Non-renewable energy is produced from sources that do not replenish as fast as it is used. These resources are decreasing rapidly and will run out in the future.
Most non-renewable energy is from fossil fuels. Hundreds of millions of years ago, after plants and animals died they buried deep into the soil. The energy from these dead organisms accumulated on the surface of the earth. These remains turned into fossil fuels.
Today, fossil fuels are used after drilling them out from what is called underground reservoirs. These non-renewable sources of energy are all over the world.
Examples of non-renewable energy:
Fossil fuels: Resources such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas are forms of fossil fuel. These sources of energy take thousands of years to produce and cannot replenish at the same rate as they are consumed.
Moreover, coal and petroleum emit greenhouse gasses that harm the environment. While extracting natural gas it can also pose some problems. The chemicals forced underground can leak into the water source and contaminate it.
Earth Minerals: Earth minerals and metal ores take thousands to millions of years to be produced. They are created from plate tectonics, crustal recycling, and tectonic subsidence.
There are metal ores and rare minerals and elements that have limited supply. These minerals and metal ores are in high demand and can exhaust at any time.
Nuclear energy: The material used in nuclear power plants are a non-renewable source of energy. Uranium is one such nuclear material that is limited. It is available in low concentration and is mined in 19 countries.
- In the industrial process, more than 70% of the energy is generated from non-renewable sources of energy.
- As of 2018, petroleum accounts for 34.2% of energy production, hard coal for 31.2%, and natural gas for 27.9% of energy production on a global scale.
- Uranium is responsible for 4.9% of energy production in the worldwide non-renewable energy production.
We should use more of solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy and such renewable energy, so that our environment is safe for our future generations.
