3. Electricity-generating resources, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear fuel, contain more energy than the electricity that is generated from them. More electricity is generated than is put to useful purposes. Where does the energy get "lost"? Energy conversions are not very efficient. Most of the energy is lost as heat as it is converted from one form to another. There are further losses as the electricity travels from the power plants to homes and businesses, as the voltage is increased for long-distance transmission and transformed to lower voltage for use in homes and businesses. Some newer thermal power plants (those that heat water to generate electricity, including fossil fuel and nuclear power plants) are combined heat and power (CHP) plants; these power plants capture some of the waste heat to generate more electricity. The diagram shows the electricity flow in 2018. The left side shows the sources used in electricity generation, and the right side shows the end uses for generated electricity. The line widths are proportional to the amount of energy at each step of the process. Notice the difference between the amount of usable electricity for the right side) versus the amount of energy contained in the generating sources (on the left side). Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/energy-efficiency/ Total energy from all Electricity Flow, 2018 generating sources: 38.80 (Quadrillion Btu) End wess for the generated electricity coal: 12.03 Based on estimated from EIA Annual Energy Review 2018 transmission and delivery loss: 0.84 United States Energy Information Administration (cia.gov) Energy conversion losses: 23.78 conversion plant use: 0.77 loss for all sources natural gas: 11.20 Total generated electricity direct use: 0.49 end use: 15.18 commercial: 4.70 nuclear: 8.44 industrial: 3.25 gross generated: 15.03 renewables: 6.64 residential: 5.00 petroleum: 0.25 other: 0.18 other gases: 0.07 net imports: 0.15 transportation: 0.03 Using the equation %Efficiency = - Energy Out - x 100% calculate: /4 Energy In a) % Efficiency of Gross Generated Electricity from All Generating Sources b) % Efficiency of End Use Electricity (subtract transmission and delivery loss) from Gross Generated and Net Imports