Q.Which one of the following is non-renewable source of energy?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Thermal energy derived from fossil fuels is non-renewable because coal, oil, and natural gas take millions of years to form and cannot be replenished on a human timescale.
Energy sources fall into two broad categories based on whether nature can replenish them within a human lifetime. Renewable sources regenerate continuously or cyclically—sunlight arrives every day, rivers flow as long as the water cycle operates, and wind blows as atmospheric pressure differences persist. Non-renewable sources, by contrast, exist in finite stocks that took geological epochs to accumulate and, once consumed, are gone for practical purposes.
Thermal power plants typically burn fossil fuels—coal, petroleum, or natural gas—to generate electricity. These fuels are the compressed, chemically transformed remains of ancient plants and microorganisms, buried under sediment and subjected to heat and pressure over tens to hundreds of millions of years. When we extract and burn them, we are drawing down a reserve that nature cannot meaningfully replace within centuries or even millennia. The rate of consumption vastly outstrips the rate of formation.
The other options represent renewable flows of energy:
- Hydel (hydroelectric) power harnesses the kinetic energy of flowing water, which is continuously replenished by the water cycle—evaporation, precipitation, and runoff repeat endlessly as long as the sun heats the Earth.
- Solar energy taps directly into the sun's radiation, which will continue for billions of years and arrives fresh each day. …
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