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sun power energy

January 24th, 2009

sun power energy
How does the Sun relate to the 10 main energy sources?

I need to know how the sun powers..
-Wind turbines (wind energy)
-Natural Gas
-Geo Thermal Energy
-Biomass
This is for a Science project.
Please help!
Thanks soo much!

With the exception of a few underrwater bacteria living around sulfur thermal vents, all living things rely on the sun for their food. Many plants and bacteria get their fuel through photosynthesis, where the sunlight is used to fuel a chemical reaction which gives the plant energy. Animals eat the plants or bacteria (algae) for their fuel, or eat the animals that eat the plants...

There are differing forms of biomass for energy... Biomass refers to biological matter that is used for fuel. You could burn the fuel directly, like putting a log (tree) on the fireplace, vegetable oil in a greasecar, or burning trash in an incinerator. Or, you can do some further processing to the biological matter to get a useable fuel, such as for biodiesel/bioheat, or ethanol from sugarcane/sugarbeets/switchgrass/corn.

Natural Gas is a fossil fuel, essentially methane. Biological materials decay, and give off this gas. We've already covered where the biological materials get their energy from...

Wind is a little more tricky... You've got areas of high and low pressures, caused by thermal currents from differing land and water temperatures. (the whole hot air rises, cold air rushes in from underneath to take its place...) What heats up the earth? Thermal energy from the sun.

As for geothermal energy, I can't say... Sadly my science curriculum didn't include much earth science. 8( sorry.

Hopefully I've at least got you started thinking about the sources of your energy!

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