Largest tidal turbine in the world unveiled

The AK-1000 is 22.5m tall and is believed to be the largest tidal turbine in the world. (BBC Report)

Oil Spill Latest: BP underestimated effects

BP tries to clean-up oil slick

more to follow...

US Oil Slick threat to the Environment

An explosion on an Oil rig of the coast of the South East USA has caused a 'state of emergency' due to the potential threat to the environment from the resulting oil slick. This is an example of how the socio-economic gains from the exploitation of fossil fuels can have a potentially devastating effect on the wildlife and environment. It is estimated that 5,000 barrels per day of oil are leaking from the rig, and even though efforts have been made to try and mitigate the effects, US politicians and environmentalists fear the worst.

Parts of the slick have been set on fire, and British Petroleum (BP) who owns the rig have used boats and inflatable booms to try and collect the 3 mile long slick.

F762 Energy: UK Nuclear Power

Here is the BBC link for the article that you were given on the UK's move to increase its use of Nuclear Energy. This can be used on two types of questions:
1. On a question asking how demand for energy is being met
2. On a question about sustainability between demand and the environment

Y12 Energy and Development: The UK

This video describes the current 'energy mix' of the UK (click on it to play):

Exclusive: KHS is throwing energy away!!

Grace and Rachel report on the shame of KHS...specialist school?...specialist in wasting energy!

Global Oil Reserves

Short video (from the lesson) on Global Oil Reserves.

Proved Oil Reserves- Definition: quantities of oil that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions

Energy: UK 'could face power shortages'

The BBC reports (click here) that the UK could face shortages in power in the years ahead and that consumers may find the prices too expensive.

Ofgem says the the industry need £200bn of investment but believe that energy companies would need incentives to invest that kind of money.

Ofgem reports that energy companies should be required to deliver more generation capacity and gas storage. They also suggest the formation of centralised market control.

Brazil gets planning permission for 3rd biggest dam in the world!

The Brazilian government has given an environmental license for the one of the worlds biggest hydro-electric dams in the Amazon rainforest (click here for link).

The dam will be built at Belo Monte on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon. Environmentalists fear that the dam will cause devestation to the rainforest, affecting 40,000 people through flooding, damage fish stocks and also threaten the survival of indigenous people (see photo).

The initial project has always faced stiff opposition, and was abandoned in the 1990's. The Brazilian government has said that the new plan has been modified in order to appease the environmental concerns. The winning bidder who gets permission to build the dam will have to pay millions of pounds in compensation to protect the environment.

The new dam will create enough electricity to power 23 million homes, and help meet the demand of the growing Brazilian economy. The dam will be the 3rd biggest in the world, behind the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipu Dam jointly owned by Brazil and Paraguay.

The new dam will continue to cause conflicts between environmentalists and politicians, as well as provide us geographers with a nice case-study!! Naturally we hope that it doesn't go ahead...

Energy: BP profits hit by lower oil prices

The oil giant BP has reported reduced profits due to a decrease in world oil prices (click here for bbc news report).

Its replacement cost profit (see table for definitions) fell from $25.59bn in 2008 to $13.96bn in 2009.

However, the company reported that its oil and gas production increased by 4% and its reserves had grown for a 17th successive year

REPLACEMENT COST PROFIT Replacement cost profit is the reporting measure typically used by oil companies and reflects the current cost of supplies The measure strips out gains or losses related to any changes in the value of the firm's stock of fuel products

F762 The Energy Issue Overview:

The OCR Syllabus has provided the following information to use as a guide for the topic:

-All Major energy company websites (Shell, Esso etc)

-Major Newspapers (Guardian Unlimited) (Times Online)

-BBC

-DTI (Department for Trade and Industry)

-The Carbon Trust

-The Energy Saving Trust

-www.developments.org.uk (DFID)