Are there advantages to fossil fuels?
- As far as coal is concerned, its main advantage is that large amounts of electricity can be produced in one place using it.
- Transporting oil and gas to power stations is easy and gas-fired power stations are very efficient.
- A fossil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere, so long as you can get large quantities of fuel to it. Didcot power station, in Oxfordshire, has its own rail link to supply the coal.
But what are there disadvantages?
- The main drawback of fossil fuels is pollution. Burning any fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to the greenhouse effect, warming the Earth.
- Burning coal produces more carbon dioxide than burning oil or gas. It also produces sulphur dioxide, a gas that contributes to acid rain.
- Mining coal can be difficult and dangerous. Strip mining (open cast) destroys large areas of the landscape.
- Coal-fired power stations need huge amounts of fuel, which means train-loads of coal almost constantly. In order to cope with changing demands for power, the station needs reserves. This means covering a large area of countryside next to the power station with piles of coal.
- As well as causing problems in the atmosphere, the hunt for fossil fuels also creates massive scars on the Earth.
- Oil and gas stocks are running low. Their ‘ownership’ often leads to fighting by the leading countries of the world.
Can we renew Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuels are not a renewable energy resource.
Once we've burned them all, there isn't any more, and our consumption of fossil fuels has nearly doubled every 20 years since 1900. This is a particular problem for oil, because we also use it to make plastics and many other products.