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What are two major types of energy?

Updated: 8/10/2023
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8y ago

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SOLAR ENERGY Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar energy technologies include solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity and solar architecture, cooking, water treating process, photovoltaics, etc., which can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces. Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. The power extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow. This height difference is called the head. The amount of potential energy in water is proportional to the head. A large pipe (the "penstock") delivers water to the turbine. TIDAL ENERGY A tidal power plant makes use of the daily rise and fall of ocean water due to tides; such sources are highly predictable, and if conditions permit construction of reservoirs, can also be dispatchable to generate power during high demand periods. Less common types of hydro schemes use water's kinetic energy or undammed sources such as undershot waterwheels. WIND ENERGY Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.In a wind farm, individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage (often 34.5 kV), power collection system and communications network. At a substation, this medium-voltage electric current is increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to the high voltage electric power transmission system.The surplus power produced by domestic microgenerators can, in some jurisdictions, be fed into the network and sold to the utility company, producing a retail credit for the microgenerators' owners to offset their energy costs. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Geothermal electricity is electricity generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power plants, flash steam power plants and binary cycle power plants. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 24 countries, while geothermal heating is in use in 70 countries. Electricity generation requires high temperature resources that can only come from deep underground. The heat must be carried to the surface by fluid circulation, either through magma conduits, hot springs, hydrothermal circulation, oil wells, drilled water wells, or a combination of these. This circulation sometimes exists naturally where the crust is thin: magma conduits bring heat close to the surface, and hot springs bring the heat to the surface. If no hot spring is available, a well must be drilled into a hot aquifer. Away from tectonic plate boundaries the geothermal gradient is 25-30°C per kilometre (km) of depth in most of the world, and wells would have to be several kilometres deep to permit electricity generation.[2] The quantity and quality of recoverable resources improves with drilling depth and proximity to tectonic plate boundaries.

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12y ago
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12y ago

The six major types of energy are,

Mechanical energy, the kind of energy used by machines, lumps together kinetic energy and potential energy (that is, energy with levers, gears, and wheels that use kinetic or potential energy to convert into work). Examples of mechanical energy are the pendulum, a levered-up rock, and similar devices. At the instant the pendulum is released, it has gravitational potential energy and no kinetic energy. At the bottom of the swing, it has kinetic energy but no potential energy. It just keeps going, trading energy back and forth between these two forms. A levered-up rock can fall, thereby doing work.

Other forms in which mechanical energy is seen include landslides, avalanches, and rain. To make rain, the Sun evaporates water, which condenses into clouds. This water then falls as rain. It does work if it can be captured behind a dam, after which its gravitational potential energy is converted to electrical energy as water falls through turbines in the dam.

Earthquakes, which release energy (stored as rock strain) along fractures, exhibit large- scale land motion. Tsunamis (so-called tidal waves) are water waves caused by underwater Earthquakes and are also forms of mechanical energy.

Nuclear energy becomes available when unstable nuclei spontaneously change by throwing off particles. The decay of the neutron into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino is an illustration of the conversion of nuclear mass energy into kinetic energy. This form of energy is discussed in detail in Chapters 6 and 14.

Thermal energy is energy internal to the body, due to motion of the atoms making up the body. Hot springs such as those found all over Iceland, in Yellowstone Park, in the

Geysers, California, region, and in the city of Klamath Falls, Oregon, are of high temperature because of contact with the hot rock making up the basement of the continent. Volcanoes, such as Mauna Loa, are reservoirs of thermal energy. The steam that drives the piston in a steam engine has thermal energy. The hot gases in the cylinder of an internal combustion have thermal energy.

Electrical energy is energy stored in the back-and-forth motion of electrons in electric utility lines. Lightning involves the transformation of electrical energy into thermal energy and light energy.

Chemical energy is energy that has been stored in chemical form, such as in fuels or sugars or as energy stored in car batteries. Gasoline is a chemical that combines with oxygen and a little thermal energy to release the great amount of thermal energy stored in the chemical structure of the gasoline. Other such chemicals include sucrose, methane, ethanol, and methanol.

Electromagnetic (radiant) energy, or electromagnetic energy, is simply the energy carried by electromagnetic radiation (we call this radiation light when it is visible or near the visible region). It is this energy that makes the chemical storage of photosynthesis possible. Chemical energy can be converted into radiant energy by phosphorescent organisms, some deep water fish, and fireflies.(3)

Both work and heat, the transfer of thermal energy between objects at different temperatures, involve the interaction of two things. Work involves a force and a displacement. Heat is a transfer between two different objects. Heat is not a form of energy like those listed above. It is a designation for energy being transferred, not an amount contained in a body.

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14y ago

magnetic

kinetic

heat

light

gravitational potential

chemical

sound

electrical

elastic

nuclear

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5y ago

Some Different Kinds of Energy

Energy can be classified as either stored (potential) energy and working (kinetic) energy. All energy can be measured in "Joules".

Potential Energy = the energy that an object has as the result of its position or state. Some examples of potential energy include: chemical, elastic, gravitational, magnetic...

Kinetic Energy = the energy that appears in the form of an object's motion. KE = 1/2mv2. Some examples of kinetic energy include: sound, electrical, light...

Mechanical Energy = kinetic and potential energy (of lifting, bending, stretching or twisting)

For instance, it is possible to calculate the potential energy of an apple that is 2 meters above the head of a businessman. The equation is: Gravitational Potential Energy = mgh.Mass = m. The acceleration due to gravity = 9.8m/s2 and h is the distance above the man's head.

Gravitational Potential Energy=
Mass
x
Gravity
x
Height
=
0.1 kg
x
9.8 m/s2
x
2 m
=
1.96 Joules

Thermal Energy = the total energy of the particles that make up a mass. Thermal energy is internal.

Heat = is a transfer of energy from one part of a substance to another, or from one object to another, because of a difference in temperature. Heat is a form of energy associated with the motion of atoms or molecules and is capable of being transmitted through solid and fluid media by conduction, through fluid media by convection, and through empty space by radiation. Heat is not contained in a mass; an object contains thermal energy.

Light Energy = Sometimes called radiant energy and is visible to the human eye. It is emitted by moving charged particles. Light sometimes behaves like particles, called photons, and at other times like waves.

Chemical Energy = The potential energy held in the covalent bonds between atoms in a molecule. Food is essentially stored potential energy.

Nuclear Energy = energy that is released when the nuclei of atoms are split (fission) or fused together (fusion).

Electrical Energy = energy that runs our appliances etc...

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15y ago

Potential energy is energy not being used, but available. Kinetic energy is the energy of an object in motion. Some other types of energy are mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, radiant, and atomic energy.

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16y ago

Although there are many types of energy there are four major grups into which energy is most commenly identefied, the fallowing are: heat, light, kenetic, and mechanical

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13y ago

some types of energy are kinetic energy, potential energy, chemical energy, and nuclear energy

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12y ago

kinetic energy,light energy,heat energy,electrical energy,chemical energy,and mechanical energy.....:))

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8y ago

The two main types of energy are Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy.

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12y ago

In a sense there are only two types of energy, Mechanical ( mass based energy mv2) and Electrical ( charge based energy ).

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