Where does all earth's energy come from?

Answer 1

Nearly all the food energy on earth comes from the sun starting with photosynthesis. In the ocean depths, and other environs in which light does not penetrate, organisms depend ultimately on chemosynthesis for food energy, which fixes carbon without the initial need for sunlight.

Answer 2

Absolutely ALL energy on Earth comes from the Sun - except for energy that came from ancient suns 6 billion years ago.

Fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas came from plants and animals that died millions of years ago and were buried.

Hydroelectric power comes from the Sun evaporating water from the oceans. The water forms clouds, causing rain or snow in the mountains and the water runs down rivers to spin turbines before the rain water runs back to the sea to evaporate again.

Wind power comes from the Sun heating the atmosphere and causing winds.

Geothermal power is left-over heat from the birth of the Earth and the solar system.

Nuclear power comes from breaking apart massive atoms that were fused together in supernova explosions 6 billion years ago.

Answer 3

The most potent source of the earth's energy is the sun. The sun's energy originates in thermonuclear activity within its core, via the conversion of matter into heat, light and other radiant energy, a small part of which reaches the earth.

Hydroelectric power originates as solar energy, as the sun drives the hydrologic cycle. Similarly, wind is solar energy which drives atmospheric convection.

The earth's core is kept molten by the radioactive decay of uranium and other radioisotopes contained within it and can thus remain warm for eons (billions of years). In some regions, there is sufficient uranium within only a few kilometers of the surface to heat rocks above the boiling point of water - this is a potential source of geothermal' energy for generating electricity. This energy (like nuclear energy) is NOT solar, but instead derives from supernova nucleosynthesis of heavy isotopes in the death throes of some big ancient star.

A third source of energy is kinetic, produced by tides from the angular momentum of the lunar orbit. As we harness this energy we rob energy from the earth/moon system, slightly decreasing earth's rate of rotation while increasing the distance to the moon. This energy was left over from the formation of our solar system.

Answer 4

That depends on what you mean.

If you mean all energy on the Earth, then the overwhelming majority of the energy we have access to under normal circumstances comes in one way or another from the sun. The heat in the core is another cache of energy on Earth which is largely independent of the sun, though us surface dwellers have quite minimal interaction with it. There are plenty of other types of energy with a loose relation to the sun, but are less relevant to what I think you might mean, such as the rotational energy of the Earth, the kinematic and potential energy of the Earth-moon system, nuclear energy, etc...

All the energy in the universe is a different and complex matter. Given the age of the universe, and how readily energy can be converted back and forth between its various types (of which there are many, by the way), notwithstanding the potential for mass and energy to be converted amongst themselves, the current energy state of the universe can be understood as the result of successive and independent transformations from one energy state to the next. Going back to the fundamental creation of energy itself is unfortunately speculative, so if that is the aim of the question then the most honest answer is that we don't know. The most widely accepted and supported theories typically point to what is colloquially called the "Big Bang" though this event is difficult to explain, let alone understand, without a good understanding of high level mathematics and physics.

Answer 5

All energy comes from the sun in one form or another. With the exceptions of geothermal and radiologic (nuclear) energy.

Answer 6

From the sun, gravity, and the heat from the interior of the planet.

Answer 7

On this planet it is our sun, the internal energy of our planet, gravity or our orbit velocity.

Answer 8

Most of the energy comes from the sun .

Answer 9

Sun