Question

As a society we get energy from:

• Fossil fuels • Hydroelectric plants • Nuclear power plants • Wind turbines • Solar cells

For each of these, trace what forms of energy are involved in getting energy from the source to your home.

Answer 1

In the society, we get energy from fossil fuels. We have many fossil fuel power plants that burn coal or oil and create heat, which is a form of energy, that is further used to generate steam to drive turbines and generate generate electricity that is used in our homes.

In hydroelectric plants, the high velocity of water is used to generate electricity. The water is released from the upper reservoir into a lower reservoir. This leads the turbines to spin forward, which in turn generates electricity that is used in our homes.

The nuclear power plants generate heat energy due to fission(which is an exoergic process), that can be used by a turbine generator to convert it into electricity that is useful to the society.

The wind turbine converts the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy which can be used in low energy applications like batteries in our homes.

The solar cell converts the light energy into elctrical energy by the photovoltaic effect, that can be used in lighting devices, etc. in our homes and society.