Energy in the UK

We need energy to create gas and electricity, which is used to warm our homes, cook food, drive cars and turn our lights on and to power our devices.

Hi, I'm Tianna, and I'm on an onshore wind farm in Lancashire to find out about energy.

Wind is a renewable energy source, because it is something we never run out of. That's why in windy places like here, people build these big wind turbines that together make a wind farm.

In fact, this is one of the oldest in the UK. The wind makes the rotor blades turn, creating energy, which is transformed into electricity.

It is then sent through connective cables to the power grid and from there the electricity travels directly into people's homes. The wind turbines here provide enough electricity each year to power 6,000 homes.

There are wind farms across the UK. Some are onshore like this one. But the biggest are offshore in the sea. They make about a quarter of the energy that we use.

The biggest farms in the world, have thousands of turbines, so just think of how much energy they can make. And the great thing about renewable energy sources is that they aren't as bad for the environment as non-renewable energy sources.

Coal, natural gas and oil are non-renewable energy sources and they're taken from below the Earth in lots of different ways.

They're used to make most of our energy in huge buildings called plants, but this adds large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, which is making the temperature of our planet rise.

This can cause damage to nature and people. And we are running out of these non-renewable sources, that's why more wind farms are being built.

We are also improving ways of using other renewable energy sources, such as fast running water called hydro-power, using rays from the sun called solar power and even heat from compost called natural thermal power.

But some people think we won't be able to stop using non-renewable energy sources, because of the lack of technology, high costs, people needing more energy and communities who depend on jobs created by oil, gas and coal.

What do you think?