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GCSE Questions: Energy Sources

Q13.All European Union countries are expected to generate 20% of their electricity using renewable energy sources by 2020.

The estimated cost of generating electricity in the year 2020 using different energy sources is shown below:

Energy source

Estimated cost (in the year 2020)

in pence per kWh
Nuclear
7.8
Solar
25.3
Tidal
18.8
Wind
10.0

 

France generated 542 billion kWh of electricity using nuclear power stations in 2011.

France used 478 billion kWh of electricity and sold the rest of the electricity to other countries in 2011.

(a) France may continue generating large amounts of electricity using nuclear power stations instead of using renewable energy resources. Suggest two reasons why.

Any two from:

cost per kWh is lower (than all other energy resources)

the infrastructure for nuclear power already exists in France and the cost of setting up renewable energy resources would be high - also many renewable power stations would be needed to replace one nuclear power station

nuclear power is more reliable than renewable energy resources

[2 marks]

(b) Give two disadvantages of generating electricity using nuclear power stations.

Any two from:

non-renewable

high decommissioning costs

produces radioactive / nuclear waste

long start-up time

nuclear accidents have widespread implications - for example Chernobyl and Fukushima

[2 marks]

(c) A panel of solar cells has an efficiency of 0.15

The total power input to the panel of solar cells is 3.2 kW.

Calculate the useful power output of this panel of solar cells in kW.

Efficiency = Useful power output/total power input

0.15 = Pout/3.2

Pout= 0.15 x 3.2

Pout = 0.48 kW

 

[2 marks]

(d) The table below shows the manufacturing cost and efficiency of different types of panels of solar cells.

Type of Solar Panel
Cost to manufacture a 1 m2 solar panel / £
Efficiency / %
A
40.00
20
B
22.50
15
C
5.00
10

 

Some scientists think that having a low manufacturing cost is more important than improving the efficiency of solar cells. Use information from the above table to suggest why.

The higher the efficiency, the higher the cost per m2 to manufacture. Doubling efficiency costs you eight times as much so it is not economic to improve efficiency.

So double the electricity could be generated for the same manufacturing cost using eight times as many lower efficiency C solar panels than A ones.

[2 marks]

(Total 8 marks)