 9%
hot interior of the Earth. Wells drilled into
and pressure turns this energy into coal. the Earth allow heated steam or water
to escape to the surface in a controlled
Nuclear Energy manner to operate steam turbines and
Nuclear power comes from the energy electricity generators.
stored in atoms—specifically from the atoms
of the chemical element uranium. 37% 23% Solar
Solar energy systems use radiation from the
sun to produce heat and electricity.
24%

If we don’t start using Renewable Energy...

We will run out

1 Billion Plastic
Bottles 38 912 38 billion is
the amount of
= =
of oil in about Billion Million plastic bottles
40 years at our the U.S. throws
24 Million
present rate of Gallons away in just
+ consumption of Oil one year.
5 million barrels/day 21 million barrels/day (To produce the plastic)
U.S. crude oil U.S. crude oil
production consumption

© Copyright Kelsey Kramer | kelseykramer.com