What Is a Secondary Energy Source?
Most primary energy sources, such as coal and raw oil, cannot be used directly by the consumer in raw form. These primary energy sources must be converted to a usable secondary energy source such as electricity or gasoline.
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Types
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Primary energy sources include biomass (i.e. corn or wood), coal, geothermal, water, natural gas, raw petroleum (crude oil), propane, solar, uranium and wind.
Electricity
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A wind farm harnesses the wind to produce electricity. Primary energy sources such as biomass, coal, water, geothermal, propane, solar, uranium and wind are processed to form a secondary energy source, electricity.
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Gasoline
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Processing crude oil into gasoline requires numerous facilities, each handling a different part of the process. The primary energy source raw petroleum (crude oil) is processed to form the secondary energy source gasoline. The process to turn raw petroleum into gasoline requires many steps at various locations, unlike the electricity generation that takes place at a single plant.
Renewable or non-renewable?
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The primary source from which the secondary energy is created can be either renewable or non-renewable. For instance, we categorize solar energy as a renewable primary source since the sun shines day after day, but we categorize raw petroleum as a non-renewable source since it formed millions of years ago from the remains of ancient lifeforms.
Energy conservation
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Although some primary energy sources will eventually run out, such as crude oil and propane, scientists will work to find new sources of electricity and gasoline or update old ones to be financially viable. For example, ethanol, a liquid vehicular fuel made from biomass, can be mixed with gasoline and could eventually replace gasoline.
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References
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