School Energy Resources

There isn’t a single “best” renewable energy source - the ‘best’ will depend on where it’s used and what it’s used for. However, if we break it down by efficiency, reliability, and other factors, we can figure out the best options for different locations.

🏆 Most efficient: Hydropower! Electricity from moving water is one of the most efficient sources of renewable energy, as large dams can convert over 90% of the energy from water into electricity. This is much more efficient than solar panels, which are 15-22% efficient, or wind turbines, which are 35-45% efficient.

• Best for: areas with rivers and lots of water.
• Limitations: Dams can harm ecosystems and need suitable geography, such as mountains and rivers.
  

🏆 Most reliable: Geothermal! Heat from deep underground is constant because the Earth’s heat is always available and doesn’t depend on the weather. Even if the ground is covered in snow, it will be warm underground.

• Best for: areas with volcanoes or underground heat.
• Limitations: not everywhere has volcanoes and accessible underground heat!
  

🏆 Easiest to use: Wind and solar! Solar panels and wind turbines are the most common renewable sources because they can be set up almost anywhere. Plus, they’re some of the cheapest forms of energy around. Solar also has the added benefit of being scalable, which means it can be used on both small projects - like powering a single house - and large projects - like a solar farm to power a city.

• Solar Best for: sunny regions like deserts and/or rooftops
• Wind Best for: open areas with consistent winds like along the coast
• Limitations: both depend on the weather and time of day. However, if you add a battery to capture excess energy, this limitation is reduced.

It depends where you are! On a large scale, wind can make more energy than solar, but solar is better on houses, and take up less space as they can go on your roof.

And if you’re in Scotland, for example, you have a lot more wind than sun. But if you’re in Australia, you might get a lot more out of solar panels!

But you could argue that as the sun creates the currents of air and the rotation of the Earth that creates the wind, wind energy is sun energy!

Most things that can be electrified - that is, things that only need electricity to run - can run on renewables. But there are still some areas where that’s tricky.

Aeroplanes need a lot of energy stored in a small space. Currently, jet fuel is lighter and takes up less space than the battery that would be required to power a long-haul flight.

But there are lots of innovations happening in aviation that make it better for the environment. For example, ‘biofuel’ is being used more and more to power planes. Biofuel is a replacement for the normal fossil jet fuel, and is made from renewable materials like grain, seeds, and algae (things that can grow back), as well as waste from farms and forests. As well as being from renewable sources, biofuel emits far fewer carbon emissions than normal jet fuel.

We met an adventurer just the other day who’d flown in a solar-powered plane!

Yes, some planes do run on solar power, but they’re the small ones. Planes need a lot of energy to work.

Big jumbo jets that you see in the sky and carry hundreds of people are so heavy that they require a lot of fuel, so it’s trickier to make them electric or to run them on renewable energy.

So most planes don’t run on renewable energy now, but maybe in the future as technology gets better.

Hydrogen power is clever stuff. To make it, scientists take water and split it into two parts: hydrogen and oxygen, using electricity.

The hydrogen is then sent through pipes or special trucks to places where it’s used to make electricity. These places are like big batteries called fuel cells or power plants.

Once the electricity is made, it travels through power lines to your home!

Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is the UK's largest renewable power station, generating enough electricity to power about five million homes! It generates energy using biomass - such as wood, crops, manure, and household waste.

The biggest solar farm in the UK is Llanwern Solar Farm and Battery Storage in Wales. It has 187,500 solar panels, and covers the same area as 147 football fields.

Even better, the farm’s teamed up with Natural Resources Wales and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, to “restore the landscape for the specific benefit of rare birds, small mammals, and invertebrates.”

The largest wind farm is Hornsea 2 - a giant wind farm in the North Sea, next to, well, Hornsea. It covers 462 square kilometres (64 MILLION football fields!) and can power 1.4 million homes.

There are 1,561 hydropower plants in the UK - making up about 2.1% of the country’s energy.

A key reason there’s not more of it is because of environmental concerns. Many potential hydroelectric sites are in areas of protected natural beauty, and hydroelectric dams can drastically change the local landscape and rivers they’re built on. This in turn can negatively impact the animals and plants in the surrounding area.

Of course, money is also a factor. Constructing and running a hydropower plant is likely to be more expensive than building a wind or solar farm, especially as wind and solar projects have received a lot more funding from the Government.

Carbon emissions are the release of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels.

Often we just call all greenhouse gases ‘carbon emissions’ as it’s easier, so when you hear ‘carbon emissions’ it means not only carbon dioxide, but other gases like carbon monoxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - all gases that contribute to the 'greenhouse effect' and climate change.

The greenhouse effect is the process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect is one of the things that makes Earth a comfortable place to live, but if there's too many gases trapping too much heat, it can disrupt weather patterns and ecosystems.

Some less developed countries have an advantage in that they aren’t stuck in old systems made especially for fossil-fuels. This means, with the right help, they can skip the big fossil fuel systems and go straight to renewable ones. And there are various ways the international community can help them do this.

Big companies, governments, and local people can team up to make green energy projects happen. For example, Octopus Energy is helping build a wind farm in Sierra Leone, a country in Africa, to get clean electricity to people who don’t have much power.

Or, instead of building huge power stations, we can make small systems just for a village or a few houses. These can be things like solar panels on rooftops or small windmills.

For example, some villages use tiny "microgrids" that share green energy between a few homes.

And in countries or areas that don’t have a lot of money, ways to pay little by little can go a long way. Imagine if you could pay for electricity like you do for a phone, bit by bit, instead of buying everything at once. This makes it easier for families to afford solar panels or batteries.

Yes! Solar panels can work in pretty much any weather - they just won’t work as well compared to a really sunny day.

That said, sometimes snow on the ground can reflect sunlight and actually improve the panel's performance! Just make sure you wipe the snow off the panels first.

And of course, if the solar panel is connected to a battery, you can keep using solar power during bad weather, and even at night.

Technically solar panels do work with light reflected from the moon. BUT this light is much weaker than direct sunlight, so doesn’t power much! A full moon only gives about 0.3% of the energy the sun would give directly.

Even if the moon did reflect more energy back to us, it would only be effective near a full moon, so only a few days a month. And it would probably mean the full moon was even brighter, so a lot of animals, including us, might get very confused about whether it’s day or night.

It’s windier out at sea! The speed of the winds out at sea can be much higher than on land, as there’s nothing in the way to slow it down, like mountains or buildings.

The direction of the wind is also much more consistent, again because there’s nothing in the way to change its direction. This means offshore installations can often produce the same amount of energy with fewer turbines than an onshore wind farm.

There are a few reasons why farmers might have wind turbines in their fields. They can use the energy from the wind to power their farm and all their equipment.

They could also make more money by selling the energy from the turbine to other people.

And turbines don’t take up much space, so they can still use the land around it for farming. It's a win-wind!

How many houses a wind turbine can power depends on how big the turbine is. The average turbine that you see on land can produce enough energy to power 1,500 households for a whole year. And the average turbine you see out at sea can power over twice that many households!

There are two main types of wind turbines - Horizontal Axis and Vertical Axis wind turbines.

Horizontal axis wind turbines are the ones that you usually see all around the UK that look like big white pinwheel fans. These normally face one direction, and everything needed to generate electricity is at the top of the tall column, between the blades - in its ‘nose’, if you will. These turbines are very strong and built to withstand strong winds, especially the ones out at sea!

Vertical axis wind turbines are becoming more popular as they can be placed closer to the ground and are better for placing on roofs. They’re also lighter and easy to use in towns and cities.

Horizontal Axis Turbine

Vertical Axis Turbine

If we stopped using wind turbines, we’d lose one of the most important, widely-available, cheap, clean energy sources in the world.

We’d have to go back to relying more on fossil fuels, which would increase the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and speed up the negative effects of climate change.

Countries with strong winds, like Scotland, would miss out on a clean, reliable way to produce electricity, and likely end up having to pay more for fossil fuel-generated energy. In fact, we’d all likely end up with higher energy bills, as fossil fuels and nuclear are more expensive than wind. Plus, lots of jobs would disappear, especially in rural and coastal areas where there are lots of wind farms.

All in all, wind turbines are a key part of the shift away from fossil fuels to a clean energy system that’s good for the planet, and we’re lucky we have so many of them to use (though we could always do with more!)

Yes, but it’s very different to wind here on Earth, and air isn't involved at all. Instead, our solar system is full of solar wind! It’s a stream of energy and plasma from the sun.

Solar wind can create ‘storms’ that impact Earth and interfere with electronics such as radio and GPS signals. Sometimes you can see this ‘wind’ at the north or south pole, in the form of auroras.

Running out of fossil fuels would create major challenges but also major opportunities.

We’re already working hard to create energy systems that don’t rely on fossil fuels so we’ll be ready when they do run out in around 150 years.

But if we were to suddenly run out of fossil fuels tomorrow, there’s a few things that would happen:

1. A global energy shortage. Many industries, homes, and transport options rely heavily on fossil fuels, so there would be power outages, increased energy costs, and major disruptions to industries worldwide. You wouldn’t be able to get anywhere in your petrol-powered car or in most aeroplanes!
   
2. Manufacturing would slow down. Many industries like cement and steel production often use coal or natural gas, so they’d need to find new ways to power themselves.
   
3. Renewable energy sources would be built very quickly to overcome power outages, and innovations in batteries and smart grids would likely happen rapidly too, to ensure reliable power.
   
4. Electric vehicles would become the norm and all long-distance travel would rely on alternative fuels like biofuel or hydrogen.
   
5. Climate change might slow down significantly, giving the planet a chance to recover. The air would be cleaner and people healthier. Ecosystems would be restored in areas once used for mining or drilling.

Coal is the real bad guy when it comes to fossil fuels and climate change.

Natural gas emits 50 to 60 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned in new, more efficient natural gas-power plants compared to emissions from a typical new coal plant. But drilling, moving, and shipping gas from one country to another uses A LOT of energy, and some gas leaks into the atmosphere before we can burn it, which also isn’t good. So when added all together, gas isn’t that much better than coal.

The least-used of all the main non-renewable energy sources is nuclear energy. Nuclear is ‘non-renewable’ because we still need to mine uranium to generate energy.

Even though some countries, like France, rely heavily on nuclear power, it only makes up about 10% of electricity production globally. By comparison, coal makes up 36%, oil 31%, and gas about 23%. This is because while oil and gas can be also used in transportation and heating, nuclear is mainly used to generate electricity.

A nuclear plant is also very expensive to build and can take a long time, so many countries turned to other ways of producing energy that would save time and money.

Also, nuclear energy produces radioactive waste, which lasts for a long time and is tricky to dispose of or store safely.

But as it’s one of the cleanest non-renewable options (as it doesn’t produce greenhouse gas emissions) nuclear energy is making a come-back. The UK Government has said it plans to build smaller versions of nuclear power plants in the coming years.

All together, humans use 200,000 years’ worth of fossil fuels each year. Considering all these fossil fuels took around 60 million years to produce, we’re using it a LOT faster than it can be made! But even if we could make more of them, we still shouldn’t use them because of the greenhouse gas emissions they create.

In the UK, we use a lot of energy every year, but last year only 31% of all the energy we used came from fossil fuels - the lowest level in 66 years.

The reason we’re using much less fossil fuel is because of how much renewable energy we now have, plus the fact we’re using less energy as all our devices become more efficient.

We use energy to cook food, light our homes, power our vehicles and more. It keeps businesses, shops, transport and hospitals open. While it would be possible to live without electricity and gas (like the cavemen did!) it would be much harder to do all those everyday things we need to survive.

A typical British household in 2024 uses around 11,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) of gas and 2,700 kWh of electricity per year. That works out at about £143 a month or £4.70 a day.

Electricity is always there when you flip the switch, but unless you have solar panels on your roof or you live near a wind farm, it usually has to travel a long way to get to your home. That’s why we have what’s known as ‘the national grid’. This big electrical system uses poles and wires to connect generators to homes across the UK, so electricity can get where it’s needed.

Generally, the average house takes about 30 minutes to heat up or cool down, but every home is different. Next time your heat comes on at home, why not time it?

Yes, you can use multiple sources of energy at the same time! Whether it’s renewable sources like solar and wind, or traditional sources like heating from your gas boiler. Most of the time all of these sources flow onto the grid together, so whatever you get at home when you turn on a switch will be a mix of all of them.

To create a greener, cleaner future, we want more homes to be kitted out with things like solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicles so that we rely less on fossil fuels in the future.

There are so many things you can do to make save your school energy and make it more environmentally friendly! Here are just a few ideas:

1. You can assign students as Energy Monitors - or eco warriors - in your classroom to ensure lights, computers, and other devices are turned off when not in use, and encourage everyone to unplug and switch off at the end of the day.
   
2. If you can, transition to LED lights throughout the school to reduce electricity consumption.
   
3. Ensure that heating is used efficiently, avoiding overheating classrooms, and make sure doors and windows are closed when the heating is on.
   
4. Recycle your paper, plastics, and cans, and even better, try having waste-free lunches - use reusable containers, lunch bags, and water bottles.
   
5. If your school has a garden, start a composting project for organic waste from snacks and lunches. Or start a garden! Create green spaces, plant trees around the school to absorb CO2 and improve biodiversity.
   
6. Create bird boxes, insect hotels, and hedgehog homes to support local wildlife.
   
7. Form a student-led eco-club to plan and promote green initiatives, such as energy-saving challenges or litter-picking drives. You could also have themed days like “Green Day” or “Walk to School Day”.
   
8. Walk, Cycle, or Scooter to School instead of using the car, and install bike racks if you don’t have them.
   
9. See if it’s possible to install solar panels to generate renewable energy straight to your school!

People might choose to use a petrol car over an electric one for a number of reasons. These include:

• Cost - Petrol cars are generally cheaper to buy and lease than EVs.
  
• Charging time - Some people might think it’s quicker and more convenient to fill up the petrol tank than charge the car.
  
• Convenience - As electric vehicles are newer, there’s still a lack of understanding around the ease and convenience of charging on the go and the number of car charging points available.

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of electric cars. They’re better for the environment, cheap to run and smooth to drive. Sales of electric cars are booming, but we’ve still got more to do to change everyone’s mindset.

Luckily, EV batteries can be recycled. Usually, recycling the battery will involve contacting the local council or taking it down to the local household waste recycling centre. EV batteries can also be repurposed into other kinds of batteries! So you could use it in your house to store solar power once it’s done powering your car.

In theory, yes, and some do exist. But most electric cars currently on the market can’t be powered just by solar panels. This is because the surface area of a standard car simply isn’t big enough to hold the number solar panels you would need to capture the energy required to power the car.

Of course, if you charge an electric car using power from solar panels, then your car is technically solar-powered! Because EVs usually have a big battery, you’ll often need a big solar panel system to charge it.

Offshore wind turbines can affect sea life, but scientists work hard to make sure the impact is as small as possible. Here’s what happens:

1. Noise: Building wind turbines underwater can make loud noises that might bother fish and sea mammals like dolphins. But special tools are used to reduce the noise during construction.
   
2. Habitat Changes: The turbine bases can change the sea floor, but they also create new homes for fish, crabs, and other creatures, almost like an artificial reef.
   
3. Safety for Animals: Big blades spinning above the water usually don’t hurt sea animals, but researchers study the area to make sure the turbines are placed where they won’t disturb animals like whales.

Yes, wildlife can help produce energy, but not directly. Instead, scientists and engineers learn from wildlife to create technologies that harness energy. For example:

🐝 Bees and Pollination: Bees pollinate plants, which helps grow bioenergy crops like corn and sugarcane. These crops can be turned into biofuels to power cars and machines.

🐠 Fish and Hydropower: By studying how fish swim, engineers design more efficient water turbines for hydropower plants, which generate electricity from rivers and dams.

🦜 Birds and Wind Turbines: Observing how birds glide in the wind has helped improve the design of wind turbines to capture wind energy more efficiently.