IGCSE §4: Energy Resources and Energy Transfer · IGCSE
Non-renewable Energy Resources
Revision notes on Non-renewable Energy Resources for the OCR A-level Physics specification (H556). Free to read, with 3 practice questions in the app.
Non-renewable resource — one that is being used far faster than it forms, so the supply will eventually run out.
How a power station generates electricity. Almost all of them, whatever the fuel, work the same way:
- The fuel releases energy, which heats water.
- The water becomes high-pressure steam.
- The steam turns a turbine.
- The turbine turns a generator, which produces electricity.
Only the first step differs between a coal station and a nuclear one. Knowing this sequence answers a surprising number of questions.
Fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas. Formed over hundreds of millions of years from the remains of living things, and burned to release their chemical store.
Advantages: cheap and well understood; high energy output from a small mass of fuel; reliable, so output can be raised on demand to meet peak use; existing power stations are already built.
Disadvantages: releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change; burning coal and oil releases sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain; finite reserves; extraction damages landscapes and risks oil spills.
Nuclear fuel — uranium. Energy is released by nuclear fission, in which a large nucleus splits and releases energy that heats the water.
Advantages: no carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide during generation; an enormous energy output from a very small mass of fuel; reliable and not weather-dependent; fuel reserves will last a long time.
Disadvantages: produces radioactive waste that stays dangerous for thousands of years and must be stored securely; very high building and decommissioning costs; long construction times; the consequences of an accident are severe even though accidents are rare.
A distinction worth being precise about: nuclear power is non-renewable because uranium is a finite ore, but it is low-carbon, because no carbon dioxide is released in generating the electricity. Calling it renewable because it is clean is a common and costly error.
Example: a modern gas station can go from standby to full output in minutes, which is why gas is used to cover evening peaks that wind and solar cannot be scheduled to meet.
3 questions on Non-renewable Energy Resources
Reading is not revising. This topic has 3 questions in the app — multiple choice, calculations, and written answers marked against the mark scheme, point by point. Miss one and it comes back later with its options reshuffled, so you have to know it rather than remember where the answer sat.
- Every topic of Edexcel International GCSE Physics (4PH1)
- Flashcards and every equation, linked to the topic it comes from
- Full mock papers in the real paper structure
20 minutes a day is free. No card, nothing to cancel — and the paid version never renews itself either.
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