Study Notes UGC NET Paper-1 Environment - Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy

By Vimlesh Kumar Awasthi|Updated : May 17th, 2023

The National Eligibility Test, also known as UGC NET or NTA-UGC-NET, is the examination for determining the eligibility for the post of assistant professor and/or Junior Research Fellowship award in Indian universities and colleges. There are 2 papers in UGC NET Exam i.e., Paper -1 & Paper - 2. Also, go through the detailed UGC NET Syllabus 2023 for Paper 1 for better understanding.               

 

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What Is Renewable Energy?

  • Renewable energy, regularly referred to as clean energy, comes from normal sources or cycles that are continually renewed. For instance, daylight or wind continue sparkling and blowing, regardless of whether their accessibility relies upon time and climate.
  • Since we have progressive and more affordable approaches to capture and hold wind and solar energy, renewables are turning into a more significant source, representing more than one-eighth of the U.S. generation. The development in renewables is additionally occurring at scales both huge and little, from rooftop solar boards on homes that can sell power back to the grid to giant offshore wind farms. Even some entire rural communities rely on renewable energy for heating and lighting.

Types of Renewable Energy Sources

Solar Energy :

  • Solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells are produced using silicon or different materials that change daylight straight forward into power. Distributed solar systems create power locally for homes and organizations, either through rooftop panels or local area projects that power whole areas. 
  • Sun oriented energy systems don't create air toxins or ozone harming substances, and as long as they are responsibly sited, most sunlight panels have not many ecological effects past the assembling cycle.

Wind Energy :

  • Wind energy turns a turbine’s blades, which feeds an electric generator and produces electricity.
  • Wind, which represents somewhat more than 6% of the U.S. generation, has become the least expensive fuel source in numerous regions of the country. Top wind power states incorporate California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, however, turbines can be put anyplace with high wind speeds—like peaks and open fields—or even seaward in untamed water.
  • Biomass Energy 
  • Biomass is a natural material that comes from plants and creatures and includes crops, waste wood, and trees. At the point when biomass is burned, the compound energy is delivered as warmth and can produce power with a steam turbine.

Geothermal Energy :

  • The world's centre is probably just about as warm as the sun's surface, because of the sluggish decay of radioactive particles in rocks at the central point of the planet. Boring deep wells carry extremely hot underground water to the surface as a hydrothermal resource, which is then siphoned through a turbine to make power. Geothermal plants commonly have low emissions in the event that they siphon the steam and water they use once more into the supply.
  • There are approaches to make geothermal plants where there are not underground reservoirs, but rather there are worries that they may expand the danger of tremor in regions previously viewed as geographical problem areas.

Tidal and Wave energy:

  • Tidal and wave energy is as yet in a developmental stage, however, the sea will consistently be controlled by the moon's gravity, which makes harnessing its force an alluring alternative. Some tidal energy approaches may harm natural life, like tidal floods, which work similar to dams and are situated in a sea cove or tidal pond.
  • Like flowing force, wave power depends on dam-like constructions or seafloor secured gadgets on or just underneath the water's surface.

What Is Non- Renewable Energy?

  • Energy exists freely in nature, some of them are endlessly accessible called sustainable/renewable, and some are called non-renewable. Non-renewable power is restricted assets that will run out over time. Non-renewable energy is one that doesn't renew itself at an adequate rate for maintaining financial extraction in meaningful human time spans. 
  • Non-sustainable power is energy from petroleum derivatives like coal, fossil fuels such as coal, crude oil, natural gas, and uranium. In contrast to renewable power, non-renewable power needs human intervention to make it reasonable for utilization. Non-renewable energy sources are chiefly comprised of Carbon. It is accepted that non-renewable energy sources were shaped more than 300 million years prior when the earth was a great deal extraordinary in its scene.

Types of non-renewable energy

Natural Gas :

  • Natural gas production is frequently a result of oil recovery, as the two usually share underground reservoirs. Petroleum gas is a combination of gases, the most well-known being methane (CH4). It additionally contains some ethane (C2H5), propane (C3H8), and butane (C4H10).
  • Natural  Gas is generally not contaminated with sulfur and is accordingly the cleanest consuming non-renewable energy source. After recovery, propane and butane are taken out from the flammable gas and made into condensed petrol gas (LPG).
  • LPG is dispatched in uncommon compressed tanks as a fuel hotspot for regions not straightforwardly served by petroleum gas pipelines (e.g., rustic networks). The excess petroleum gas is additionally refined to eliminate pollutants and water fume and afterwards shipped in compressed pipelines. 

Coal :

  • Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world with an estimated reserve of one trillion metric tons. Most of the world's coal reserves exist in Eastern Europe and Asia, but the United States also has considerable reserves.
  • Coal formed slowly over millions of years from the buried remains of ancient swamp plants. During the formation of coal, the carbonaceous matter was first compressed into a spongy material called "peat," which is about 90% water. As the peat became more deeply buried, the increased pressure and temperature turned it into coal.

Petroleum :

  • Crude oil or liquid petroleum is a fossil fuel that is refined into many different energy products (e.g., gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heating oil). Oil forms underground in rock such as shale, which is rich in organic materials.
  • After the oil forms, it migrates upward into porous reservoir rock such as sandstone or limestone, where it can become trapped by an overlying impermeable cap rock. Wells are drilled into these oil reservoirs to remove the gas and oil.
  • Over 70 per cent of oil fields are found near tectonic plate boundaries because the conditions there are conducive to oil formation.

Nuclear Energy :

  • In most electric power plants, water is heated and converted into steam, which drives a turbine generator to produce electricity. Fossil-fueled power plants produce heat by burning coal, oil, or natural gas. In a nuclear power plant, the fission of uranium atoms in the reactor provides the heat to produce steam for generating electricity.

Shale gas :

  • Oil shale and tar sands are the least utilized fossil fuel sources. Oil shale is a sedimentary rock with very fine pores that contain kerogen, a carbon-based, waxy substance. If shale is heated to 490º C, the kerogen vaporizes and can then be condensed as shale oil, a thick viscous liquid. This shale oil is generally further refined into usable oil products. Production of shale oil requires large amounts of energy for mining and processing the shale.
  • Environmental problems associated with oil shale recovery include large amounts of water needed for processing, disposal of toxic wastewater, and disruption of large areas of surface lands.

We hope you all have understood the important points related to Renewable and non-renewable energy in this part of the 'Mini Series'. For the next Mini-Series, you can drop your suggestions in the comment box.

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