-
Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
-
Dave Jones answered on 17 Jun 2014:
It’s really difficult to say which is the best source of energy because there are so many different things we have to take into account. We have to think about cost (cheaper is better, right?) and we have to think about environmental impact (global warming and pollution are bad, so we want a clean energy source) as well as lots of other things. Also, some types of energy are better for certain places, for example solar power might be great in the desert but it’s not so efficient in the cloudy UK. So, the answer is that there isn’t a “best source” there are just lots of different types and we use them all!
No energy source will “never run out” but the closest we have would be the Sun and solar power. The Sun will keep on shining for the rest of its life, which means it will keep going for about another 6,000,000,000 years. At the current rate we are burning gas, coal and oil, they’ll probably be gone within a couple of hundred years!
-
-
Greig Cowan answered on 17 Jun 2014:
The best source of energy is definitely the Sun! In fact, in some sense it is the only source of energy we have. It is the energy from the Sun that, over many millions of years, has caused the formation of all other forms of natural resources that we can find on Earth, such as coal, gas and nuclear fuel. The energy of the Sun can also be used to give us electricity via solar panels and the impact of the Sun on the Earth’s atmosphere also causes changes in atmospheric pressure that causes wind – so the Sun is really the source of wind energy! Although we think that coal and gas will eventually run out (or at least become too difficult to extract) we know that we won’t run out of sunlight and wind power any time soon.
However, the Sun generates energy by the process of nuclear fusion, where the hydrogen gas is fused together to form heavier elements and since we know that it will eventually burn through all of its hydrogen in about 7 billion years, even the Sun will run out at some point.
-
Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 17 Jun 2014:
The ‘best’ source of energy, I think, is hydrogen nuclear fusion.
The main problem is that it’s not possible to do it on Earth in a controlled way, yet. But I believe that in the very far future, it will be.Hydrogen fusion is the was the sun produces it’s energy, so it’s like harnessing the energy source of the stars! Hydrogen is the number one most abundant element in the Universe, so it would be a much more durable energy source than anything we have on Earth, even the sun itself. Because even long after the sun runs out of hydrogen, there will still be lots of hydrogen to burn in our galaxy!
It’s also completely clean, because the only waste product is helium, which is not dangerous at all. That way, humans would be done with oil and fossil fuels and the pollution they produce, and hugely contribute to solving (or at least alleviate) global warming problems. Because it’s everywhere and very abundant, there wouldn’t be any problem with the supplies of raw resources, and so from a political point of view it would alleviate a lot of conflicts in the world.
I do think it’s even better than solar energy we could get from using very efficient solar panels, because there is still a limit to their efficiency, and, like Dave pointed out, you can’t put them everywhere. It needs to be a very sunny place. Also, even if they are very clean, there is still a lot of pollution involved in their production, for example with all the silicon needed.
But nuclear fusion is really a source of energy for the future. At the current time and in the near future, our best option is probably a combination of solar, wind power, and hydroelectricity (and maybe, to a lesser extend, nuclear fission – which is NOT the same as fusion!!).
For your second question, well sadly, even hydrogen will eventually run out. First in the sun, and then, in the very very far future, in the entire galaxy. But there is still two (related) sources of energy that will never run out.
-The first one is energy coming from small vacuum quantum fluctuations. This is a very small amount of energy, but it’s everywhere, all the time. We can observe its presence in the lab with something called the Casimir experiment. Basically it’s a form of energy that is there every time there is empty space. So as long as there is space, that energy will be there (and because it’s unlikely there will ever be time without space, it’s the same thing as saying ‘forever’!!)
-The second one is very hypothetical and has similar properties (as long as there is space, it’s there, and always in the same concentration, it’s impossible to dilute it – extremely weird, I know!!). It’s called dark energy. But it’s not a type of energy we can just use to power a factory, or something like that, it’s a very different type of energy. But we understand so little about it that we don’t even know if it’s the same thing as the vacuum quantum fluctuations or not!
-
Aimee Hopper answered on 17 Jun 2014:
I dont know about a source, but if the universe is one that will always be expanding, then everything will fizzle out to “heat” energy in the end.
Like Dave said, different types of energy have different pros and cons. Setting up something to use hydroelectric power isn’t going to work in the desert!
Comments