Science Seeker
It is amazing to think that in the last 100 years
humans have managed to walk on the moon and
send a robot to Mars, and build power ful computers
that can fit into our pockets. However, we are
creating electricity in a way that is slowly killing life
on our planet!
Most of our energy comes from the burning
of oil, coal, and natural gas. These are known as
“fossil fuels” as they were formed millions of years
ago, created by layers of dead and buried animals
and plants exposed to intense heat and pressure
over millions of years.
THE CARBON “QUILT”
We burn these fuels to create steam that turns
turbines that power generators. The problem is
that when we burn these fuels, we release huge
amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is a gas that behaves like a blanket
or a greenhouse around the planet, and is causing
temperatures to rise, changing the weather and
climate, and creating all sor ts of problems for life
ever ywhere on Ear th, from the oceans to the poles.
What’s more, coal, oil and gas are in limited
supply and will eventually run out.
But there are so many other better ways! And
people have known about them for thousands
of years...
REMARKABLE RENEWABLES!
Renewable energy sources are those that will never
run out, and the most common ones normally use the
power that is found in the world around us – in the
wind, water, sunlight and even the heat of the Ear th.
But how does it work? How do we capture
Nature’s power?THERE ARE INCREDIBLE ENERGY
SOURCES FOUND IN NATURE,
THAT WILL NEVER RUN OUT AND
GIVE US CLEAN, GREEN POWER!
The Sun is an immense furnace, so big that
960,000 Ear ths could fit inside it. It is like a huge
nuclear reactor, generating a mind-boggling
amount of light and heat; at its centre, it burns at
15 million degrees centigrade. (And you thought
Singapore was hot!)
This huge amount of energy can be captured
using solar panels. Solar panels are “photovoltaic”.
Photovoltaic (or “PV”) is a name for the process by
which solar energy is turned into electrical energy.
This happens in the silicon cells that are put
together to create the solar panels, which react
with light to produce an electrical current. This
current is conver ted into the kind of electricity
we can use in our homes and buildings. And
if a building’s own solar panels produce more
electricity than the building can use, it can always
be channelled back into the power grid.THE SUN
GOING GREEN!