Year 11 - Geography
Costs and benefits to fossil fuel alternatives
Energy
Study Hub
Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit teaches pupils about different energy resources, their extraction and uses. Pupils learn about the different types of energy, the factors affecting extraction and the patterns and inequalites associated with production and consumption. Pupils also learn about energy futures.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to assess the costs and benefits of alternatives to fossil fuels.
Key Notes
- The UK's energy mix has diversified in response to policies of reducing carbon emissions and improving energy security.
- 2020 was the UK's first year in which more electricity came from alternatives to fossil fuels than from non-renewables.
- Alternatives to fossil fuels can reduce carbon emissions, improve energy security and diversify the energy mix.
- Alternatives to fossil fuels include biofuels, wind, solar, HEP and future technologies such as hydrogen.
- Alternatives to fossil fuels have both benefits and costs.
Vocabulary To Learn
- energy mix: the combination of different energy sources used by a country or a region. The energy mix can change over time
- energy security: the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price
- carbon footprint: the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by an individual, product, process, country, etc
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- If you got your electricity from 100% renewable energy sources, then your carbon footprint would be zero.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this geography topic using two clear key points.
The UK's energy mix has diversified in response to policies of reducing carbon emissions and improving energy security. 2020 was the UK's first year in which more electricity came from alternatives to fossil fuels than from non-renewables.
2. Define this geography term and use it in an example. 'energy mix'
the combination of different energy sources used by a country or a region. The energy mix can change over time.
3. Correct this common geography misunderstanding.
Mistake: If you got your electricity from 100% renewable energy sources, then your carbon footprint would be zero. Correction: Even if all your electricity comes from renewables, other parts of your lifestyle (like the manufacture of the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the technology you use) still produce carbon emissions elsewhere — often in other countries.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Changing attitudes to unsustainable energy consumption Study Guide
- Changing oil supply and prices Study Guide
- Classification of energy – non-renewable, renewable and recyclable Study Guide
- Developing conventional oil/gas sources in sensitive or remote areas Study Guide
- Developing unconventional oil/gas sources in sensitive or remote areas Study Guide
- Distribution of oil reserves, factors affecting growth of oil consumption Study Guide
- Energy futures – contrasting views Study Guide
- Environmental impacts of energy extraction Study Guide
- Factors affecting access to energy resources Study Guide
- Global patterns of energy use and causes of variations Study Guide
- Reducing demand on fossil fuels Study Guide
Browse all guides in the Year 11 Geography guide library.