GCSE Geography (OCR A)

Topic Summaries

Energy supply

Strategies to increase energy supply

  Types of energy Advantages Disadvantages
Renewable Resources Biomass: burning organic materials (e.g. wood, crop waste) to generate electricity Reduces waste, cheap Leads to deforestation and air pollution
Wind: using wind turbines to generate electricity Clean, minimal infrastructure required, and widely available Visual/noise pollution, dependent on wind availability
Hydropower: using flowing water (e.g. rivers, dams) to generate electricity Reliable, powerful, and can store energy Expensive to build, can disrupt ecosystems and displace communities
Tidal/wave: using ocean movements to generate electricity Predictable, abundant, and powerful due to water density Higher costs, limited suitable locations, and potential harm to marine life
Geothermal: using heat from the Earth’s core to generate electricity or heating Reliable and powerful Limited to areas with geothermal activity, high initial costs
Solar: using panels to convert sunlight energy into electricity Clean, widely available, and can store energy Dependent on sunlight, high initial costs
Non-renewable Sources Fossil fuels: mining and burning coal, oil, or gas to generate electricity or heating Reliable, high energy output, and utilises existing infrastructure Finite resources, causes greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, can cause severe environmental damage
Nuclear power: using nuclear fission to release atomic energy and generate electricity Low greenhouse gas emissions, high energy output Risk of accidents (e.g. Fukushima, Chernobyl), radioactive waste, and high initial costs

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