Home · IGCSE 0625 · Motion, forces, energy · Energy resources · Practice
Practice questions · Energy resources

Sun, Earth, or nucleus.

Six original Cambridge-style questions on renewable versus non-renewable, which resources come from the Sun, reliability, and weighing environmental impact.

Original questions All questions on this page are original work, written in the Cambridge IGCSE style. They are not from past papers. They test the same concepts and skills the syllabus rewards.
What to weigh

Source, reliability, impact.

01
Analysis
[2 marks]

State the difference between a renewable and a non-renewable energy resource.

  • A renewable resource is replenished as fast as it is used, so it does not run out. ✓
  • A non-renewable resource is finite and will eventually be used up. ✓
02
Analysis
[2 marks]

Name three fossil fuels and state one environmental problem caused by burning them.

  • Coal, oil and natural gas. ✓
  • Burning them releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. ✓
03
Analysis
[3 marks]

Name three energy resources whose energy does not originally come from the Sun.

  • Nuclear (energy from the atomic nucleus). ✓
  • Geothermal (heat from the Earth’s interior). ✓
  • Tidal (the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun). ✓
04
Analysis
[3 marks]

Explain why solar and wind power are often described as unreliable, and name one renewable resource that is more reliable.

  • Solar power needs daylight and sunshine, so it gives nothing at night or in cloud. ✓
  • Wind power needs the wind to be blowing, which varies, so neither supplies energy on demand. ✓
  • A more reliable renewable is hydroelectric (or geothermal, or tidal). ✓
05
Analysis
[2 marks]

Explain how the energy stored in coal originally came from the Sun.

  • Plants captured energy from sunlight by photosynthesis, storing it as chemical energy. ✓
  • Over millions of years the buried, compressed plant remains became coal, keeping that stored energy. ✓
06
Analysis
[2 marks]

Compared with a fossil-fuel power station, give one advantage and one disadvantage of a nuclear power station.

  • Advantage: it produces no carbon dioxide (and gives a large, steady output). ✓
  • Disadvantage: it produces radioactive waste that must be stored safely for a long time. ✓