What is Energy?
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Energy is the ability to do something, whether it's movement, sound, lighting, heating or cooling.
Energy comes in many different forms - heat; light; electricity; chemical; nuclear; kinetic; and sound.
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Types of Energy
There are two different kinds of sources of energy that we use to power things: renewable energy and non-renewable energy.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy sources come from things that do not run out, and that we can use again and again. Renewable sources include:
- Solar energy from the Sun,
- Wind energy,
- Hydro power from water turbines near a resevoir,
- Biomass from plants,
- Geothermal energy from underground
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We're all encouraged to make more use of renewable energy sources, as they're less damaging for our planet.
Non-renewable Energy
Most of our energy comes from non-renewable sources. One day, non-renewable energy sources will run out and we will not be able to create more.
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These include fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal). They are named fossil fuels as they are created from animal and plant matter being compressed over millions of years.
Another non-renewable energy source is Uranium. Uranium atoms are split into smaller atoms to create electricity in Nuclear Power Stations (such as Wylfa and Trawsfynydd), in a process called nuclear fission.
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We are encouraged to use less non-renewable energy sources, especially fossil fuels, as they are depleting.
Next page - Where does energy come from?
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