Republic of the Philippines

Province of Cebu
City of Talisay
TALISAY CITY COLLEGE
Poblacion, Talisay City, Cebu
2nd Semester, Academic Year 2022-2023

PEE Elec: People and Earth’s Ecosystem

Module Writer Alpha Jane N. Mila, RN Department General Education
Module Reviewer Alpha Jane N. Mila, RN

Course Facilitator Contact No.

E-mail address
Program & Year Credit Units 3
Course Description This course is designed to focus and explore the way in which human activity
impacts the natural environment and how modifications lead to significant
consequences due to human activities. The course also continues with the study of
living and non-living organism and its components of their environment, and
concludes with introducing human dependence on natural resources for energy
and materials, the effects of human overpopulation and overconsumption of
Earth’s systems.
Culminating Outcome Create an innovative community – based environmental management plan that
explains the availability of natural resources and human behavior to the community
where they live
Midterm Unit Outcome Analyze and examine the local based – human activities that impacts the
environment

Student’s Name Curricular Yr.& Sec.

Contact No. Time Allotment
Residence Inclusive Date/s

Course Material 3 Energy resources

CONTENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Renewable energy At the end of this module, you will…
sources  Identify, describe and explain the different energy sources
 Non-renewable energy (renewable and non-renewable energy sources);
sources  Explains how heat from inside the Earth is tapped as a source of
energy (geothermal) for human use; and,
 Cite ways on how to conserve energy to prevent or lessen the
environmental impacts that results from exploitation, over
extraction of resources.
ENGAGE
In this module, you will know that energy resources are essential for any society, be it one dependent on
farming or an industrialized country. Therefore, understanding the concept of energy resources involves all types of
energy source from various scientific and technological standpoints, with a focus on the uses, limitations and
consequences of using energy that is available to humanity.
This module also focuses of how much energy human society uses and the basic concepts of energy, work,
power and efficiency, then briefly investigates the different types of energy available, their sources, renewability
(conservation) .

Picture Analysis

Figure source: https://www.google.com/search?

q=ENERGY+RESOURCES+-+BULB

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EXPLORE
Essential Question:
Why is energy important in the everyday lives of people? What is energy?
Let’s find out and start how ENERGY works mysteriously in our daily activities!

According to the Open University (2016) until about 8000 years ago people relied mostly on hunting, gathering for
food, and burning wood to keep them warm. Their exact energy demands can at best only be estimated but to
survive they probably needed about as much energy as it takes to run a couple of ordinary domestic light bulbs
continuously. When agricultural development came, although wood was still the chief fuel, animal power, dung and
charcoal were also used. Even today, such energy sources based on natural biomass dominate the lives of human
populations in the so-called Third World' or 'developing countries like our country PHILIPPINES.

The 19th century heralded a large increase in energy use in what were to become industrialized countries
particularly the use of coal. Homes and other buildings were heated; factories and railways were powered by steam
engines, mining and chemical industries developed and agriculture became more mechanized.
The emergence of technological societies in the 20th century resulted in an even larger increase in energy use for
manufacturing, agriculture, transport and a host of other applications. In technologically advanced countries the
largest increases have been in using gas for heating, oil products for transport, and electricity as a convenient means
of transferring energy generated by a variety of sources.

From the article written by Aust, A. (2014) stated that there are 2 categories of energy resources (Renewable
and Non-renewable). Non-renewable energy resources, like coal, nuclear, oil, and natural gas, are available in limited
supplies. This is usually due to the long time it takes for them to be replenished. Renewable resources are
replenished naturally and over relatively short periods of time. The five major renewable energy resources are solar,
wind, water (hydro), biomass, and geothermal.

Renewable energy resources

A renewable energy source means energy that is sustainable - something that can't run out, or is endless, like
the sun. When you hear the term 'alternative energy' it's usually referring to renewable energy sources too.
 Biomass – an organic matter that contains stored energy produced by heat within the Earth’s crust
(example: wood, garbage, crops etc.)
- This is the conversion of solid fuel made from plant materials into electricity. Although fundamentally,
biomass involves burning organic materials to produce electricity, and nowadays this is a much cleaner, more
energy-efficient process. By converting agricultural, industrial and domestic waste into solid, liquid and gas
fuel, biomass generates power at a much lower economic and environmental cost.
 Geothermal – Harness heat from earth’s underneath (example: hot springs, fumaroles, lava etc.)
- Geothermal energy is the heat that comes from the sub-surface of the earth. It is contained in the rocks and
fluids beneath the earth’s crust and can be found as far down to the earth’s hot molten rock, magma.
- To produce power from geothermal energy, wells are dug a mile deep into underground reservoirs to access
the steam and hot water there, which can then be used to drive turbines connected to electricity generators.
 Hydroelectric – produced energy by falling water (example: Dams)
- As a renewable energy resource, hydro power is one of the most commercially developed. By building a dam
or barrier, a large reservoir can be used to create a controlled flow of water that will drive a turbine,
generating electricity. This energy source can often be more reliable than solar or wind power (especially if
it's tidal rather than river) and also allows electricity to be stored for use when demand reaches a peak. Like
wind energy, in certain situations hydro can be more viable as a commercial energy source (dependant on
type and compared to other sources of energy) but depending very much on the type of property, it can be

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 used for domestic, ‘off-grid’ generation.
 Wind energy – energy in wind (example: wind mills/turbines)
- Wind is a plentiful source of clean energy. Wind farms are an increasingly familiar sight with wind power
making an ever-increasing contribution to the National Grid. To harness electricity from wind energy,
turbines are used to drive generators which then feed electricity into the National Grid. Although domestic
or ‘off-grid’ generation systems are available, not every property is suitable for a domestic wind turbine.
 Solar energy
- energy from the sun or heat coming from the sun
- Sunlight is one of our planet’s most abundant and freely available energy resources. The amount of solar
energy that reaches the earth’s surface in one hour is more than the planet’s total energy requirements for a
whole year. Although it sounds like a perfect renewable energy source, the amount of solar energy we can
use varies according to the time of day and the season of the year as well as geographical location. In the UK,
solar energy is an increasingly popular way to supplement your energy usage.

Non-renewable energy resources

A non-renewable resource refers to a natural resource that is found beneath the earth, which when
consumed, does not replenish at the same speed at which it is used up. The resources typically take millions of years
to develop. The main examples of non-renewable resources are fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, which
humans regularly draw to produce energy
 Coal
- is obtained either by mining deep beneath the Earth’s surface or by strip mining. (Strip mining-a process in
which rock and soil are stripped from the Earth’s surface to expose the underlying materials to be mined.
- is created by compressed organic matter, and it contains carbon and hydrocarbon matter. It is formed from
plant-filled swamps that have been covered by sediments for millions of years. Coal is extracted by digging
up the ground and taking out the coal solids for processing into energy.
- The main types of coal are anthracite, lignite, bituminous coal, and sub-bituminous coal. Bituminous is found
in the United States. It contains 45% to 86% of carbon. It has a high heat content and is used in generating
energy and in making steel and iron.
- Anthracite contains 86% to 97% carbon, and it has the highest heating value. It is much harder to find than the
other types of coal and is used in the metal industry.
 Petroleum and natural gas are removed from the Earth by drilling wells into rock that contain these
resources.
 Natural Gas
- Natural gas is a gaseous non-renewable resource that is found below the earth’s crust but near crude oil
deposits in the subsurface. Natural gas primarily consists of methane, but may also contain other forms of
natural gas such as propane, ethane, and butane.
- Methane is odorless, and it is mixed with a special additive to give it an odor for easy detection in case there
is gas leakage. Once natural gas is extracted, it is sent to processing plants to remove propane and butane,
which are used as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Natural gas is used for heating homes, as well as for
cooking in gas ovens, stoves, and grills.
 Fossil fuels
- formed from the buried remains of plants and animals that lived in swamps millions of years ago
- Fossil fuels are formed due to the continuous heating and compressing of organic matter buried beneath the
earth’s surface. The organic matter mainly comprises of plant and animal remains that have decomposed,
heated, and compressed over millions of years to form fossil deposits.
- The deposits are extracted through drilling or mining, and they can be in liquid, gas, or solid form. Fossil fuels
are highly combustible, making them a rich source of energy.
 Nuclear energy
- alternative source of energy that comes from the nuclei of atoms
- Apart from fossil fuels, the other category of non-renewable resources is nuclear fuels. It is primarily
obtained through the mining and refining of uranium ore, a naturally occurring radioactive element below
the earth’s surface.
- Uranium is found in small quantities, and miners often gather the uranium deposits for refining and
purification. The mineral generates power through a process known as nuclear fusion, which creates enough
pressure to run turbines and generate nuclear power.

From Wikipedia (2020) most of the countries that placed in the pacific ring of fire usually use geothermal

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energy like our country Philippines as their main source of energy-electricity. The Philippines is one of the world's top
producers of geothermal power, owing to its location along the Ring of Fire zone of Pacific volcanoes but still
considered as a third world country. The country commissioned the 12-megawatt Maibarara Geothermal Power
Plant-2 on March 9, 2018, in Santo Tomas, Batangas. Geothermal power plants use steam to produce and generate
electricity. The steam comes from reservoirs of hot water near a stream or hot spring or more below the earth's
surface. The steam rotates a turbine that activates a generator, which produces electricity.

According to the International Geothermal Association (IGA), worldwide, the Philippines ranks second to the
United States in producing geothermal energy. As of 2010, the US had a capacity of 3093 megawatts of geothermal
power, while that of the Philippines was 1904 megawatts. As of 2017, the International Renewable Energy Agency
estimates the Philippines' net installed geothermal energy capacity to at 1.9 gigawatts (GW) out of the global
geothermal installed capacity of 12.7 GW ranking behind the United States (2.5 GW) and ahead of Indonesia (1.5 GW).
It also estimates that the country can potentially generate 2.1 GW from geothermal sources by 2025.

Whether the natural resources we use are renewable or non-renewable, one must be responsible, sensitive
and careful in using them like only use them, when necessary, recycle to reuse etc. because in using all those energy
resources has its own advantages and disadvantages – be it helpful or harmful to us.

Learning Check:
Instruction: Answer the following questions in 2-3 sentences.

1. What is the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources?

2. Why coal can cause air population?

Supplementary materials:
 Philippine geothermal power (n. d.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_the_Philippines
 Philippine energy consumption (2005).
 https://psa.gov.ph/content/october-2004-household-energy-consumption-survey

KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING
Assessment Task 1 Comprehension Check
Instructions: Read and analyze each statements and identify whether the statements is correct
or incorrect based on the underlined word/s.
Help Guide Learning to manage one’s visualization of facts
Read and answer the questions given
Basis for Rating: Ratings will be based from the number of Your Rating/Total 20
correct answers or responses to the given Points
items

Direction: Draw a if the statement is correct and if the statement is incorrect based on the
underlined word/s.
ASSESS

Statements Answer:
A. Global warming affects waterpower generation
B. Energy is a fuel
C. Heat can be created or destroyed and cannot be conserved
D. Energy is associated only with movement
E. Energy and power plants that uses turbine and generators is an
example of renewable energy resourcse
F. Solar energy is almost limitless source of energy
G. Fossil fuel emission is not harmful
H. Philippines is a country that greatly dependent on renewable
energy resources like fossil fuels
I. Oil, natugal gas and coal are called nuclear energy
J. Crude oil is a naturally occuring hydrocarbon gaseous resource

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 CRITICAL THINKING
Assessment Task 2 Illustration 0f Hydropower energy (drawing with explanation)
Instructions: Illustrate the processes of how does hydropower energy works and how it can
harness and generate electricity. Explain each process/steps and its important
parts.
Help Guide Be creative in making the illustration
Use keywords as labels for each steps/process
Use the spaces below for the illustration
Basis for Rating: Content – 4x5 =20 Creativity – 3x5=15 Your Rating/Total 75
Process -4x5=20 Points
Analysis – 4x5=20
Take note:
- Format: Landscape, use variety of colors (be creative)
- Use another sheet of paper

CREATING
Assessment Task 3 Article Analysis
Instructions: Read and examine the given article below carefully.
Write your answers in 8-10 0r more sentences for the given questions.
Help Guide Understand and organize the data’s given
Explain your interpretation about the data using your own words.
Rubric: See attached rubric at the end of this module

China’s plan to cut coal and boost green growth

By: Spotlight (August 26,2020)

Innovations in energy-storage technology are a mainstay of the nation’s bid to reduce its reliance
on fossil fuels. In global energy rankings, one country stands out. China is the world’s hungriest consumer
of energy worldwide — demanding the energetic equivalent of almost 3.3 billion tons of oil last year.
Since 2011, it has burnt more coal than all other countries combined. And its reliance on this fossil fuel
adds up: China emits around one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases, the largest share of any
country. But these figures are only part of the story: China is also the world’s most prolific producer of
wind energy, with the capacity to make more than twice as much as the second-largest generator, the
United States. And it has about one-third of the world’s solar-generation capacity, building more systems
last year than any other country.
Rapid growth in its population and economy over decades, combined with a huge manufacturing
industry and mass migration into street-lit, centrally heated cities, have turned China into a power-hungry
nation. Recognizing this hunger and the damage that a long-term reliance on fossil fuels would have, the
Chinese government has made plans to address the country’s energy needs. And science and technology
— in fields such as battery technologies, photovoltaics and energy management — are at the heart of
those plans. A reduction in the net energy demand is not part of the policy, even as China’s energy mix
shifts. According to the energy company BP, in 2018 China accounted for 24% of global energy
consumption. The firm estimates that, by 2040, China will still be at the top of the list, and will account for
22% of global consumption.
The country has made massive investments in renewables, depositing 0.9% of its gross domestic
product (GDP) into the sector in 2015 — the third-highest amount worldwide after Chile and South Africa,
which each invested 1.4% of GDP. Still, only 23% of the energy that China consumes is from ‘clean’ sources
(including natural gas), whereas almost 58% was from coal in 2019 — the most-polluting of the options
that are still in wide-scale use worldwide. (Much of the remainder of China’s energy comes from oil and
from nuclear power.)
Action on pollution
The burning of coal and other non-renewables to sate the country’s hunger for energy has
become a visible problem, with large cities such as Beijing often swathed in a thick smog. Air pollution
became so bad in parts of China in 2013 that the media dubbed it an airpocalypse, with citizens enduring
particulate levels up to 30 times those deemed safe by the World Health Organization. And despite efforts
to combat the issue, 48 Chinese cities still feature among the top 100 most-polluted cities in the world.
These levels of pollution have forced further action. In December 2016, the Chinese government
introduced a development plan for renewable energy as a supplement to its overarching 13th five-year
plan for social and economic development, spanning the period 2016–20, which had been released earlier
that year. It included a commitment to raise the proportion of its renewable and non-fossil-fuel energy
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 consumption to 20% by 2030. This pledge, Premier Li Keqiang promised, would strike heavy blows against
the joint problems of air and water pollution arising from the country’s reliance on coal.
“Developing cheap solar and wind energy to replace fossil energy has become the core energy
strategy of China to reduce air pollution,” says Hong Li, a researcher who works on solid-state lithium
batteries at the Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy in Beijing, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’
Institute of Physics. Hong Li, who is involved in developing nationwide plans for new energy technologies,
also points out that the levels of electricity generated by renewable sources — which vary with the
amount of sun or wind — can be less consistent than those from fossil-fueled power plants.
“It’s harder to merge solar and wind power with the electricity grid” than to include coal-based
power, says Hong Li. Renewable energy is “less reliable and that can make the grid unstable without
advanced control systems in place”.
For example, in 2017, more than 30% of the renewable power produced in the sunny, windy provinces of
Xinjiang and Gansu in northwest China was never used. That was because it couldn’t be delivered to
where it was needed: the highly populated megacities of eastern China, such as Shanghai and Beijing,
thousands of kilometres away (see ‘Less energy wasted’).
It’s a dilemma that has led the Chinese government to invest billions of dollars in high-voltage lines, to
transmit power generated in sunny, windy regions across the vastness of China. This includes a 22.6-
billion-yuan (US$3.2-billion), 1,600-kilometre line from Qinghai in western China, which was completed in
May. It runs through Gansu, all the way to Henan province in the centre of the country.
Another way of ensuring that renewable power is available when needed is to increase the
capacity for storing it. This can be achieved using technologies such as batteries, pumped-storage
hydroelectricity and thermal storage, says Yuki Yu, founder of the clean-energy consultancy Energy
Iceberg in Hong Kong.
“Batteries can store excess power, and then release it later. Officials and scientists in China have started
to realize the implications of this for stabilizing our power grids,” says Xianfeng Li, who leads the energy-
storage division at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP).
In 2017, China released its first national policy document on energy storage, which emphasized the need
to develop cheaper, safer batteries capable of holding more energy, to further increase the country’s
ability to store the power it produces (see ‘China’s battery boost’). Technologies include lithium-ion
batteries — the type used in electric vehicles — and large-scale, stationary battery systems integrated
with wind and solar power supplies.
Driving change
The five-year plan for 2016–20 also emphasized the need for researchers to continue developing
battery technology so that electric cars can be driven farther on one charge. The bestselling electric
vehicle in China, the Tesla Model 3, has a range of around 400 kilometres (most modern electric vehicles
have ranges of 160–600 km).
“Developing electric vehicles is another important strategy to reduce pollution, especially when that
electricity comes from clean energy. Therefore, we need to develop battery technology for electric
vehicles,” says Hong Li, who says he noticed an increase in research funding for energy storage, electric
vehicles and other technologies in China in 2012. However, he points out, the country is still catching up on
the basic science of energy storage compared with leading labs in the United States and Europe, which
excel in understanding fundamental chemistry and materials science. Despite this, he says, China is more
active in applying this knowledge to create innovation in advanced battery systems. And the scale of the
country’s research environment, from universities to industry teams, has helped scientists in China to
reach a comprehensive understanding of how to develop materials and devices for the real world.
Future planning
China has some of the cheapest electricity prices in the developed world. The costs are set by
local governments and approved by the energy bureau in the National Development and Reform
Commission, which oversees macroeconomic policy. Prices are kept low to stimulate economic growth.
But despite this drive, the country has begun to phase out some subsidies for clean fuels: for example, it
will stop those for onshore wind after this year. China’s leaders hope that renewable energy sources will
become economically competitive with fossil fuels in the near future. The answer lies in developing
stronger energy-storage infrastructure.
Hong Li is an adviser on China’s national planning committee for energy-storage development. Together
with engineers and policymakers, the committee is working on a five-year research and development plan
that will begin next year. Among other elements, it will encourage scientists to develop energy-storage
technologies for the power grid that are intrinsically safer, cheaper and have a longer lifespan. Solar-
power researcher Xianglei Liu, at the School of Energy and Power Engineering at Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, says that funding is available for scientists in his field to improve China’s
clean energy production. “The government’s ambitious goal to use more clean energy means there is lots
of funding,” says Liu.
For example, last year Liu won a 1.3-million-yuan grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of
China, the country’s major grant-funding agency, to improve the heat-storage capacity of materials used
in solar thermal power plants, which generate power from the heat of the Sun, rather than from its light
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 as photovoltaic panels do. The 5-year project involves around 40 scientists from 6 academic institutes
across China. Liu has also recently begun working with the company Nanjing Jinhe Energy Materials to
develop a material that has large energy-storage density and high thermal conductivity.
Yi Jin, director of research and development at Nanjing Jinhe Energy Materials, says that because the
government is planning to reduce subsidies to renewable-energy companies, the firms that run green
power plants are keen to buy or invest in technology that will increase their output and decrease the costs
of production.
“Our technology improves the stability of renewable energy and so reduces the costs for power stations,
by making them more efficient,” says Jin.
Overall, Hong Li is optimistic that government investment and scientific progress will win out. “As long as
we develop the right policies and technologies to support them,” he says, “we can gradually reduce our
reliance on coal.”

Questions:
1. Using your own words, examine the article above and explain what makes China different from
Philippines in terms of using energy resources in relation to technology?

2. For the past 10-20 years China experienced environmental and health issues especially
respiratory problems, explain what are the causing factors that leads to these conditions and
give factual examples?

3. In matters of pollution/s, compare and contrast the ways of both countries (Philippines and
China) in solving or minimizing the hazardous effects of using non-renewable energy resources
particularly fossil fuels.

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 Rubrics :

Dimension No evidence Weak Fair Good Score/s

0 2 3 5 (Nx5)
Environmental Lacked any mention Mentioned Gave (2) examples Multiple examples of
of environmental environmental only of minimizing efforts to minimize
impacts elements but did not negative or lessen negative
give specific environmental environmental
examples impact impacts, such as
energy
consumption, waste
minimization etc.
Economic Lacked any mention Mentioned cost or Gave (2) examples Discussed multiple
of cost, location economics but did that shows innovations that
economic benefits not show any sustainable example save the taxpayer
etc. sustainable example of economic goal money, consumption
of economic goal etc.
Social Lacked any mention Mentioned social Gave (2) examples of Gave multiple
of social benefits benefit but did not concrete example examples that an
give a concrete that pertained to individual or
example that environmental community input
pertained to impacts considered,
environmental contributed in
impacts positive ways to the
community or
individual
conservation of
environmental
resources
Understanding of No understanding of Has limited Organizes and Organizes and
situation and applies the given situation understanding of makes sense of makes sense of
problem solving and no application of situation. information but information,
principles problem solving Weak application of unable to clearly interprets and
principles problem solving articulate the articulates the main
principles situation. ideas of the
Partial application of situation. Full
problem solving application of
principles to problem solving
situations principles to
situations
Total: /100
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
An introduction to energy resources (n. d.). https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php
Energy resources (2014). https://www.kqed.org/quest/64341/nonrenewable-and-renewable-energy-resources
Energy resources (n. d.). https://www.middletownk12.org

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