The race to produce more of our power from renewables is on – but fossil fuels remain the mainstay of our energy economy, powering our cars, heating our homes and helping produce substances including plastic.
Fossil fuel was also our A-Z of Energy competition word of the month and we had a bumper crop of entries to pick a winner from.
Thank you to all the pupils and schools who entered, we enjoyed reading all of your submissions.
But it was 10-year-old Hannah Anderson’s entry that we liked the most.
With thanks to Shell, she has won her school an iPad2. Shell has produced its Inside Energy app, which is packed with information on energy through videos, animations and photo galleries.
Two more iPad2s are also winging their way to the winners of our next two letters, G and H, standing for Geothermal and Hydrogen energy.
Their entries will be published in August and then in September, when we will announce what the next word, for the letter I, will be in our A-Z of Energy competition. Be sure to look out for it in the Press and Journal on the first Monday of September and enter.
F for Fossil Fuels: by Hannah Anderson
Fossil fuels are used for many different things, coal is used for fires, oil is used for cars, bikes and making things less squeaky and gas is used for barbecues and heating but all of them can be used for making electricity.
Coal fires can be handy when your heating breaks down and you can just get some coal and a fire lighter and you can be warm without the heating. I had never seen a coal fire until I went to my granny’s. My granddad uses oil for a lot of things, he fixed my bike when it was squeaky and fixed the garage door when it was squeaky too.
500 million years ago, oil started out as plankton which lived in the bottom of ancient lakes and seas. The plankton died and sank to the bottom of the lakes and seas. The dead plankton was buried under heavy sand and mud. The sand and mud were pressed together and turned to rock. Bacteria munched on the plankton which turned it into dark ooze. Then the oil rigs collect it and that is how oil is made.
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