Renewable and non-renewable energy

Target Language or Knowledge:

Renewable energy comes from natural resources that are naturally replenished, such as sunlight, wind and waves. Non-renewable energy comes from natural resources that are not naturally replenished, such as oil and coal. What is energy used for? Gas is used to cook our 
food and to heat our 
homes and water. We use electricity to 
power lots of things, 
such as lights, televisions 
and computers. We need energy to 
power our cars. We use diesel, petrol or electricity for fuel. Why don't we use renewable energy all the time? If the wind doesn’t blow, or if it isn’t very sunny, then there may not be enough power for everyone. Solar energy comes from the sun. The sun can be used to give us heat energy. Solar panels are used to convert 
sunlight into electricity. Wind turbines are used to convert 
wind energy to electricity. The wind blows the blades around and 
this movement is converted into electricity. A group of wind turbines is called a 
wind farm. Hydropower is energy that comes 
from moving water. Water that flows down fast-flowing rivers is used to spin turbines that generate electricity. The movement of big waves at sea can 
also be used to generate energy. Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored 
in the earth. It is always very warm underground, even if it is very cold on 
the surface. We can collect heat from underground and use it to heat our houses. The lava from volcanoes shows us how hot it is underground. Biomass means ‘natural material’. Energy can be obtained by burning natural waste materials such as scrap pieces of wood, dead trees and unused parts of crops. You can even burn the gas produced by cow manure to make energy. Coal is mined from under the ground 
and burned in large power stations to produce electricity. The coal that we use cannot be replaced so one day there will be no coal left. Burning coal is bad for the environment because lots of carbon dioxide gets 
released into the atmosphere. Oil is found deep underground and pumped up to the surface for us to use. Oil is burned at some power stations to make electricity and is also used to make fuel which we use in our cars. If we keep using oil there will eventually be none left. Nuclear power stations use uranium as fuel to make electricity. Uranium is a natural resource taken from the ground so it is not renewable.Nuclear power doesn’t produce much waste so it is a very clean way of generating energy Natural gas is found deep 
underground and is pumped into our homes. We use it to cook and burn it in a boiler to heat our water. The gas that we pump from underground will one day run out and there won’t be any left to use.

Renewable energy natural Gas electricity 
power wind sunny Solar heat convert Wind blades turbines water spin waves earth lava burning cow Coal cannot bad pumped none uranium waste deep cook