Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. March, and I'm here today to teach you all about energy Resources in the UK.

So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to discuss opportunities and challenges resulting from the UK's changing energy mix.

There are four key terms for today's lesson, and those are non renewables, carbon emissions, energy mix, and finally, renewables.

Non-renewable refers to natural sources of energy that will run out because they cannot be reproduced, such as fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas.

And finally, also nuclear power powered by uranium.

Then there's also carbon emissions, and this refers to the release of carbon into the atmosphere contributing to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Energy mix refers to the combination of different energy sources used by a country or a region.

The energy mix can change over time.

And finally, renewables.

These are natural sources of energy that will never run out such as wind, water, and solar energy.

There are three learning cycles for today's lesson, and we're gonna start with learning cycle one, which is all about the UK's changing energy mix.

Now, most electricity is generated by using a source of energy to convert water into steam.

This steam then is used to turn a turbine to drive a generator, and we can see that happening on the image in front of you.

Now, in the past, most UK electricity was generated by burning coal, and you can see a lovely illustration of how that process actually happens, once again, by converting water into steam, which turns a turbine, which then drives a generator.

Now, my question to you is what percentage of UK electricity do you think comes from burning coal today? You may like to pause the video right now whilst you consider your own answer to that question, or perhaps even better, have a discussion with someone near you.

So what did you think? Well, the answer is actually it's only about 1%.

Now, fossil fuels, which coal is one of, as well as oil and natural gas, are non-renewable types of energy.

They release a huge amount of energy when burned, but they take thousands of years to form.

This means that they just can't be simply replaced or renewed quickly enough to actually meet human needs.

As Jun says, "Burning fossil fuels also releases a carbon dioxide, doesn't it?" And Jun is absolutely correct.

Andeep says, "I guess non-renewable means these are not sustainable too." And once again, Andeep is absolutely correct.

Non-renewable means that they are very difficult or take a long time to replace, and they're not able to be replaced at the same rate that they're actually being used due to human consumption.

So time now for a quick learning check and it says, which of the following are problems with non-renewable sources of energy? Now, you can see you've got four different options there.

What you need to do is pause the video whilst you read through those options and select all the answers that you think are correct.

And the correct answers were B, burning them is a major source of carbon emissions, and D, they do not renew fast enough to actually meet human needs.

Really, really well done if you're able to select B and D as the correct answers.

Now, the combination of energy sources that a country uses to meet its energy demand is known as an energy mix.

Now, the graph on the right hand side is an example of a pie chart showing the UK's energy mix as of 2023.

So this energy mix pie chart shows the contribution of each energy source as a percentage of the total energy supply.

Let's have a look at that in a little bit more detail.

So for example, we can see that 2.

6% is made up from coal, 38.

7% made up from oil, gas makes up 32.

9%, and then we can see other types of energy there listed as well.

So a quick learning check, it says, what was the percentage share of fossil fuels in the UK's energy mix as of 2023? So you need then through video here whilst you really study that pie chart and do your best to answer this question for our learning check.

So to answer this question, then we needed to look at the fossil fuels, which of course are coal, oil, and gas, and we needed to total them up, which comes out with an answer of 74.

2%.

Yes, when we add coal with oil and gas, we come out with 74.

2%.

So really, really well done if you're able to give that answer as well.

But the UK's energy mix has not been static.

It has actually changed over time as the graph on the left hand side of the screen does a great job in illustrating.

The graph in front of you goes from 1965 all the way up to 2023, and you can see you've got different types of energy on the right hand side and they're changing values through time.

Now, if we look on the right hand side, we can see an energy mix pie chart taken from 1965.

Now, fossil fuels are making up 98% of the UK's energy mix at that time, and nearly 60% of that was from coal.

Now, as we know already in 2024, coal share was down at 2.

6%.

So there has been a huge decrease in the amount of coal that we're using to supply our energy demand, thereby illustrating how the UK's energy mix is changing over time.

But why has the UK's energy mix changed over time? Well, the first reason is this need to reduce carbon emissions to reduce our CO2.

Again, this is a challenge of global warming that we are rising to, to try to decrease our amount of carbon emissions as a result of energy consumption.

Then there's the need to improve the UK's energy security, ensuring that perhaps we are importing less fossil fuels such as coal and trying to perhaps develop our own energy base by developing renewable energy sources instead.

Then there's the reductions in domestic supplies of coal, gas and oil.

And finally, there is de-industrialization, which has certainly happened since the 1960s where there are changing energy needs.

As a result, our energy consumption as a result of industrialization is decreasing and the types of energy that would've been needed to be used for industry has also declined.

Now, renewable energy comes from sources that either don't run out or are quickly renewed or replaced.

Now, some examples include the following, which you probably have come across before, the first of course, being solar energy, i.

e.

energy derived from the sun.

Then there's wind energy and finally hydroelectric or HEP or hydro, utilising water to turn turbines, which then generates electricity.

Renewables generate electricity without releasing carbon, without carbon emissions.

Now, other sources of energy that are part of the UK's energy mix include biofuels and nuclear power.

But what are biofuels and nuclear power? Let's start with biofuels.

Crops such as maize are grown to process into biofuels.

These crops can be grown again each year and therefore they're quick to renew, which makes them renewables.

Nuclear power on the other hand, well, uranium is the fuel for nuclear power.

Uranium is non-renewable resource, as in it will run out.

However, nuclear fuel can be reused.

So nuclear power is sometimes considered to be recyclable energy.

And some other renewable energy types, in other words, sources that are quick to renew include the following.

First of all, combustion.

So burning household and business waste to generate electricity.

Then there's gasification.

So using decomposing waste to produce gas, which is then burnt to generate electricity.

And finally, heat recovery.

So capturing heat that would otherwise have been wasted from a, for example, from industrial processes, and once again using it to generate electricity.

Time now for our learning check.

And it says that the UK's biggest source of renewable energy in 2023 was.

So you need to look at that energy mix pie chart on the right hand side.

You've got four different options on the left hand side.

You need to pause the video whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer was D, wind power.

Really well done if you're able to get that answer correct.

Now, perhaps due to the UK's geographical position, the UK has some of the best wind resources in the world, especially offshore in the North Sea.

Let's have a look at that now in a bit more detail.

So around 30% of the UK's electricity is actually now generated by wind.

As non-renewable coal has declined, renewable wind has actually increased to really take up the spot which was once filled by coal.

And the graph on the right hand side does a great job in actually illustrating that point.

So we can see two lines on the graph.

We can see one in green, which is showing wind energy production.

And we can also see the purple light, which is showing coal energy production.

And so what we can see is that as energy derived from coal decreases, energy derived from wind increases.

Time once again for a learning check, and it says, true or false? While renewables are more significant in the UK's energy mix than in the past, the UK still relies on fossil fuels to meet its energy needs.

So what you need to do is pause the video here, read through that statement once again, and then decide whether you think the Statement is true or false.

And the correct answer is true.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider as to why that statement is true.

And the reason it's true is that in 1965, fossil fuels made up 98% of the UK's energy mix.

Nearly 60% of that was from coal.

Now only around 1% of the UK's electricity comes from coal while 30% comes from wind.

But although renewables are becoming more significant and around 20% of the UK's energy mix is accounted for that, fossil fuels still dominate at 74.

2%.

So the UK still relies very much on fossil fuels for energy.

Really, really well done if you're able to get those two answers correct.

Time now for our one and only practise task for our first learning cycle, and it says two describe two trends in UK electricity generation shown in this graph.

I would like you to try to also use figures from the graph to actually support your answer.

So please then pause the video here whilst to attempt this practise task.

Best of luck.

Time now for some feedback.

So your answer may have include the following.

One trend is a decline in the use of coal to generate electricity.

From 64.

5% in 1990, coal was used to generate just 1.

4% of the UK's electricity in 2023, a decline of 63.

1%.

The answer continues, a second trend is the rise of wind, which was used to produce 28% of the UK's electricity in 2023, up from 0% in 1990.

2016 was the year when wind overtook coal in terms of percentage share.

So really, really well done if you're able to include anything like that in your own answer.

Run now to our second learning cycle.

And this one is all about the UK supplies of coal, gas and oil.

The UK has supplies of fossil fuels, but production of coal, oil and gas are actually all in decline in the UK, and that seems really surprising when demand for energy is still high in the UK.

Now, we have three questions here from three different students.

Izzy says, "Is it because we don't use fossil fuels anymore?" Laura says, "Is it because UK fossil fuels are too expensive?" Andeep says, "Is it because of wanting to reduce carbon emissions?" Now, these are all really good questions.

We know that the answer to Izzy's question is no.

The UK still relies on fossil fuels for 74.

2% of its energy mix.

And the same answer goes for Andeep too to an extent.

The UK is only getting around 20% of its energy mix from renewables.

So there is still a lot of UK demand for fossil fuels.

However, it is a relevant point for coal as we'll see in a moment.

Laura is coming at the question from a really point of view, and that's a very relevant one.

Yes, to some extent, the reason why the UK doesn't increase its use of its own oil and gas is to do with how expensive that would be for the UK compared to other options.

So let's now have a look at the domestic coal supplies within the UK, because the UK still has a lot of coal, at least 3.

4 billion tonnes.

However, in the past 10 years, coal production has actually fallen by 96%.

So we need to ask our ourself this question, which is, why is the UK coal no longer being mined? Let's have a look at some possible reasons.

First of all, there's the very high carbon emissions.

Coal is not compatible with UK emission targets.

Then there's the fact that coal is no longer used for generating electricity.

So there's low demand for coal.

UK coal is mostly deep underground making it really expensive to mine actually.

And finally, other energy sources, for example, gas and wind, are now cheaper than coal.

So yes, when Andeep suggested that wanting to reduce carbon emissions was a reason why production of fossil fuels was declining in the UK, he was 100% right for coal.

Its carbon emissions are so high, when it's burnt, the UK would have no chance of meeting its climate targets if it continue to use coal to generate its power.

Time once again for a learning check.

And it says, which two of the following are the main reasons why the UK no longer uses its coal reserves to supply energy? So once again, you can see four different options on the screen.

What you need to do is pause the video here whilst to consider and then select your two answers.

And the correct answers were A, coal is more Expensive than other energy sources, and C, coal is too polluted.

So really, really well done if you're able to select A and C is the correct answers.

And of course, Andeep was correct as well by saying that coal is of course polluting.

Really, really well done.

So let's now consider domestic oil supplies because oil was discovered in the North Sea in the 1970s.

Now, the graph on the right hand side is really interesting.

It's showing US UK oil production from 1970 all the way up to, all the way up to current date.

And you can see there's rather fluctuated over time, but you can see a steady decline from around the year 2000.

So let's look at this in a bit more detail.

There are an estimated 4 billion barrels of oil left in the UK's North Sea oil reserves, but UK oil production has declined by 75% since 1999.

At the same time, oil imports have actually increased.

So why does the UK not just use its own oil? If it's on the doorstep, why not use it? In 2021, the UK spent 30 billion pounds importing oil, but in the same year it exported 28 billion pounds of oil to other countries.

The UK imports mostly refined oil products like gasoline.

The UK exports crude oil from the North Sea to be refined abroad.

It is cheaper for the UK to get its crude oil refined abroad than actually do it at home.

It is cheaper for the UK to import refined oil than refine its own oil.

Time once again for a learning check.

And it says, which of the following are correct facts about the UK's domestic supplies of oil? Its own oil supplies? So once again, you have four different options on the screen and what you need to do whilst you pause the video is read through those statements and select all the Answers that you think are correct.

And the correct answers are A, The North Sea oil reserves still have oil left, and C, UK oil production has decreased by 75% since 1999.

So really, really well done if you're able to identify A and C as the correct answers.

What about domestic gas supplies? Well, the UK has gas reserves of around 130 billion metres cubed.

These reserves are mostly, once again located in the North Sea.

UK production of gas has actually declined by nearly 60% since 2000 as the graph on the right hand side once again shows.

The UK now produces around 50% of its own domestic gas needs, which accounts for about 63.

5 billion metres cubed.

So why is it that, again, the UK exports gas? Well, until 2004, the UK was fully self-sufficient in gas, but now it imports half the gas it needs.

It also exports gas, around 35% of what it produces.

Izzy asks a really good question, "Why can't the UK produce enough gas now to be self-sufficient?" Well, most of the easily accessible gas has actually now been extracted from the North Sea, making it more expensive to produce more.

Gas demand for heating is very high in winter and a lot lower in the summer.

So the UK imports most gas just to meet that winter demand.

Furthermore, gas is produced all year, so the UK exports gas in the summer when demand is low in the UK.

And finally, imported gas is often just cheaper than the UK gas.

So for this reason of seasonal or climatic reasons as well as economic reasons, this is why the UK doesn't produce the gas to become self-sufficient.

Time once again for a learning check.

And it says true or false? The UK could supply all the gas it needs if it didn't export gas to other countries.

So what you need to do right now then is pause the video here whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer is false.

Now once again, I'd like you to pause the video as to consider as to why or how that statement is false.

And the reason it's false is that the North Sea actually no Longer produces enough gas to meet UK domestic demand.

Demand is for 63.

5 billion metres cubed while production is down at 34 billion metres cubed.

The UK exports gas because it doesn't need all the gas it produces in the summer when demand for heating is actually low.

Imported gas is also often cheaper than North Sea gas.

So really, really well done if you're able to get those two answers correct.

Time now for our one and only practise task for our second learning cycle.

And it says that, using the map on the left hand side, and we can see a GIS map layer showing gas pipelines in Northern Europe.

So using that map and the information in the boxes that you can see in the bottom right corner, assess the importance of pipelines to the UK supplies of gas.

So please then pause the video here whilst you really study that map and those two boxes of information.

And whilst you attempt these two practise tasks, best of luck.

So your answer may have included some of the following points.

Overall, it looks as though pipelines are very important for the UK supplies of gas.

It seems as though pipelines bring the UK's own gas from the North Sea and the UK gets gas through pipelines from Norway, its most important supplier up at 57%.

In addition, the UK can export its gas to its neighbours in Belgium and Ireland who take nearly 80% of UK exports.

However, not all UK imports come by pipeline.

For example, a quarter actually come from the USA.

That reduces the importance of pipelines a bit.

So really, really well done if you're able to include anything like that in your own answer.

Run now to our third and final learning cycle.

And this is all about the impacts of energy exploitation.

There are economic and environmental issues associated with energy exploitation.

For example, let's have a look at some economic issues.

There are the costs, there are the prices and finding the security.

So with regards to cost, then developing new energy sources is very expensive.

The setup costs can be high as well as the maintenance costs, for example, developing nuclear energy.

Then there's the prices.

Energy prices can rise and fall rapidly.

Low prices can mean energy sources become unprofitable very quickly.

What about security? Well, imports are often cheaper, but do leave the UK vulnerable.

UK sources increase security but add costs.

What about the environmental issues? Well, there are impacts regarding climate change, landscape change, and finally, pollution.

With regards to climate change, well, fossil fuel use is the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions globally.

With regards to landscape change, landscape scarring from mining, as well as other exploitation activities.

There's also the visual impact of turbines as well as solar farms. So it's not only renewable or non-renewable energy types which are affected of landscape change.

And then finally, pollution.

Oil spills cause water pollution as well, as well as toxic waste from nuclear energy, for example.

So let's now dive deeper on those economic issues because nuclear power is a great example of economic issues because building a nuclear power station is very expensive.

Hinkley Sea Power Station, for example, could end up costing 46 billion pounds.

Once a nuclear power station is built, the electricity it produces is more expensive than wind or solar.

But if the UK had more nuclear energy, then it would not need to import as much gas, which actually ends up saving money.

More nuclear would increase UK's energy security, protecting the UK from big increases in oil and gas prices, which are so easily affected by global conflict and other issues around the world.

Because yes, as I just said, wars, invasions and revolutions affecting oil producing regions can actually cause rapid increases in oil prices.

The graph on the right hand side does a great job in actually illustrating that point.

So we can see a variety of different wars that have happened across history, looking at perhaps the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Iraq invading Kuwait, the Iraq War in 2003, the Arab Spring.

All of these big moments in history really affect oil prices.

Conflict in oil-producing regions can reduce supply, and oil traders worry that demand will get much higher than supply.

This therefore pushes up prices sharply.

So time now for a learning check, and it says, which of the following would be economic issues rather than environmental issues? So here are your four options, A, B, C, and finally D.

So once again, you need to identify which of the following would be economic issues rather than environmental issues? So please then pause the video here whilst you read through those options and select all the answers that you think are correct.

And the correct answers are A, extremely high setup costs for a new nuclear power station, and also C, rising UK fuel prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused oil price increases internationally.

So really well done if you're able to get A and C as the correct answer.

So what about the environmental issues? Well, burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas releases carbon compounds into the atmosphere.

Now, on the left hand side you've got a great graph which is really illustrating that point.

The graph is showing CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and land use change around the world.

Now, in the grey colour, this is showing fossil fuels, burning of coal, oil and gas.

And you can see it makes up a huge majority of the total amount of carbon emissions that we're releasing into the atmosphere.

Land use change mostly resulting from deforestation is also responsible for this as well.

So using non-renewable energy sources is by far the biggest contributor to carbon emissions globally.

So a quick learning check, it says, between 1900 and 2022, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels and industry have increased by.

So you can see on the right hand side you've got a graph, one point showing 2 billion tonnes at 1900, and 37 billion tonnes in 2022.

Your job is to calculate that percentage increase.

So please then pause the video here whilst you attempt this learning check.

And the correct answer is C, 1,750% increase.

Really well done if you're able to get that answer correct.

And here is the calculation as to how I got to 1,750%.

So we take 37 billion tonnes and minus it by two, that equates to 35.

We divide it by two, which comes out with 17.

5, and we divide, or times it rather, by 100 to give us our percentage.

Really, really well done if you're able to get that answer correct.

Now, energy extraction and generation can often impact landscape.

Landscape scarring is just one example.

And we've got an excellent 3D visualisation of an area in Merthyr Tydfil, or around Merthyr Tydfil, which is a town in Southern Wales.

So I'd like you actually to really study that image that you can see on the screen and try to identify where in the image you can see landscape scarring.

You may like to pause the video here whilst you really study that satellite image.

And the landscape scarring then can be seen in two different Locations towards the top left of that image.

Now, my next question is what energy source do you think has been extracted here? Once again, you may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your answer or perhaps even have a discussion with someone near you.

And the correct answer was coal extraction.

We can see that open pit mining there or perhaps other mining activities of which South Wales is very well known for.

So really well done if you're able to get those two answers correct.

So how has energy extraction and production impact the landscape that you see in front of you? Well, we can see first of all two different types of energy production.

On the left hand side we can see an open cast coal mine, it's still operating, and we can see that landscape damage that that is done very clearly.

However, we can also see a solar farm, which again is on the site of a former mine.

Now, because it's a renewable energy type, you may be, you may think that it doesn't have any environmental damage or any landscape damage, but this just is not true.

First of all, the photo shows an area in eastern Germany and a 650 megawatt solar farm has been installed on the site of an old open cast coal mine.

And despite the fact that it clearly has a lot less environmental damage than an open cast coal mine, there will still nevertheless be physical or landscape damage as a result of its installation.

So a quick learning check, it says, true or false? Only the extraction and use of non-renewable energy has environmental consequences.

So once again, I'd like you to pause video here whilst you consider whether This statement is true or false.

And the answer is false.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause video here whilst you consider as to why that statement is false.

And the reason it's false is that renewables can also have environmental consequences too, although they generally cause less harm than fossil fuels, for example.

These consequences include landscape impacts, especially where large areas of land required, are required for energy production.

So really well done if you're able to get those two answers correct.

Extracting and generating energy can also use up land, which can also have environmental impacts.

Now, the graph on the left hand side is showing the area in square metres, which is needed to generate one megawatt of energy in an hour for different energy resources, and it's really interesting graph.

So we can see coal, gas, hydropower, nuclear, solar PV and solar PV using silicon.

And we can see that actually in terms of land use, hydropower uses the most land to create just one megawatt.

Solar PV perhaps surprisingly using silicon uses the second most.

Coal comes in at third.

Solar PV using cadmium comes in fourth.

And finally, gas comes in fifth.

And finally, nuclear uses up the least amount of space for one megawatt.

So hydropower floods large areas of land to create reservoirs.

Meanwhile, solar farms cover large areas of land with solar panels.

Time once again for a learning check.

And it says, which of the following uses the smallest area of land to generate one megawatt per hour? So you can see four different options on the screen there in front of it and you can see the graph as well.

So please then pause the video here whilst you study that graph and select what you think is the correct answer.

And the correct answer is D, nuclear.

Really well done if you're able to select D as the correct answer.

Run now to our two final practise tests for our final learning cycle.

The first one says, this table compares costs of electricity generation for one fossil fuel and three alternatives.

What you need to do is calculate the total cost.

The second question says, to discuss the costs and benefits of the Botley West Solar Farm.

And you can see I've given you a map on the right hand side, but also some information on the left hand side.

So please then pause the video here whilst you attempt these two practise tasks.

Best of luck.

And now some feedback.

So for the first question, you were asked to calculate the total cost.

So for gas turbine, it equates to 115 pounds per megawatt hour.

Offshore wind came to 43 pound, onshore wind came at 39 pound.

And finally, solar farm came at 41 pound.

For the second question, your answer may have included the following.

I've said that large solar farms like the one plant for Botley West, which is eight kilometres squared, can be expensive, up at 28 pound per megawatt hour for construction.

So there is a clear economic cost to the scheme.

The main opposition to Botley West though is environmental.

Large areas of solar panels are very different from grass or trees, and people object to this big change in the countryside.

People also argue that taking large areas of land for solar power means food production will be affected.

Looking at the map though, there would still seem to be large areas of farmland left for food production.

The answer continues, in terms of benefits, the scheme would produce power for over 300,000 homes, which is a significant number of homes.

When fuel costs and carbon costs are included, electricity from solar power is much cheaper than electricity from a gas turbine, which is 41 pound per megawatt hour compared to 115 pounds for gas.

Unlike using fossil fuels to generate power, this electricity will be 100% renewable with zero carbon emissions.

This is a major environmental benefit because it will help reduce carbon emissions and reduce the impacts of climate change.

So really well done if you're able to include anything like that in your own answer.

Run now to our learning summary, and what do you need to know from today's lesson? Well, we need to know that the energy mix in the UK has changed with renewables becoming more significant, though the UK does still rely on fossil fuels.

UK production of coal, oil and gas are all in decline.

There are though economic and environmental issues associated with energy exploitation.

So really, really well done during today's lesson.

It was a pleasure teaching you, and I will see you again on the next lesson.

Goodbye.