Energy is one of the most fundamental parts of our universe.

We use energy to do work. Energy lights our cities. Energy powers our vehicles, trains, planes and rockets. Energy
warms our homes, cooks our food, plays our music, gives us pictures on television. Energy powers machinery in factories
and tractors on a farm.

Energy from the sun gives us light during the day. It dries our clothes when they're hanging outside on a clothes line. It
helps plants grow. Energy stored in plants is eaten by animals, giving them energy. And predator animals eat their prey,
which gives the predator animal energy.

Everything we do is connected to energy in one form or another.

Energy is defined as:

"the ability to do work."

When we eat, our bodies transform the energy stored in the food into energy to do work. When we run or walk, we "burn"
food energy in our bodies. When we think or read or write, we are also doing work. Many times it's really hard work!

Cars, planes, light bulbs, boats and machinery also transform energy into work.

Work means moving something, lifting something, warming something, lighting something. All these are a few of the
various types of work. But where does energy come from?

There are many sources of energy. In The Energy Story, we will look at the energy that makes our world work. Energy is
an important part of our daily lives.

The forms of energy we will look at include:

 Electricity
 Biomass Energy - energy from plants
 Geothermal Energy
 Fossil Fuels - Coal, Oil and Natural Gas
 Hydro Power and Ocean Energy
 Nuclear Energy
 Solar Energy
 Wind Energy
 Transportation Energy

We will also look at turbines and generators, at what electricity is, how energy is sent to users, and how we can decrease
or conserve the energy we use. Finally, we'll look at the "newer" forms of energy...and take a look at energy in the future.

You can start with Chapter 1: Energy - What Is It? by clicking the link below. Or you can go to any of the other chapters.

The Energy Story - Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Energy - What Is It?
Chapter 2: Electricity
Chapter 3: Static Electricity & Resistance
Chapter 4: Electrical Circuits
Chapter 5: Stored Energy & Batteries
Chapter 6: Generators, Turbines and Power Plants
Chapter 7: Electricity Transmission System
Chapter 8: Fossil Fuels - Coal, Oil and Natural Gas
Chapter 9: Natural Gas Distribution System
Chapter 10: Biomass Energy
Chapter 11: Geothermal Energy
Chapter 12: Hydro Power
Chapter 13: Nuclear Energy - Fission and Fusion
Chapter 14: Ocean Energy
Chapter 15: Solar Energy
Chapter 16: Wind Energy
Chapter 17: Renewable vs. Nonrenewable - Environment & Air Quality
Chapter 18: Energy for Transportation
Chapter 19: Saving Energy and Energy Efficiency
Chapter 20: Hydrogen and Energy In Our Future
Conclusion
Chapter 1: What is Energy?

Energy causes things to happen around us. Look out the

window.

The sun radiates light and heat energy. It helps plants to grow.

At night, lamps in our home use electrical energy to light our

rooms.

When a car drives by, it is being powered by gasoline, a type of

stored energy.

The food we eat contains energy. We use that energy to work and play.

We learned the definition of energy in the introduction:

Energy Is the Ability to Do Work.

Energy can be found in a number of different forms. It can be chemical energy, electrical energy, heat (thermal
energy), light (radiant energy), mechanical energy, and nuclear energy.

Stored and Moving Energy

Energy makes everything happen and can be divided into two types:

 Stored energy is called potential energy.

 Moving energy is called kinetic energy.

With a pencil, try this example to know the two types of energy.

Put the pencil at the edge of the desk and push it off to the floor. The moving pencil uses kinetic energy.

Now, pick up the pencil and put it back on the desk. You used your own energy to lift and move the pencil. Moving
it higher than the floor adds energy to it. As it rests on the desk, the pencil has potential energy. The higher it is,
the further it could fall. That means the pencil has more potential energy.

How Do We Measure Energy?

Energy is measured in many ways.

One of the basic measuring blocks is called a Btu. This stands for British thermal unit and was invented by, of
course, the English.

Btu is the amount of heat energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree
Fahrenheit, at sea level.

One Btu equals about one blue-tip kitchen match.

One thousand Btus roughly equals: One average candy bar or 4/5 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
It takes about 2,000 Btus to make a pot of coffee.

Energy also can be measured in joules. Joules sounds exactly like the word jewels, as in diamonds and emeralds.
A thousand joules is equal to a British thermal unit.

1,000 joules = 1 Btu

So, it would take 2 million joules to make a pot of coffee.

The term "joule" is named after an English scientist James Prescott Joule who lived
from 1818 to 1889. He discovered that heat is a type of energy.

One joule is the amount of energy needed to lift something weighing one pound to a
height of nine inches. So, if you lifted a five-pound sack of sugar from the floor to the
top of a counter (27 inches), you would use about 15 joules of energy.

Around the world, scientists measure energy in joules rather than Btus. It's much
like people around the world using the metric system of meters and kilograms,
instead of the English system of feet and pounds.

Like in the metric system, you can have kilojoules -- "kilo" means 1,000.

1,000 joules = 1 kilojoule = 1 Btu

A piece of buttered toast contains about 315 kilojoules (315,000 joules) of energy.
With that energy you could:

 Jog for 6 minutes

 Bicycle for 10 minutes
 Walk briskly for 15 minutes
 Sleep for 1-1/2 hours
 Run a car for 7 seconds at 80 kilometers per hour (about 50 miles per hour)
 Light a 60-watt light bulb for 1-1/2 hours
 Or lift that sack of sugar from the floor to the counter 21,000 times!

Changing Energy

Food Energy
Energy changes form at each step in the food chain. Take an
ear of corn as an example.

Sunlight is taken in by the leaves on the corn stalk and

transformed through photosynthesis. The plant takes in
sunlight and combines it with carbon dioxide from the air and
water and minerals from the ground.

The plant grows tall and creates the ears of corn - its seeds.
The energy of the sunlight is stored in the leaves and inside
the corn kernels. The corn kernels are full of energy stored as
sugars and starch. The corn is harvested and is fed to
chickens and other animals. The chickens use the stored
energy in the corn on the cob to grow and to move. Some
energy is stored in the animal in its muscle tissue (protein) and
in the fat.

The chicken reaches maturity, a farmer slaughters it and

prepares it to be sold. It's transported to the grocery store.
Your parents buy the chicken at the supermarket, bring it
Energy can be transformed into another sort of energy. But it
cannot be created AND it cannot be destroyed. Energy has
always existed in one form or another.
Here are some changes in energy from one form to another.
Stored energy in a flashlight's batteries becomes light energy
when the flashlight is turned on.
Food is stored energy. It is stored as a chemical with potential
energy. When your body uses that stored energy to do work, it
becomes kinetic energy.
home and cook it (using energy).
You then eat the chicken's meat and fat and convert that
stored energy into energy in your own body. Maybe you ate
the chicken at a picnic. Then you went and played baseball.
You're using the energy from that chicken to swing the bat, run
the bases and throw the ball.
As your body uses the energy from the chicken, you breathe in
oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide is then
used by other plants to grow.
So, it's a big circle!

If you overeat, the energy in food is not "burned" but is stored as potential energy in fat cells.

When you talk on the phone, your voice is transformed into electrical energy, which passes over wires (or is
transmitted through the air). The phone on the other end changes the electrical energy into sound energy through
the speaker.

A car uses stored chemical energy in gasoline to move. The engine changes the chemical energy into heat and
kinetic energy to power the car.

A toaster changes electrical energy into heat and light energy. (If you look into the toaster, you'll see the glowing
wires.)

A television changes electrical energy into light and sound energy.

Heat Energy

Heat is a form of energy. We use it for a lot of things, like warming our homes and cooking our food.

Heat energy moves in three ways:

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation

Conduction occurs when energy is passed directly

from one item to another. If you stirred a pan of
soup on the stove with a metal spoon, the spoon
will heat up. The heat is being conducted from the
hot area of the soup to the colder area of spoon.

Metals are excellent conductors of heat energy.

Wood or plastics are not. These "bad" conductors
are called insulators. That's why a pan is usually
made of metal while the handle is made of a strong plastic.

Convection is the movement of gases or liquids from a cooler spot to a warmer spot. If a soup pan is made of
glass, we could see the movement of convection currents in the pan. The warmer soup moves up from the heated
area at the bottom of the pan to the top where it is cooler. The cooler soup then moves to take the warmer soup's
place. The movement is in a circular pattern within the pan (see picture above).
The wind we feel outside is often the result of convection
currents. You can understand this by the winds you feel near
an ocean. Warm air is lighter than cold air and so it rises.
During the daytime, cool air over water moves to replace the
air rising up as the land warms the air over it. During the
nighttime, the directions change -- the surface of the water is
sometimes warmer and the land is cooler.

Radiation is the final form of movement of heat energy. The

sun's light and heat cannot reach us by conduction or
convection because space is almost completely empty. There
is nothing to transfer the energy from the sun to the earth.

The sun's rays travel in straight lines called heat rays. When it
moves that way, it is called radiation.

When sunlight hits the earth, its radiation is absorbed or

reflected. Darker surfaces absorb more of the radiation and
lighter surfaces reflect the radiation. So you would be cooler if
you wear light or white clothes in the summer.

Go To Chapter 2: Electricity?

or

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter 2: What Is Electricity?

Electricity figures everywhere in our lives. Electricity lights up our homes, cooks our
food, powers our computers, television sets, and other electronic devices. Electricity
from batteries keeps our cars running and makes our flashlights shine in the dark.

Here's something you can do to see the importance of electricity. Take a walk through
your school, house or apartment and write down all the different appliances, devices
and machines that use electricity. You'll be amazed at how many things we use each
and every day that depend on electricity.

But what is electricity? Where does it come from? How does it work? Before we
understand all that, we need to know a little bit about atoms and their structure.

All matter is made up of atoms, and atoms are made up of smaller particles. The three main
particles making up an atom are the proton, the neutron and the electron.

Electrons spin around the center, or nucleus, of atoms, in the same way the moon spins
around the earth. The nucleus is made up of neutrons and protons.

Electrons contain a negative charge, protons a positive charge. Neutrons are neutral -- they
have neither a positive nor a negative charge.

There are many different kinds of atoms, one for each type of element. An atom is a single
part that makes up an element. There are 118 different known elements that make up every
thing! Some elements like oxygen we breathe are essential to life.

Each atom has a specific number of electrons, protons and neutrons. But no matter
how many particles an atom has, the number of electrons usually needs to be the same
as the number of protons. If the numbers are the same, the atom is called balanced,
and it is very stable.

So, if an atom had six protons, it should also have six electrons. The element with six
protons and six electrons is called carbon. Carbon is found in abundance in the sun,
stars, comets, atmospheres of most planets, and the food we eat. Coal is made of
carbon; so are diamonds

Some kinds of atoms have loosely attached electrons. An atom that loses electrons has
more protons than electrons and is positively charged. An atom that gains electrons
has more negative particles and is negatively charge. A "charged" atom is called an
"ion."

Electrons can be made to move from one atom to

another. When those electrons move between the
atoms, a current of electricity is created. The
electrons move from one atom to another in a
"flow." One electron is attached and another electron is lost.

This chain is similar to the fire fighter's bucket brigades in olden times. But instead of
passing one bucket from the start of the line of people to the other end, each person
would have a bucket of water to pour from one bucket to another. The result was a lot
of spilled water and not enough water to douse the fire. It is a situation that's very
similar to electricity passing along a wire and a circuit. The charge is passed from
atom to atom when electricity is "passed."
Scientists and engineers have learned many ways to move electrons off of atoms. That means that when you add up the
electrons and protons, you would wind up with one more proton instead of being balanced.

Since all atoms want to be balanced, the atom that has been "unbalanced" will look for a free electron to fill the place of
the missing one. We say that this unbalanced atom has a "positive charge" (+) because it has too many protons.

Since it got kicked off, the free electron moves around waiting for an unbalanced atom to give it a home. The free electron
charge is negative, and has no proton to balance it out, so we say that it has a "negative charge" (-).

So what do positive and negative charges have to do with electricity?

Scientists and engineers have found several ways to create large

numbers of positive atoms and free negative electrons. Since positive
atoms want negative electrons so they can be balanced, they have a
strong attraction for the electrons. The electrons also want to be part of
a balanced atom, so they have a strong attraction to the positive atoms.
So, the positive attracts the negative to balance out.
The more positive atoms or negative electrons you have, the stronger
the attraction for the other. Since we have both positive and negative
charged groups attracted to each other, we call the total attraction
"charge."
When electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of
electricity is created. This is what happens in a piece of wire. The
electrons are passed from atom to atom, creating an electrical current
from one end to other, just like in the picture.
Electricity is conducted through some things better than others do. Its
resistance measures how well something conducts electricity. Some
things hold their electrons very tightly. Electrons do not move through
them very well. These things are called insulators. Rubber, plastic,
cloth, glass and dry air are good insulators and have very high
resistance.
Where Does the Word 'Electricity'
Come From?
Electrons, electricity, electronic and other words that begin
with "electr..." all originate from the Greek word "elektor,"
meaning "beaming sun." In Greek, "elektron" is the word for
amber.
Amber is a very pretty goldish brown "stone" that sparkles
orange and yellow in sunlight. Amber is actually fossilized tree
sap! It's the stuff used in the movie "Jurassic Park." Millions of
years ago insects got stuck in the tree sap. Small insects
which had bitten the dinosaurs, had blood with DNA from the
dinosaurs in the insect's bodies, which were now fossilized in
the amber.
Ancient Greeks discovered that amber behaved oddly - like
attracting feathers - when rubbed by fur or other objects. They
didn't know what it was that caused this phenomenon. But the
Greeks had discovered one of the first examples of static
electricity (see Chapter 3).
The Latin word, electricus, means to "produce from amber by
friction."
So, we get our English word electricity from Greek and Latin
words that were about amber.

Other materials have some loosely held electrons, which move through
them very easily. These are called conductors. Most metals -- like copper, aluminum or steel -- are good conductors.

Chapter 3: Resistance and Static Electricity

As we have learned, some kinds of atoms contain loosely attached electrons. Electrons can be made to move easily from
one atom to another. When those electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created.

Take a piece of wire. The electrons are passed from atom to atom, creating an electrical current from one end to the
other. Electrons are very, very small. A single copper penny contains more than
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1x1022) electrons.

Electricity "flows" or moves through some things better than others do. The
measurement of how well something conducts electricity is called its resistance.

Resistance in wire depends on how thick and how long it is, and what it's made of. The
thickness of wire is called its guage. The smaller the guage, the bigger the wire. Some
of the largest thicknesses of regular wire is guage 1.
Different types of metal are used in making wire. You can have copper wire, aluminum wire, even steel wire. Each of
these metals has a different resistance; how well the metal conducts electricity. The lower the resistance of a wire, the
better it conducts electricity.

Copper is used in many wires because it has a lower resistance than many other metals. The wires in your walls, inside
your lamps and elsewhere are usually copper.

A piece of metal can be made to act like a heater. When an electrical current occurs, the resistance causes friction and
the friction causes heat. The higher the resistance, the hotter it can get. So, a coiled wire high in resistance, like the wire
in a hair dryer, can be very hot.

Some things conduct electricity very poorly. These are called insulators. Rubber is a good insulator, and that's why rubber
is used to cover wires in an electric cord. Glass is another good insulator. If you look at the end of a power line, you'll see
that it is attached to some bumpy looking things. These are glass insulators. They keep the metal of the wires from
touching the metal of the towers.

Static Electricity

Another type of electrical energy is static electricity. Unlike current electricity that moves, static electricity stays in one
place.

Try this experiment...

Rub a balloon filled with air on a wool sweater or on your hair. Then hold it up to a wall. The balloon will stay there by
itself.

Tie strings to the ends of two balloons. Now rub the two balloons together, hold them by
strings at the end and put them next to each other. They'll move apart.

Rubbing the balloons gives them static electricity. When you rub the balloon it picks up
extra electrons from the sweater or your hair and becomes slightly negatively charged.

The negative charges in the single balloon are attracted to the positive charges in the
wall.

The two balloons hanging by strings both have negative charges. Negative charges
always repel negative charges and positive always repels positive charges. So, the two
balloons' negative charges "push" each other apart.

Static electricity can also give you a shock. If you walk across a carpet, shuffling your
feet and touching something made of metal, a spark can jump between you and the metal object. Shuffling your feet picks
up additional electrons spread over your body. When you touch a metal doorknob or something with a positive charge the
electricity jumps across the small gap from your fingers just before you touch the metal knob. If you walk across a carpet
and touch a computer case, you can damage the computer.

One other type of static electricity is very spectacular. It's the lightning in a thunder
and lightning storm. Clouds become negatively charged as ice crystals inside the
clouds rub up against each other. Meanwhile, on the ground, the positive charge
increases. The clouds get so highly charged that the electrons jump from the ground
to the cloud, or from one cloud to another cloud. This causes a huge spark of static
electricity in the sky that we call lightning.

You can find out more about lightning at Web Weather for Kids -
www.ucar.edu/40th/webweather/

But What Is Static Electricity?

You'll remember from Chapter 2 that the word "electricity" came from the Greek words "elektor," for "beaming sun" and
"elektron," both words describing amber. Amber is fossilized tree sap millions of years old and has hardened as hard as a
stone.

Around 600 BCE (Before the Common Era) Greeks noticed a strange effect: When rubbing "elektron" against a piece of
fur, the amber would start attracting particles of dust, feathers and straw. No one paid much attention to this "strange
effect" until about 1600 when Dr. William Gilbert investigated the reactions of magnets and amber and discovered other
objects can be made "electric."

Gilbert said that amber acquired what he called "resinous electricity" when rubbed with fur. Glass, however, when rubbed
with silk, acquired what he termed "vitreous electricity."

He thought that electricity repeled the same kind and attracts the opposite kind of electricity. Gilbert and other scientists of
that time thought that the friction actually created the electricity (their word for the electrical charge).

In 1747, Benjamin Franklin in America and William Watson in England both reached the same conclusion. They said all
materials possess a single kind of electrical "fluid." They didn't really know anything about atoms and electrons, so they
called how it behaved it a "fluid.

They thought that this fluid can penetrate matter freely and couldn't be created or destroyed. The two men thought that
the action of rubbing (like rubbing amber with fur) moves this unseen fluid from one thing to another, electrifying both.

Franklin defined the fluid as positive and the lack of fluid as negative. Therefore, according to Franklin, the direction of
flow was from positive to negative. Today, we know that the opposite is true. Electricity flows from negative to positive.
Others took the idea even further saying this that two fluids are involved. They said items with the same fluid attract each
other. And opposite types of fluid in objects will make them repel each other.

All of this was only partially right. This is how scientific theories develop. Someone thinks of why something occurs and
then proposes an explanation. It can take centuries sometime to find the real truth. Instead of electricity being a fluid, it is
the movement of the charged particles between the objects... the two objects are really exchanging electrons.

Chapter 4: Circuits

Electrons with a negative charge, can't "jump" through the air to a

positively charged atom. They have to wait until there is a link or
bridge between the negative area and the positive area. We usually
call this bridge a "circuit."

When a bridge is created, the electrons begin moving quickly.

Depending on the resistance of the material making up the bridge,
they try to get across as fast as they can. If you're not careful, too
many electrons can go across at one time and destroy the "bridge"
or the circuit, in the process.

In Chapter 3, we learned about electrons and the attraction between positive and negative charges. We also learned that
we can create a bridge called a "circuit" between the charges.

We can limit the number of electrons crossing over the "circuit," by letting only a certain number through at a time. And we
can make electricity do something for us while they are on their way. For example, we can "make" the electrons "heat" a
filament in a bulb, causing it to glow and give off light.

When we limit the number of electrons that can cross over our
circuit, we say we are giving it "resistance.". We "resist" letting all the
electrons through. This works something like a tollbooth on a freeway bridge. Copper wire is just one type of bridge we
use in circuits.

Before electrons can move far, however, they can collide with one of the atoms along the way. This slows them down or
even reverses their direction. As a result, they lose energy to the atoms. This energy appears as heat, and the scattering
is a resistance to the current.

Think of the bridge as a garden hose. The current of electricity is the water flowing in the hose and the water pressure is
the voltage of a circuit. The diameter of the hose is the determining factor for the resistance.

Current refers to the movement of charges. In an electrical circuit - electrons move from the negative pole to the positive.
If you connected the positive pole of an electrical source to the negative pole, you create a circuit. This charge changes
into electrical energy when the poles are connected in a circuit -- similar to connecting the two poles on opposite ends of
a battery.

Along the circuit you can have a light bulb and an on-off switch. The light bulb changes the electrical energy into light and
heat energy.

Circuit Experiment

As a boy, Thomas Edison built a small laboratory in his cellar. His

early experiments helped develop a very inquisitive mind. His whole
life was spent thinking about how things work and dreaming up new
inventions. The light bulb and movie projector are just two of dozens
of inventions.

You can build a very basic electrical circuit similar to what Edison may
have crafted as a boy. And you can find out what happens when a
current is "open" compared with when it's "closed."

Here's What You need:

1. Penlight bulb
2. Flashlight battery
3. Two 6" pieces of insulated wire (any kind will work)
4. Tape to keep the wire on the end of the battery
5. A small piece of thin flat metal to make a "switch"
6. Small block of wood

An Electrical Circuit
(From humorist Dave Barry's book Dave Barry in Cyberspace)

"Electricity is supplied by the wall socket, which

is in turn connected to the electrical company
via big overhead wires with squirrels running
on them.

"A question many people ask ... is, 'How come

the squirrels don't get electrocuted?' To answer
that question, we need to understand exactly
what an electrical circuit is.

"When you turn on a switch, electricity flows

through the wire into the appliance, where it is
converted via a process called electrolysis into
Here's What to Do
1. To make a switch:
o Take the block of wood and stick one thumb tack in
o Push the other thumbtack through the thin piece of flat
metal.
o Push the thumb tack into the wood so that the piece of
metal can touch the other thumb tack (see picture)
2. Connect the first piece of wire to a thumbtack on the switch.
3. Place the light bulb in the center of this wire piece.
4. Tape the end of the first piece of wire to one end of the battery.
5. Tape your second piece of wire to the opposite end of the
battery.
6. Attach the end of your second piece of wire to the remaining
thumbtack on the switch.
You've created an electrical circuit.
When you press the switch connecting the two thumbtacks, your circuit
is "closed" and your current flows -- turning your light bulb on. When
your switch is up, your circuit is "open" and your current can not flow --
turning your light bulb off, just like Thomas Edison's may have done.
The number of electrons we are willing to let across the circuit at one
time is called "current". We measure current using amperes, or "Amps".
18
One AMP is defined as 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 (6.25 x 10 )
electrons moving across your circuit every second!
tiny microwaves. These fly around inside the
oven area until they locate the Hungry Hombre
Heat 'n' Eat Hearty Burrito entree; they then
signal the location to each other by slapping
their tails in a distinctive pattern. The workers,
or drones, then ... swarm around the queen;
this causes the rapid warming that makes the
entree edible and leads via amino acids, to
digestion.
"This is followed by grunting and flushing, with
the outflow traveling via underground pipes to
the sewage treatment plant, which in turn
releases purified water into the river, where it is
used to form waterfalls, which rotate the giant
turbines that produce the electricity that flows
through wires back to your appliance, thereby
completing the circuit.
"So we see that squirrels have nothing
whatsoever to do with it. There is no need for
you to worry about squirrels; believe me, they
are not worrying about you."
Please Note: THIS IS A JOKE!!!

Since no one wants to remember such a big number, that big number is called a "coulomb," after the scientist Charles A
Coulomb who helped discover what a current of electricity is.

The amount of charge between the sides of the circuit is called "voltage." We measure Voltage in Volts. The word volt is
named after another scientist, Alexader Volta, who built the world's first battery.

You'll remember that back in Chapter 1, we defined energy as the "ability to do work."

Well, one volt is defined as the amount of electrical charge needed to make one Coulomb (625,000,000,000,000,000,000
electrons) do one a specific amount of work -- which is labeled one joule.

Joule is also named after a scientist, James Prescott Joule. Do you remember him from Chapter 2?

Voltage, Current and Resistance are very important to circuits. If either voltage or current is too big you could break the
circuit. But if either is too small, the circuit will not be able to work enough to be useful to us. In the same way, if the
resistance is too big none of the electrons would be able to get though at all, but if it were too small, they would rush
though all at once breaking the circuit on their way.

Parallel Circuits!

When we have only one circuit that electrons can go through to get to
the other side we call it a "series circuit."

If we were to set up another circuit next to the first one, we would have
two circuits between the charges. We call these "parallel circuits"
because they run parallel to each other. You can have as many
parallel circuits as you want. Parallel circuits share the same voltage, but they allow more paths for the electricity to go
over. This means that the total number of electrons that can get across (the current) can increase, without breaking either
circuit.

Electric Motors

An electric motor uses circuits wound round and round.

These wound circuits are suspended between magnets.
(We send a 'thank you' to How Stuff Works Website for their
electric motor graphic.)

A motor works through electromagnetism. It has a coiled up

wire (the circuit) that sits between the north and south poles
of a magnet. When current flows through the coiled circuit,
another magnetic field is produced. The north pole of the
fixed magnet attracts the south pole of the coiled wire. The
two north poles push away, or repulse, each other. The motor
is set up in a way that attraction and repulsion spins the
center section with the coiled wire.

Chapter 5: Stored Energy and Batteries

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be saved in various forms. One
way to store it is in the form of chemical energy in a battery. When connected in a
circuit, a battery can produce electricity.

If you look at a battery, it will have two ends -- a positive terminal and a negative
terminal. If you connect the two terminals with wire, a circuit is formed. Electrons
will flow through the wire and a current of electricity is produced.

Inside the battery, a reaction between the chemicals takes place. But reaction
takes place only if there is a flow of electrons. Batteries can be stored for a long
time and still work because the chemical process doesn't start until the electrons
flow from the negative to the positive terminals through a circuit.

How the Chemical Reaction Takes Place in a Battery

A very simple modern battery is the zinc-carbon battery, called the carbon battery
for short.

This battery contains acidic material within and a rod of zinc down the center. Here's where knowing a little bit of
chemistry helps.

SIDEBAR

As we read in Chapter 1, Alessandro Volta

created the first battery (also see our "Super
When zinc is inserted into an acid, the acid begins to eat away at the
zinc, releasing hydrogen gas and heat energy. The acid molecules
break up into its components: usually hydrogen and other atoms. The
process releases electrons from the
Zinc atoms that combine with hydrogen ions in the acid to create the
hydrogen gas.
Scientists" page).
Volta called his battery the Voltaic Pile. He
stacked alternating layers of zinc, cardboard
soaked in salt water and silver. It looked like
this:

If a rod of carbon is inserted into the acid, the acid does nothing to it.

But if you connect the carbon rod to the zinc rod with a wire, creating a
circuit, electrons will begin to flow through the wire and combine with
hydrogen on the carbon rod. This still releases a little bit of hydrogen
gas but it makes less heat. Some of that heat energy is the energy that
is flowing through the circuit.

The energy in that circuit can now light a light bulb in a flashlight or turn
a small motor. Depending on the size of the battery, it can even start an
automobile.

Eventually, the zinc rod is completely dissolved by the acid in the

battery, and the battery can no longer be used.
For a "great" on-line page about batteries, visit the Energizer Learning
Center.
Different Types of Batteries
Different types of batteries use different types of chemicals and
chemical reactions. Some of the more common types of batteries are:
If you attach a wire to the top and bottom of the
pile, you create an electric current because of
the flow of electrons. Adding another layer will
increase the amount of electricity produced by
the pile.

 Alkaline battery -- Used in Duracell� and Energizer� and other alkaline batteries. The electrodes are zinc and
manganese-oxide. The electrolyte is an alkaline paste.
 Lead-acid battery -- These are used in automobiles. The electrodes are made of lead and lead-oxide with a
strong acid as the electrolyte.
 Lithium battery -- These batteries are used in cameras for the flash bulb. They are made with lithium, lithium-
iodide and lead-iodide. They can supply surges of electricity for the flash.
 Lithium-ion battery -- These batteries are found in laptop computers, cell phones and other high-use portable
equipment.
 Nickel-cadmium or NiCad battery -- The electrodes are nickel-hydroxide and cadmium. The electrolyte is
potassium-hydroxide.
 Zinc-carbon battery or standard carbon battery -- Zinc and carbon are used in all regular or standard AA, C and D
dry-cell batteries. The electrodes are made of zinc and carbon, with a paste of acidic materials between them
serving as the electrolyte.

Food - Another Method of Storing Energy

Batteries store energy in a chemical process, but there are other ways of storing energy. Consider the "food chain" on our
planet.

Plants, like grass in a meadow, convert the sun's energy through photosynthesis into stored chemical energy. This energy
is stored in the plant cells is used by the plant to grow, repair itself and reproduce itself.

Cows and other animals eat the energy stored in the grass or grain and convert that energy into stored energy in their
bodies. When we eat meat and other animal products, we in turn, store that energy in our own bodies. We use the stored
energy to walk, run, ride a bike or even read a page on the Internet.
Chapter 6: Turbines, Generators and Power Plants
As we learned in Chapter 2, electricity
flows through wires to light our lamps,
run TVs, computers and all other
electrical appliances. But where does
the electricity come from?

In this chapter, we'll learn how electricity

is generated in a power plant. In the
next few chapters, we'll learn about the
various resources that are used to
make the heat to produce electricity. In
Chapter 7, we'll learn how the electricity
gets from the power plant to homes,
school and businesses.

Thermal power plants have big boilers

that burn a fuel to make heat. A boiler is
like a teapot on a stove. When the
water boils, the steam comes through a
tiny hole on the top of the spout. The
moving steam makes a whistle that tells
you the water has boiled. In a power
plant, the water is brought to a boil
inside the boiler, and the steam is then
piped to the turbine through very thick
pipes.

In most boilers, wood, coal, oil or

natural gas is burned in a firebox to
make heat. Running through the fire
box and above that hot fire are a series
of pipes with water running through
them. The heat energy is conducted
into the metal pipes, heating the water
in the pipes until it boils into steam.
Water boils into steam at 212 degrees
Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius.

The top picture on the right is of a small

power plant located at Michigan State
University. The black area to the left of
the power plant is coal, the energy
source that is burned to heat the water
in the boilers of this plant.

In the second picture to the right, you'll

see the turbine and generator at MSU's
power plant. The big pipe on the left
side is the steam inlet. On the right side
of the turbine is where the steam comes
out. The steam is fed under high
pressure to the turbine. The turbine
spins and its shaft is connected to a
turbogenerator that changes the
mechanical spinning energy into
electricity.
The third picture on the right is of the
turbine fan before it is placed inside the
turbine housing. You can see a close-
up of the turbine blades on the fourth
picture. The turbine has many hundreds
of blades that are turned at an angle
like the blades of a fan. When the
steam hits the blades they spin the
turbine's shaft that is attached to the
bottom of the blades.

After the steam goes through the

turbine, it usually goes to a cooling
tower outside the where the steam
cools off. It cools off and becomes
water again. When the hot pipes come
into contact with cool air, some water
vapor in the air is heated and steam is
given off above the cooling towers.
That's why you see huge white clouds
sometimes being given off by the
cooling towers. It's not smoke, but is
water vapor or steam. This is not the
same steam that is used inside the
turbine.

The cooled water then goes back into

the boiler where it is heated again and
the process repeats over and over.

Most power plants in California use

cleaner-burning natural gas to produce
electricity. Others use oil or coal to heat
the water. Nuclear power plants use
nuclear energy to heat water to make
electricity. Still others, called
geothermal power plants, use steam or
hot water found naturally below the
earth's surface without burning a fuel.
We'll learn about those energy sources
in the next few chapters.

How the Generator Works

The turbine is attached by a shaft to the
turbogenerator. The generator has a
long, coiled wire on its shaft surrounded
by a giant magnet. You can see the
inside of the generator coil with all its
wires in the picture on the right.

The shaft that comes out of the turbine

is connected to the generator. When the
turbine turns, the shaft and rotor is
turned. As the shaft inside the generator
turns, an electric current is produced in
the wire. The electric generator is
converting mechanical, moving energy
into electrical energy.

The generator is based on the principle

of "electromagnetic induction"
discovered in 1831 by Michael Faraday,
a British scientist. Faraday discovered
that if an electric conductor, like a
copper wire, is moved through a
magnetic field, electric current will flow
(or "be induced") in the conductor. So
the mechanical energy of the moving
wire is converted into the electric
energy of the current that flows in the
wire.

The electricity produced by the

generator then flows through huge
transmission wires that link the power
plants to our homes, school and
businesses. If you want to learn about
transmission lines, go to Chapter 7.

All power plants have turbines and

generators. Some turbines are turned
by wind, some by water, some by
steam.
Chapter 7: Electricity Transmission System

After electricity is produced at power

plants it has to get to the customers that
use the electricity. Our cities, towns,
states and the entire country are criss-
crossed with power lines that "carry" the
electricity.

As large generators spin, they produce

electricity with a voltage of about
25,000 volts. A volt is a measurement of
electromotive force in electricity. This is
the electric force that "pushes" electrons
around a circuit. "Volt" is named after
Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist
who invented the first battery.

The electricity first goes to a transformer

at the power plant that boosts the voltage
up to 400,000 volts. When electricity
travels long distances it is better to have
it at higher voltages. Another way of
saying this is that electricity can be
transferred more efficiently at high
voltages.
The long thick cables of transmission
lines are made of copper or aluminum
because they have a low resistance.
You'll remember from Chapter 3 that the
higher the resistance of a wire, the
warmer it gets. So, some of the electrical
energy is lost because it is changed into
heat energy. High voltage transmission
lines carry electricity long distances to a
substation.
People look at a series of Hydro-
Quebec high voltage towers near St-
Bruno, Quebec, Canada, south of
Montreal, that collapsed after a severe
ice storm hit southwest Quebec. The
storm left more than 1.4 million
households out of electricity.
Photo credit:
Jacques Boissinot/CP PHOTO

The power lines go into substations near

businesses, factories and homes. Here
transformers change the very high
voltage electricity back into lower
voltage electricity.

From these substations (like in the photo

to the right), electricity in different
power levels is used to run factories,
streetcars and mass transit, light street
lights and stop lights, and is sent to your
neighborhood.

In your neighborhood, another small

transformer mounted on pole (see
picture) or in a utility box converts the
power to even lower levels to be used in
your house. The voltage is eventually
reduced to 220 volts for larger
appliances, like stoves and clothes
dryers, and 110 volts for lights, TVs and
other smaller appliances.

Rather than over-head lines, some new

distribution lines are underground. The
power lines are protected from the
weather, which can cause line to break.
Have you ever seen what happens after
an ice storm?

The picture on the right shows high

voltage towers that crumpled from the
weight of ice during a 1998 ice storm
that hit Canada and parts of the United
States. More than 1,000 high voltage
towers and 30,000 wooden utility poles
were destroyed in Canada by the storm.
Close to 1.4 million people in Quebec
and 230,000 in Ontario were without
electricity. In many places, power not
fully restored for up to a week. Weather
people called it the most destructive
storm in Canadian history.

When electricity enters your home, it

must pass through a meter. A utility
company worker reads the meter so the
company will know how much
electricity you used and can bill you for
the cost.

After being metered, the electricity goes

through a fuse box into your home. The
fuse box protects the house in case of
problems. When a fuse (or a circuit
breaker) "blows" or "trips" something is
wrong with an appliance or something
was short- circuited.
Energy Safety Note!

Never play around a transformer. If a ball or toy lands in or near a transformer, go

and tell your parents to call the electric company. The electricity from a
transformer could kill you.

Never fly a kite around electrical lines. The kite string could link across the wires,
completing a circuit. The electricity could be transferred back to you holding the
string.

Never let a balloon - especially a mylar foil balloon - escape into the sky. When the
helium of the balloon escapes, the balloon can come down a long way aways. The
wire or the mylar surface could stretch across high voltage electrical wires causing
problems or even a fire.

You should never touch wires inside or outside your house. You should only let an
electrician who knows electricity safety work on the wires.

`Chapter 8: Fossil Fuels - Coal, Oil and Natural Gas

Where Fossil Fuels Come From

There are three major forms of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. All three were formed many hundreds of millions of
years ago before the time of the dinosaurs - hence the name fossil fuels. The age they were formed is called the
Carboniferous Period. It was part of the Paleozoic Era. "Carboniferous" gets its name from carbon, the basic element in
coal and other fossil fuels.
The Carboniferous Period occurred from about 360 to 286 million years ago. At the
time, the land was covered with swamps filled with huge trees, ferns and other large
leafy plants, similar to the picture above. The water and seas were filled with algae -
the green stuff that forms on a stagnant pool of water. Algae is actually millions of very
small plants.

Some deposits of coal can be found during the time of the dinosaurs. For example, thin
carbon layers can be found during the late Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago) -
the time of Tyrannosaurus Rex. But the main deposits of fossil fuels are from the
Carboniferous Period. For more about the various geologic eras, go to
www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html

As the trees and plants died, they sank to the bottom of the swamps of oceans. They
formed layers of a spongy material called peat. Over many hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay
and other minerals, which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary.

More and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more
and more. It began to press down on the peat. The peat was
squeezed and squeezed until the water came out of it and it
eventually, over millions of years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum,
and natural gas.

Coal

Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of

carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and varying amounts of sulphur.
There are three main types of coal - anthracite, bituminous and lignite.
Anthracite coal is the hardest and has more carbon, which gives it a
higher energy content. Lignite is the softest and is low in carbon but high in hydrogen and oxygen content.� Bituminous
is in between. Today, the precursor to coal - peat - is still found in many countries and is also used as an energy source.

The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fu-shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to
smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago. The Chinese thought coal was a stone that could burn.

Coal is found in many of the lower 48 states of U.S. and

throughout the rest of the world. Coal is mined out of the
ground using various methods. Some coal mines are dug by
sinking vertical or horizontal shafts deep under ground, and
coal miners travel by elevators or trains deep under ground to
dig the coal. Other coal is mined in strip mines where huge
steam shovels strip away the top layers above the coal. The layers are then restored after the coal is taken away.

The coal is then shipped by train and boats and even in pipelines. In pipelines, the coal is ground up and mixed with
water to make what's called a slurry. This is then pumped many miles through pipelines. At the other end, the coal is used
to fuel power plants and other factories.

Oil or Petroleum

Oil is another fossil fuel. It was also formed more than 300 million
years ago. Some scientists say that tiny diatoms are the source of oil.
Diatoms are sea creatures the size of a pin head. They do one thing
just like plants; they can convert sunlight directly into stored energy.

In the graphic on the left, as the diatoms died they fell to the sea floor
(1). Here they were buried under sediment and other rock (2). The
rock squeezed the diatoms and the energy in their bodies could not
escape. The carbon eventually turned into oil under great pressure
and heat. As the earth changed and moved and folded, pockets where
oil and natural gas can be found were formed (3).

Oil has been used for more than 5,000-6,000 years. The ancient
Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians used crude oil and asphalt
("pitch") collected from large seeps at Tuttul (modern-day Hit) on the
Euphrates River. A seep is a place on the ground where the oil leaks up from below ground. The ancient Egyptians, used
liquid oil as a medicine for wounds, and oil has been used in lamps to provide light.

The Dead Sea, near the modern Country of Israel, used to be called Lake Asphaltites. The word asphalt was derived is
from that term because of the lumps of gooey petroleum that were washed up on the lake shores from underwater seeps.

In North America, Native Americans used blankets to skim oil off the surface of streams and lakes. They used oil as
medicine and to make canoes water-proof. During the Revolutionary War, Native Americans taught George Washington's
troops how to treat frostbite with oil.

As our country grew, the demand for oil continued to increase as a fuel for lamps. Petroleum oil began to replace whale
oil in lamps because the price for whale oil was very high. During this time, most petroleum oil came from distilling coal
into a liquid or by skimming it off of lakes - just as the Native Americans did.

Then on August 27, 1859, Edwin L. Drake (the man standing on the right in the black
and white picture to the right), struck liquid oil at his well near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
He found oil under ground and a way that could pump it to the surface. The well
pumped the oil into barrels made out of wood. This method of drilling for oil is still being
used today all over the world in areas where oil can be found below the surface.

Oil and natural gas are found under ground between folds of rock and in areas of rock
that are porous and contain the oils within the rock itself. The folds of rock were formed
as the earth shifts and moves. It's similar to how a small, throw carpet will bunch up in
places on the floor.

To find oil and natural gas, companies drill through the earth to the deposits deep
below the surface. The oil and natural gas are then pumped from below the ground by
oil rigs (like in the picture). They
then usually travel through pipelines
or by ship.
Oil is found in 18 of the 58 counties in California. Kern County, the
County where Bakersfield is found, is one of the largest oil production
places in the country. But we only get one-half of our oil from
California wells. The rest comes from Alaska, and an increasing
amount comes from other countries. In the entire U.S., more than 50
percent of all the oil we use comes from outside the country...most of
it from the Middle East.

Oil is brought to California by large tanker ships. The petroleum or

crude oil must be changed or refined into other products before it can
be used.

Refineries

Oil is stored in large tanks until it is sent to various places to be used.

At oil refineries, crude oil is split into various types of products by
heating the thick black oil.

Oil is made into many different products - fertilizers for farms, the
clothes you wear, the toothbrush you use, the plastic bottle that holds
your milk, the plastic pen that you write with. They all came from oil.
There are thousands of other products that come from oil. Almost all
plastic comes originally from oil. Can you think of some other things
made from oil?

The products include gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation or jet fuel, home
heating oil, oil for ships and oil to burn in power plants to make electricity. Here's what a barrel of crude oil can make.

In California, 74 percent of our oil is used for transportation -- cars, planes, trucks, buses and motorcycles. We'll learn
more about transportation energy in Chapter 18.
 Source: American Petroleum Institute (www.api.org). Figures are
based on 1995 average yields for U.S. refineries. One barrel
contains 42 gallons of crude oil. The total volume of products made
is 44.2 GALLONS - 2.2 gallons greater than the original 42 gallons
of crude oil. This is called "processing gain," where other chemicals
are added to the refining process to create the products.

Natural Gas

Sometime between 6,000 to 2,000 years BCE (Before the Common Era), the first discoveries of natural gas seeps were
made in Iran. Many early writers described the natural petroleum seeps in the Middle East, especially in the Baku region
of what is now Azerbaijan. The gas seeps, probably first ignited by lightning, provided the fuel for the "eternal fires" of the
fire-worshiping religion of the ancient Persians.

Natural gas is lighter than air. Natural gas is mostly made up of a gas called methane. Methane is a simple chemical
compound that is made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It's chemical formula is CH4 - one atom of carbon along with
four atoms hydrogen. This gas is highly flammable.

Natural gas is usually found near petroleum underground. It is pumped from below ground and travels in pipelines to
storage areas. The next chapter looks at that pipeline system.

Natural gas usually has no odor and you can't see it. Before it is sent to the pipelines and storage tanks, it is mixed with a
chemical that gives a strong odor. The odor smells almost like rotten eggs. The odor makes it easy to smell if there is a
leak.
Energy Safety Note! If you smell that rotten egg smell in your house, tell your
folks and get out of the house quickly. Don't turn on any lights or other electrical devices.
A spark from a light switch can ignite the gas very easily. Go to a neighbor's house and
call 9-1-1 for emergency help.

Saving Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels take millions of years to make. We are using up the fuels that were made more than 300 million years ago
before the time of the dinosaurs. Once they are gone they are gone.

So, it's best to not waste fossil fuels. They are not renewable; they can't really be made again. We can save fossil fuels by
conserving energy.

Chapter 9: Natural Gas Distribution System

We learned in Chapter 8 that natural gas is a fossil fuel. It is a gaseous

molecule that's made up of two atoms - one carbon atom combined with four
hydrogen atom. It's chemical formula is CH4. The picture on the right is a
model of what the molecule could look like.

Don't confuse natural gas with "gasoline," which we call "gas" for short. Like
oil, natural gas is found under ground and under the ocean floor. Wells are
drilled to tap into natural gas reservoirs just like drilling for oil. Once a drill has
hit an area that contains natural gas, it can be brought to the surface through
pipes.

The natural gas has to get from the wells to us. To do that, there is a huge
network of pipelines that brings natural gas from the gas fields to us. Some of
these pipes are two feet wide.

Natural gas is sent in larger pipelines to power plants to make electricity or to

factories because they use lots of gas. Bakeries use natural gas to heat ovens to bake bread, pies, pastries and cookies.
Other businesses use natural gas for heating their buildings or heating water.

From larger pipelines, the gas goes through smaller and smaller pipes to your neighborhood.

In businesses and in your home, the natural gas must first pass through a meter, which measures the amount of fuel
going into the building. A gas company worker reads the meter and the company will charge you for the amount of natural
gas you used.

In some homes, natural gas is used for cooking, heating water and heating the house in a furnace.

In rural areas, where there are no natural gas pipelines, propane

(another form of gas that's often made when oil is refined) or bottled
gas is used instead of natural gas. Propane is also called LPG, or
liquefied petroleum gas, is made up of methane and a mixture with
other gases like butane.

Propane turns to a liquid when it is placed under slight pressure. For

regular natural gas to turn into a liquid, it has to be made very, very
cold.
Cars and trucks can also use natural gas as a transportation fuel, but they must carry special cylinder-like tanks to hold
the fuel.

When natural gas is burned to make heat or burned in a car's engine, it burns very cleanly. When you combine natural
gas with oxygen (the process of combustion), you produce carbon dioxide and water vapor; plus the energy that's
released in heat and light.

Some impurities are contained in all natural gas. These include sulphur and butane and other chemicals. When burned,
those impurities can create air pollution. The amount of pollution from natural gas is less than burning a more "complex"
fuel like gasoline. Natural gas-powered cars are more than 90 percent cleaner than a gasoline-powered car.

That's why many people feel natural gas would be a good fuel for cars because it burns cleanly.

Chapter 10: Biomass Energy

Biomass is matter usually thought of as garbage. Some of it is just stuff lying

around -- dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left-over crops, wood chips
(like in the picture to the right), and bark and sawdust from lumber mills. It can
even include used tires and livestock manure.

Your trash, paper products that can't be recycled into other paper products,
and other household waste are normally sent to the dump. Your trash contains
some types of biomass that can be reused. Recycling biomass for fuel and
other uses cuts down on the need for "landfills" to hold garbage.

This stuff nobody seems to want can be used to produce electricity, heat,
compost material or fuels. Composting material is decayed plant or food
products mixed together in a compost pile and spread to help plants grow.

California produces more than 60 million bone dry tons of biomass each year. Of this
total, five million bone dry tons is now burned to make electricity. This is biomass from
lumber mill wastes, urban wood waste, forest and agricultural residues and other feed
stocks.

If all of it was used, the 60 million tons of biomass in California could make close to
2,000 megawatts of electricity for California's growing population and economy. That's
enough energy to make electricity for about two million homes!

How biomass works is very simple. The waste wood, tree branches and other scraps
are gathered together in big trucks. The trucks bring the waste from factories and from
farms to a biomass power plant. Here the biomass is dumped into huge hoppers. This
is then fed into a furnace where it is burned. The heat is used to boil water in the boiler, and the energy in the steam is
used to turn turbines and generators (see Chapter 8).

Biomass can also be tapped right at the landfill with burning waster products. When garbage decomposes, it gives off
methane gas. You'll remember in chapters 8 and 9 that natural gas is made up of methane. Pipelines are put into the
landfills and the methane gas can be collected. It is then used in power plants to make electricity. This type of biomass is
called landfill gas.

A similar thing can be done at animal feed lots. In places where lots of animals are raised, the animals - like cattle, cows
and even chickens - produce manure. When manure decomposes, it also gives off methane gas similar to garbage. This
gas can be burned right at the farm to make energy to run the farm.

Using biomass can help reduce global warming compared to a fossil fuel-powered plant. Plants use and store carbon
dioxide (CO2) when they grow. CO2 stored in the plant is released when the plant material is burned or decays. By
replanting the crops, the new plants can use the CO2 produced by the burned plants. So using biomass and replanting
helps close the carbon dioxide cycle. However, if the crops are not replanted, then biomass can emit carbon dioxide that
will contribute toward global warming.

So, the use of biomass can be environmentally friendly because the biomass is
reduced, recycled and then reused. It is also a renewable resource because plants to
make biomass can be grown over and over.

Today, new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. One way is to produce
ethanol, a liquid alcohol fuel. Ethanol can be used in special types of cars that are
made for using alcohol fuel instead of gasoline. The alcohol can also be combined with
gasoline. This reduces our dependence on oil - a non-renewable fossil fuel.

DID YOU KNOW THAT

ELEPHANTS CAN MAKE ENERGY!
CLICK THE PICTURE TO FIND OUT MORE....

CLICK HERE TO SEE A FLASH MOVIE

OF HOW BIOMASS POWER WORKS...
This file is VERY large. DO NOT click on this is you're using a regular modem. You need a FAST Internet connection like
DSL, cable modem or LAN!
Chapter 11: Geothermal Energy

Geothermal Energy has been around for as long as the Earth has existed. "Geo" means earth, and "thermal" means heat.
So, geothermal means earth-heat.

Have you ever cut a boiled egg in half? The egg is similar to how the
earth looks like inside. The yellow yolk of the egg is like the core of
the earth. The white part is the mantle of the earth. And the thin shell
of the egg, that would have surrounded the boiled egg if you didn't
peel it off, is like the earth's crust.

Below the crust of the earth, the top layer of the mantle is a hot liquid
rock called magma. The crust of the earth floats on this liquid
magma mantle. When magma breaks through the surface of the earth in a volcano, it is called lava.

For every 100 meters you go below ground, the temperature of the rock increases about 3 degrees Celsius. Or for every
328 feet below ground, the temperature increases 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if you went about 10,000 feet below
ground, the temperature of the rock would be hot enough to boil water.

Deep under the surface, water sometimes

makes its way close to the hot rock and turns
into boiling hot water or into steam. The hot
water can reach temperatures of more than 300
degrees Fahrenheit (148 degrees Celsius). This
is hotter than boiling water (212 degrees F / 100
degrees C). It doesn't turn into steam because it
is not in contact with the air.

When this hot water comes up through a crack

in the earth, we call it a hot spring, like Emerald
Pool at Yellowstone National Park pictured on
the left. Or, it sometimes explodes into the air as
a geyser, like Old Faithful Geyser pictured on the right.

About 10,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians used hot springs in North American for cooking. Areas around hot springs were
neutral zones. Warriors of fighting tribes would bathe together in peace. Every major hot spring in the United States can
be associated with Native American tribes. California hot springs, like at the Geysers in the Napa area, were important
and sacred areas to tribes from that area.

In other places around the world, people used hot springs for rest and relaxation. The ancient Romans built elaborate
buildings to enjoy hot baths, and the Japanese have enjoyed natural hot springs for centuries.

Geothermal Today
Today, people use the geothermally heated hot water in swimming pools and in
health spas. Or, the hot water from below the ground can warm buildings for
growing plants, like in the green house on the right.

In San Bernardino, in Southern California, hot water from below ground is used to
heat buildings during the winter. The hot water runs through miles of insulated
pipes to dozens of public buildings. The City Hall, animal shelters, retirement
homes, state agencies, a hotel and convention center are some of the buildings
which are heated this way.

In the Country of Iceland, many of the buildings and even swimming pools in the
capital of Reykjavik (RECK-yah-vick) and elsewhere are heated with geothermal
hot water. The country has at least 25 active volcanoes and many hot springs and geysers.
Geothermal Electricity
Hot water or steam from below ground can also be used to make electricity in
a geothermal power plant.

In California, there are 14 areas where we use geothermal energy to make

electricity. The red areas on the map show where there are known
geothermal areas. Some are not used yet because the resource is too small,
too isolated or the water temperatures are not hot enough to make electricity.

The main spots are:

 The Geysers area north of San Francisco

 In the northwest corner of the state near Lassen Volcanic National
Park
 In the Mammoth Lakes area - the site of a huge ancient volcano
 In the Coso Hot Springs area in Inyo County
 In the Imperial Valley in Southern California.

Some of the areas have so much

steam and hot water that it can be used to generate electricity. Holes are drilled into
the ground and pipes lowered into the hot water, like a drinking straw in a soda.
The hot steam or water comes up through these pipes from below ground.

You can see the pipes running in front of the geothermal power plant in the picture.
This power plant is Geysers Unit # 18 located in the Geysers Geothermal area of
California.

A geothermal power plant is like in a regular power plant except that no fuel is
burned to heat water into steam. The steam or hot water in a geothermal power
plant is heated by the earth. It goes into a special turbine. The turbine blades spin and the shaft from the turbine is
connected to a generator to make electricity. The steam then gets cooled off in a cooling tower.

The white "smoke" rising from the plants in the photograph above is not smoke. It is steam given off in the cooling
process. The cooled water can then be pumped back below ground to be reheated by the earth.

Here's a cut-away showing the inside of the power plant. The hot water flows into turbine and out of the turbine. The turn
turns the generator, and the electricity goes out to the transformer and then to the huge transmission wires that link the
power plants to our homes, school and businesses. We learned about transmission lines in Chapter 7.

Chapter 12: Hydro Power

When it rains in hills and mountains, the water becomes streams

and rivers that run down to the ocean. The moving or falling water
can be used to do work. Energy, you'll remember is the ability to do
work. So moving water, which has kinetic energy, can be used to
make electricity.

For hundreds of years, moving water was used to turn wooden

wheels that were attached to grinding wheels to grind (or mill) flour
or corn. These were called grist mills or water mills.

In the year 1086, the Domesday Book was written. The multi-
volume books are very large. Hand-written on the pages of the
books are lists of all properties, homes, stores and other things in
England. The Domesday Book listed 5,624 waterwheel-driven mills
in England south of the Trent River. That was about one mill for each 400 people.

Water can either go over the top of the wheel like in the photograph on the left, or the wheel can be placed in the moving
river. The flow of the river then turns the wheel at the bottom like in the moving graphic on the right.

California's geothermal power plants produce about one-half of the world's geothermally generated electricity. The
geothermal power plants produce enough electricity for about two million homes.
Geothermal / Ground Source Heat Pumps

Though it gets much hotter as we go deep below ground, the upper

layer of the earth close to the surface is not very hot.

Almost everywhere across the entire planet, the upper 10 feet below ground level stays the same temperature, between
50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 16 degrees C). If you've ever been in a basement of a building or in a cavern
below ground, the temperature of the area is almost always cool.

A geothermal or ground source heat pump system can use that constant temperature to heat or cool a building. Pipes are
buried in the ground near the building. Inside these pipes a fluid, like the antifreeze in a car radiator, is circulated.

In winter, heat from the warmer ground goes through the heat exchanger of a heat pump, which sends warm air into the
home or business. During hot weather, the process is reversed. Hot air from inside the building goes through the heat
exchanger and the heat is passed into the relatively cooler ground. Heat removed during the summer can also be used to
heat water.

For another FLASH "movie" about how ground source heat pumps work, go to the GeoExchange website at:
http://www.ghpc.org/about/movie.htm.

Chapter 13: Nuclear Energy - Fission and Fusion

Another major form of energy is nuclear energy, the energy that is trapped inside each atom. One of the laws of the
universe is that matter and energy can't be created nor destroyed. But they can be changed in form.

Matter can be changed into energy. The world's most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, created the mathematical formula
that explains this. It is:

2
E= mc
This equation says:
E [energy] equals m [mass] times c2 [c stands for the velocity or the speed of light. c2
means c times c, or the speed of light raised to the second power -- or c-squared.]
You can listen to Einstein's voice explaining this at: www.aip.org/history/einstein/voice1.htm

Please note that some web browser software may not show an exponent (raising something
to a power, a mathematical expression) on the Internet. Normally c-squared is shown with a
smaller "2" placed above and to the right of the c.

Scientists used Einstein's famous equation as the key to unlock atomic energy and also
create atomic bombs.

The ancient Greeks said the smallest part of nature is an atom. But they did not know 2,000
years ago about nature's even smaller parts.

As we learned in chapter 2, atoms are made up of smaller particles -- a nucleus of protons

and neutrons, surrounded by electrons which swirl around the nucleus much like the earth
revolves around the sun.

Nuclear Fission
An atom's nucleus can be split apart. When this is done, a tremendous amount of energy is
released. The energy is both heat and light energy. Einstein said that a very small amount of
matter contains a very LARGE amount of energy. This energy, when let out slowly, can be
harnessed to generate electricity. When it is let out all at once, it can make a tremendous
explosion in an atomic bomb.

A nuclear power plant (like Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant shown on the right) uses uranium as a
"fuel." Uranium is an element that is dug out of the ground many places around the world. It is
processed into tiny pellets that are loaded into very long rods that are put into the power plant's
reactor.

The word fission means to split apart. Inside the reactor of an atomic power plant, uranium atoms
are split apart in a controlled chain reaction.

In a chain reaction, particles released by the splitting of the atom go off and strike other uranium
atoms splitting those. Those particles given off split still other atoms in a chain reaction. In nuclear
power plants, control rods are used to keep the splitting regulated so it doesn't go too fast.

If the reaction is not controlled, you could have an atomic bomb. But in atomic bombs, almost pure pieces of the element
Uranium-235 or Plutonium, of a precise mass and shape, must be brought together and held together, with great force.
These conditions are not present in a nuclear reactor.

The reaction also creates radioactive material. This material could hurt people if released, so it is kept in a solid form. The
very strong concrete dome in the picture is designed to keep this
material inside if an accident happens.

This chain reaction gives off heat energy. This heat energy is used to
boil water in the core of the reactor. So, instead of burning a fuel,
nuclear power plants use the chain reaction of atoms splitting to
change the energy of atoms into heat energy.

This water from around the nuclear core is sent to another section of
the power plant. Here, in the heat exchanger, it heats another set of
pipes filled with water to make steam. The steam in this second set of pipes turns a turbine to generate electricity. Below
is a cross section of the inside of a typical nuclear power plant.

Power plant drawing courtesy Nuclear Institute

Nuclear Fusion
Another form of nuclear energy is called fusion. Fusion means
joining smaller nuclei (the plural of nucleus) to make a larger
nucleus. The sun uses nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into
helium atoms. This gives off heat and light and other radiation.

In the picture to the right, two types of hydrogen atoms, deuterium

and tritium, combine to make a helium atom and an extra particle
called a neutron.

Also given off in this fusion reaction is energy! Thanks to the

University of California, Berkeley for the picture.

Scientists have been working on controlling nuclear fusion for a long time, trying to make a fusion reactor to produce
electricity. But they have been having trouble learning how to control the reaction in a contained space.

What's better about nuclear fusion is that it creates less radioactive material than fission, and its supply of fuel can last
longer than the sun.

Chapter 14: Ocean Energy

The world's ocean may eventually provide us with energy to power

our homes and businesses. Right now, there are very few ocean
energy power plants and most are fairly small. But how can we get
energy from the ocean?

There are three basic ways to tap the ocean for its energy. We can
use the ocean's waves, we can use the ocean's high and low tides,
or we can use temperature differences in the water. Let's take a look
at each.

Wave Energy
Kinetic energy (movement) exists in the moving waves of the ocean.
That energy can be used to power a turbine. In this simple example,
to the right, the wave rises into a chamber. The rising water forces
the air out of the chamber. The moving air spins a turbine which can
turn a generator.
When the wave goes down, air flows through the turbine and back into the chamber through doors that are normally
closed.

This is only one type of wave-energy system. Others actually use the up and down motion of the wave to power a piston
that moves up and down inside a cylinder. That piston can also turn a generator.

Most wave-energy systems are very small. But, they can be used to power a warning buoy or a small light house.

Tidal Energy
Another form of ocean energy is called tidal energy. When tides
comes into the shore, they can be trapped in reservoirs behind dams.
Then when the tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out
just like in a regular hydroelectric power plant.

Tidal energy has been used since about the 11th Century, when small
dams were built along ocean estuaries and small streams. the tidal
water behind these dams was used to turn water wheels to mill grains.

In order for tidal energy to work well, you need large increases in
tides. An increase of at least 16 feet between low tide to high tide is
needed. There are only a few places where this tide change occurs
around the earth. Some power plants are already operating using this
idea. One plant in France makes enough energy from tides (240
megawatts) to power 240,000 homes.

This facility is called the La Rance Station in France. It began making

electricity in 1966. It produces about one fifth of a regular nuclear or
coal-fired power plant. It is more than 10 times the power of the next
largest tidal station in the world, the 17 megawatt Canadian Annapolis station.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)

The idea is not new. Using the temperature of water to make energy actually dates back to 1881 when a French Engineer
by the name of Jacques D'Arsonval first thought of OTEC. The final ocean energy idea uses temperature differences in
the ocean. If you ever went swimming in the ocean and dove deep below the surface, you would have noticed that the
water gets colder the deeper you go. It's warmer on the surface because sunlight warms the water. But below the surface,
the ocean gets very cold. That's why scuba divers wear wet suits when they dive down deep. Their wet suits trapped their
body heat to keep them warm.

Power plants can be built that use this difference in temperature to make energy. A difference of at least 38 degrees
Fahrenheit is needed between the warmer surface water and the colder deep ocean water.

Using this type of energy source is called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or OTEC. It is being demonstrated in
Hawaii. More info on OTEC can be found on the archive pages for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at:
www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/otec-nelha/otec.html
Chapter 15: Solar Energy

We have always used the energy of the sun as far back as humans have
existed on this planet. As far back as 5,000 years ago, people "worshipped"
the sun. Ra, the sun-god, who was considered the first king of Egypt. In
Mesopotamia, the sun-god Shamash was a major deity and was equated with
justice. In Greece there were two sun deities, Apollo and Helios. The influence
of the sun also appears in other religions - Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Roman
religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Druids of England, the Aztecs of Mexico, the
Incas of Peru, and many Native American tribes.

We know today, that the sun is simply our nearest star. Without it, life would
not exist on our planet. We use the sun's energy every day in many different
ways.

When we hang laundry outside to dry in the sun, we are using the sun's heat to
do work -- drying our clothes.

Plants use the sun's light to make food. Animals eat plants for food. And as we learned in Chapter 5, decaying plants
hundreds of millions of years ago produced the coal, oil and natural gas that we use today. So, fossil fuels is actually
sunlight stored millions and millions of years ago.

Indirectly, the sun or other stars are responsible for ALL our energy. Even nuclear energy comes from a star because the
uranium atoms used in nuclear energy were created in the fury of a nova - a star exploding.

Let's look at ways in which we can use the sun's energy.

Solar Hot Water

In the 1890s solar water heaters were being used all over the United
States. They proved to be a big improvement over wood and coal-
burning stoves. Artificial gas made from coal was available too to
heat water, but it cost 10 times the price we pay for natural gas
today. And electricity was even more expensive if you even had any
in your town!

Many homes used solar water heaters. In 1897, 30 percent of the

homes in Pasadena, just east of Los Angeles, were equipped with
solar water heaters. As mechanical improvements were made, solar
systems were used in Arizona, Florida and many other sunny parts
of the United States. The picture shown here is a solar water heater
installed on the front roof of a house in Pomona Valley, California, in
1911 (the panels are circled above the four windows).

By 1920, ten of thousands of solar water heaters had been sold. By then, however,
large deposits of oil and natural gas were discovered in the western United States. As
these low cost fuels became available, solar water systems began to be replaced with
heaters burning fossil fuels.

Today, solar water heaters are making a comeback. There are more than half a million
of them in California alone! They heat water for use inside homes and businesses.
They also heat swimming pools like in the picture.

Panels on the roof of a building, like this one on the right, contain water pipes. When
the sun hits the panels and the pipes, the sunlight warms them.

That warmed water can then be used in a swimming pool.

Solar Thermal Electricity
Solar energy can also be used to make electricity.

Some solar power plants, like the one in the picture to the right in California's Mojave Desert, use a highly curved mirror
called a parabolic trough to focus the sunlight on a pipe running down a central point above the curve of the mirror. The
mirror focuses the sunlight to strike the pipe, and it gets so hot that it can boil water into steam. That steam can then be
used to turn a turbine to make electricity.

In California's Mojave desert, there are huge rows of solar mirrors

arranged in what's called "solar thermal power plants" that use this
idea to make electricity for more than 350,000 homes. The problem
with solar energy is that it works only when the sun is shining. So, on
cloudy days and at night, the power plants can't create energy. Some
solar plants, are a "hybrid" technology. During the daytime they use
the sun. At night and on cloudy days they burn natural gas to boil the
water so they can continue to make electricity.

Another form of solar power plants to make electricity is called a

Central Tower Power Plant, like the one to the right - the Solar Two
Project.

Sunlight is reflected off 1,800 mirrors circling the tall tower. The mirrors are called heliostats and move and turn to face
the sun all day long.

The light is reflected back to the top of the tower in the center of the circle where a fluid
is turned very hot by the sun's rays. That fluid can be used to boil water to make steam
to turn a turbine and a generator.

This experimental power plant is called Solar II. It was re-built in California's desert
using newer technologies than when it was first built in the early 1980s. Solar II will use
the sunlight to change heat into mechanical energy in the turbine.

The power plant will make enough electricity to power about 10,000 homes. Scientists
say larger central tower power plants can make electricity for 100,000 to 200,000
homes.
Solar Cells or Photovoltaic Energy
We can also change the
sunlight directly to
electricity using solar cells.

Solar cells are also called

photovoltaic cells - or PV
cells for short - and can be
found on many small
appliances, like calculators,
and even on spacecraft.
They were first developed in
the 1950s for use on U.S.
space satellites. They are
made of silicon, a special
type of melted sand.

When sunlight strikes the

solar cell, electrons (red
circles) are knocked loose.
They move toward the
treated front surface (dark
blue color). An electron
imbalance is created
between the front and back.
When the two surfaces are
joined by a connector, like a
wire, a current of electricity
occurs between the negative
and positive sides.

These individual solar cells

are arranged together in a
PV module and the modules
are grouped together in an
array. Some of the arrays are
set on special tracking
devices to follow sunlight all
day long.

The electrical energy from

solar cells can then be used
directly. It can be used in a
home for lights and
appliances. It can be used in
a business. Solar energy can
be stored in batteries to light
a roadside billboard at night.
Or the energy can be stored
in a battery for an
emergency roadside cellular
telephone when no
telephone wires are around.

Some experimental cars also

use PV cells. They convert
sunlight directly into energy
to power electric motors on
the car.

But when most of us think

of solar energy, we think of
satellites in outer space.
Here's a picture of solar
panels extending out from a
satellite.
Chapter 16: Wind Energy

Wind can be used to do work.

The kinetic energy of the wind
can be changed into other forms
of energy, either mechanical
energy or electrical energy.

When a boat lifts a sail, it is using

wind energy to push it through
the water. This is one form of
work.

Farmers have been using wind

energy for many years to pump
water from wells using windmills
like the one on the right.

In Holland, windmills have been

used for centuries to pump water
from low-lying areas.

Wind is also used to turn large

grinding stones to grind wheat or
corn, just like a water wheel is
turned by water power.

Today, the wind is also used to

make electricity.

Blowing wind spins the blades on

a wind turbine -- just like a large
toy pinwheel. This device is
called a wind turbine and not a
windmill. A windmill grinds or
mills grain, or is used to pump
water.

The blades of the turbine are

attached to a hub that is mounted
on a turning shaft. The shaft
goes through a gear transmission
box where the turning speed is
increased. The transmission is
attached to a high speed shaft
which turns a generator that
makes electricity.

If the wind gets too high, the

turbine has a brake that will keep
the blades from turning too fast
and being damaged.

You can use a single smaller

wind turbine to power a home or
a school. The small turbine on
the right makes enough energy
for a house. In the picture on the
left, the children at this Iowa
school are playing beneath a
wind turbine that makes enough
electricity to power their entire
school.

We have many windy areas in

California. And wind is blowing in
many places all over the earth.
The only problem with wind is
that it is not windy all the time. In
California, it is usually windier
during the summer months when
wind rushes inland from cooler
areas, like the ocean to replace
hot rising air in California's warm
central valleys and deserts.

In order for a wind turbine to

work efficiently, wind speeds
usually must be above 12 to 14
miles per hour. Wind has to be
this speed to turn the turbines
fast enough to generate
electricity. The turbines usually
produce about 50 to 300
kilowatts of electricity each. A
kilowatt is 1,000 watts (kilo
means 1,000). You can light ten
100 watt light bulbs with 1,000
watts. So, a 300 kilowatt
(300,000 watts) wind turbine
could light up 3,000 light bulbs
that use 100 watts!

As of 1999, there were 11,368

wind turbines in California. These
turbines are grouped together in
what are called wind "farms," like
those in Palm Springs in the
picture on the right. These wind
farms are located mostly in the
three windiest areas of the state:

 Altamont Pass, east of

San Francisco
 San Gorgonio Pass, near
Palm Springs
 Tehachapi, south of
Bakersfield

Together these three places in

California make enough
electricity to supply an entire city
the size of San Francisco! About
11 percent of the entire world's
wind-generated electricity is
found in California. Other
countries that use a lot of wind
energy are Denmark and
Germany.

Once electricity is made by the

turbine, the electricity from the
entire wind farm is collected
together and sent through a
transformer. There the voltage is
increase to send it long distances
over high power lines.

CHAPTER 17: Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels

In Chapter 8, we discussed the world's supply of fossil fuels -- oil, coal and natural gas and how it is being depleted slowly
because of constant use. Fossil fuels are not renewable, they can't be made again. Once they are gone, they're gone.
In Chapters 11 to 16, we learned that there's no shortage of renewable energy from the sun, wind and water and even
stuff usually thought of as garbage -- dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left-over crops, sawdust, even livestock
manure, can produce electricity and fuels -- resources collectively called "biomass."

The sunlight falling on the United States in one day contains more than twice the energy we consume in an entire year.
California has enough wind gusts to produce 11 percent of the world's wind electricity. Clean energy sources can be
harnessed to produce electricity, process heat, fuel and valuable chemicals with less impact on the environment.

In contrast, emissions from cars fueled by gasoline and factories and other facilities that burn oil affect the atmosphere.
Foul air results in so-called greenhouse gases. About -81% of all U.S. greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide emissions
from energy-related sources.

Renewable energy resource development will result in new jobs for people and less oil we have to buy from foreign
countries. According to the federal government, America spent $109 billion to import oil in 2000. If we fully develop self-
renewing resources, we will keep the money at home to help the economy.

Continued research has made renewable energy more affordable today than 25 years ago. The cost of wind energy has
declined from 40� per kilowatt-hour to less than 5�. The cost of electricity from the sun, through photovoltaics (literally
meaning "light-electricity") has dropped from more than $1/kilowatt-hour in 1980 to nearly 20�/kilowatt-hour today. And
ethanol fuel costs have plummeted from $4 per gallon in the early 1980s to $1.20 today.

But there are also drawbacks to renewable energy development.

For example, solar thermal energy involving the collection of solar rays through collectors (often times huge mirrors) need
large tracts of land as a collection site. This impacts the natural habitat, meaning the plants and animals that live there.
The environment is also impacted when the buildings, roads, transmission lines and transformers are built. The fluid most
often used with solar thermal electric generation is very toxic and spills can happen.

Solar or PV cells use the same technologies as the production of silicon chips for computers. The manufacturing process
uses toxic chemicals. Toxic chemicals are also used in making batteries to store solar electricity through the night and on
cloudy days.. Manufacturing this equipment has environmental impacts.

Also, even if we wanted to switch to solar energy right away, we still have a big problem. All the solar production facilities
in the entire world only make enough solar cells to produce about 350 megawatts, about enough for a city of 300,000
people. that's a drop in the bucket compared to our needs. California alone needs about 55,000 megawatts of electricity
on a sunny, hot summer day. And the cost of producing that much electricity would be about four times more expensive
than a regular natural gas-fired power plant.

So, even though the renewable power plant doesn't release air pollution or use precious fossil fuels, it still has an impact
on the environment.

Wind power development too, has its downside, mostly involving land use. The average wind farm requires 17 acres of
land to produce one megawatt of electricity, about enough electricity for 750 to 1,000 homes. However, farms and cattle
grazing can use the same land under the wind turbines.

Wind farms could cause erosion in desert areas. Most often, winds farms affect the natural view because they tend to be
located on or just below ridgelines. Bird deaths also occur due to collisions with wind turbines and associated wires. This
issue is the subject of on-going research.

Producing geothermal electricity from the earth's crust tends to be localized. That means facilities have to be built where
geothermal energy is abundant. There are several geothermal resource locations in California. The Geysers area north of
San Francisco is an example. In the course of geothermal production, steam coming from the ground becomes very
caustic at times, causing pipes to corrode and fall apart. Geothermal power plants sometimes cost a little bit more than a
gas-fired power plant because they have to include the cost to drill.
Environmental concerns are associated with dams to produce hydroelectric power. People are displaced and prime
farmland and forests are lost in the flooded areas above dams. Downstream, dams change the chemical, physical and
biological characteristics of the river and land.

Unlike fossil fuels, which dirties the atmosphere, renewable energy has less impact on the environment Renewable
energy production has some drawbacks, mainly associated with the use of large of tracts of land that affects animal
habitats and outdoor scenery. Renewable energy development will result in jobs and less oil imported from foreign
countries.

Note: For those working on a school assignment comparing renewable vs. non-renewable energy, we'd suggest creating
a Pro and Con list for each energy source. That will give you a a way to compare the various energy resources.

Chapter 18: Energy for Transportation

In California, about one-half of ALL the energy we use goes into

transportation - cars, planes, trucks, motorcycles, trains, buses. And of
all the oil we use in the state about three-quarters of all it goes into
making gasoline and diesel fuel for vehicles.

As we learned in Chapter 8, oil goes through a refinery where it is

made into many different products. Some of them are used for
transportation: aviation fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel. From the refinery
and larger storage tank farms, transportation fuels are usually trucked
to service stations in tanker trucks. These trucks can hold 10,000
gallons in each tank. The tanker trucks deliver the gasoline to the
services stations.

At service stations, the two grades of gasoline, regular and premium, are kept in separate underground storage tanks.
When you pump the gasoline into your car, you are pumping it from those tanks below ground. Mid-grade gasoline is a
combination of the two types. Other vehicles, such as trucks and some cars use diesel fuel, which is also made from oil. It
is brought to service stations the same way.

California has more than 26 million vehicles on its roads. All the vehicles in the state used 14.4 billion gallons of gasoline
in 2001. That's more gasoline that all other countries except for the United States and the former Soviet Union. This
makes California the third-largest user of gasoline in the world!

Fourteen billion gallons of gasoline is enough to fill a line of

10,000 gallon tanker trucks stretched bumper to bumper from
San Francisco to San Diego, back to San Francisco, and then
part of the way to Sacramento!

Burning gasoline, however, creates air pollution. That's why oil

companies are creating newer types of gasoline that are cleaner than
the kind we use today. Beginning in 1996, all the gasoline sold in
California will be this newer, cleaner type called "reformulated
gasoline." The main ingredient in that gas, however, MTBE was found
to hurt water supplies if it leaked. So, that additive is being removed
by 2005.

Another concern about using oil for transportation is that a lot of oil used comes form the Middle East. This makes the
U.S. very vulnerable if there is political unrest. During the 1970s, Americans saw long lines at the gas pumps because oil
from the Middle East was turned off by the Oil Producing Exposting Countries - OPEC. And we're in in worse shape in
2002 because we're importing more and more oil form the Middle East than ever before.
Because of concerns about air pollution and petroleum-dependence,
new clean-burning fuels made from fuels other than oil are being
introduced. These fuels include methanol, ethanol, natural gas,
propane and even electricity. The car on the right uses methanol, the
same fuel used in Indianapolis Speedway race cars.

All these fuels are called alternative fuels because they are an
alternative to gasoline and diesel. Cars and trucks that use them are
called Alternative Fuel Vehicles or AFVs.

Right now, there are only a small number of cars and trucks that are
running on fuels other than gasoline and diesel. Energy officials hope,
however, that one-quarter of all the vehicles will run on alternative
fuels by the year 2025.

For more on alternative fuel vehicles, we have a whole section on Energy Quest. Go to our Transportation Section.

Chapter 19: Saving Energy and Energy Conservation

Some of the energy we can use is called renewable energy. These

include solar, wind, geothermal and hydro. These types of energy are
constantly being renewed or restored.

But many of the other forms of energy we use in our homes and cars
are not being replenished. Fossil fuels took millions of years to create.
They cannot be made over night.

And there are finite or limited amounts of these non-renewable energy

sources. That means they cannot be renewed or replenished. Once
they are gone they cannot be used again. So, we must all do our part

in saving as much energy as we can.

In your home, you can save energy by turning off appliances, TVs and radios that are
not being used, watched or listened to.

You can turn off lights when no one is in the room.

By putting insulation in walls and attics, we can reduce the amount of energy it takes to
heat or cool our homes.

Insulating a home is like putting on a sweater or jacket when we're cold...instead of

turning up the heat.

The outer layers trap the heat inside, keeping it nice and warm.

New space-age materials are being developed that insulate even better. This person's
fingers are protected by Aerogel Insulation Material created by the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. The person cannot even feel the flame!

Recycling
To make all of our newspapers, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and other goods takes lots of energy.
Recycling these items -- grinding them up and reusing the material again -- uses less energy than it takes to make them
from brand new, raw material.

So, we must all recycle as much as we can.

We can also save energy in our cars and trucks.

Make sure the tires are properly inflated.

A car that is tuned up, has clean air and oil filters, and is running right
will use less gasoline.

Don't over-load a car. For every extra 100 pounds, you cut your
mileage by one mile per gallon.

When your parents buy a new car, tell them to compare the fuel efficiency of different models and buy a car that gets
higher miles per gallon.

You can also save energy in your school.

Each week you can choose an energy monitor who will make sure
energy is being used properly.

The energy monitor will turn off the lights during recess and after
class.

You can make "Turn It Off" signs for hanging above the light switches
to remind yourself.

Also check out our on-line pages on Saving Energy.

You can make sure your classmates recycle all aluminum cans and plastic bottles, and make sure the library is recycling
the newspapers and the school is recycling its paper.

CHAPTER 20: Hydrogen and Future Energy Sources

We learned in Chapter 8 that fossil fuels were formed before and

during the time of the dinosaurs - when plants and animals died. Their
decomposed remains gradually changed over the years to form coal,
oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels took millions of years to make. We are
using up the fuels formed more than 65 million years ago. They can't
be renewed; they can't be made again. We can save fossil fuels by
conserving and finding ways to harness energy from seemingly
"endless sources," like the sun and the wind.

We can't use fossil fuels forever as they are a non-renewable and

finite resource. Some people suggest that we should start using
hydrogen.

Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that accounts for 75 percent of the entire universe's mass. Hydrogen is found on
Earth only in combination with other elements such as oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. To use hydrogen, it must be
separated from these other elements.

Today, hydrogen is used primarily in ammonia manufacturing, petroleum refining and synthesis of methanol. It's also
used in NASA's space program as fuel for the space shuttles, and in fuel cells that provide heat, electricity and drinking
water for astronauts. Fuel cells are devices that directly convert hydrogen into electricity. In the future, hydrogen could be
used to fuel vehicles (such as the DaimlerChrysler NeCar 4 shown in the picture to the right) and aircraft, and provide
power for our homes and offices.

Hydrogen can be made from molecules called hydrocarbons by applying heat, a process known as "reforming" hydrogen.
This process makes hydrogen from natural gas. An electrical current can also be used to separate water into its
components of oxygen and hydrogen in a process called electrolysis. Some algae and bacteria, using sunlight as their
energy source, give off hydrogen under certain conditions.

Hydrogen as a fuel is high in energy, yet a machine that burns pure hydrogen produces almost zero pollution. NASA has
used liquid hydrogen since the 1970s to propel rockets and now the space shuttle into orbit. Hydrogen fuel cells power
the shuttle's electrical systems, producing a clean by-product - pure water, which the crew drinks.

You can think of a fuel cell as a battery that is constantly replenished by adding fuel to it - it never loses its charge.

To view a FLASH video of how a fuel cell works, go to the Ballard Power Systems website.
Fuel Cell Uses

Fuel cells are a promising technology for use as a source of heat and electricity in buildings, and as an electrical power
source for vehicles.

Auto companies are working on building cars and trucks that use fuel cells. In a fuel cell vehicle, an electrochemical
device converts hydrogen (stored on board) and oxygen from the air into electricity, to drive an electric motor and power
the vehicle.

Although these applications would ideally run off pure hydrogen, in the near term they are likely to be fueled with natural
gas, methanol or even gasoline. Reforming these fuels to create hydrogen will allow the use of much of our current
energy infrastructure - gas stations, natural gas pipelines, etc. - while fuel cells are phased in.

In the future, hydrogen could also join electricity as an important energy carrier. An energy carrier stores, moves and
delivers energy in a usable form to consumers.

Renewable energy sources, like the sun, can't produce energy all the time. The sun doesn't always shine. But hydrogen
can store this energy until it is needed and can be transported to where it is needed.

Some experts think that hydrogen will form the basic energy infrastructure that will power future societies, replacing
today's natural gas, oil, coal, and electricity infrastructures. They see a new "hydrogen economy" to replace our current
"fossil fuel-based economy," although that vision probably won't happen until far in the future.

Solar Power Satellites

One suggestion for energy in the future is to put huge solar power
satellites into orbit around the earth. They would collect solar energy
from the sun, convert it to electricity and beam it to Earth as
microwaves or some other form of transmission. The power would
have no greenhouse gas emissions, but microwave beams might
affect health adversely. And frequent rocket launches may harm the
upper atmosphere. This idea may not be practical for another century;
if at all.

The picture on the right is an early and simple drawing of how a space
solar power satellite would beam energy to electrical power grid on
Earth.
Other Ideas

Some people have claimed they've invented a machine that will "save the planet." Others are convinced that there's a
vast conspiracy by fossil fuel and / or nuclear power companies to stop such devices from getting to the public.

Some of these contraptions use theories called "Free Energy," "Over Unity" or "Zero-Point Energy." As a matter of fact,
you can find all sorts of information about such devices on the Internet. Just plug in any of those words.

But none of these devices have ever been proven, either theoretically or physically. The "free energy" area is filled with
con artists selling unintelligible information, often clouded with technical sounding jargon, and seeking people with money
to develop their inventions or ideas.

As the old saying goes, "a fool and his money are soon parted."

Most of these devices are perpetual motion machines, which violate known laws of science. Even the U.S. Patent Office
will not issue a patent for such devices. With energy and the universe (at least as we know it today), there's no such thing
as a free lunch; or free energy. You can't get energy from nothing because of the fundamental laws of physics that energy
cannot be created or destroyed.

What about matter and anti-matter? What about energy that they use on Star Trek and in other science fiction stories?
The ideas are interesting, but they are still fiction. Though science fiction has a basis in some fact. Jules Verne wrote
about traveling under the water more than a hundred years ago, and today we have submarines. He also wrote about
going to the moon, and in 1969 humans first set foot on our closest neighbor in space.

So, while some ideas being used by writers are fiction... there could be some basis in fact. Who knows, someone might
create a mater-antimatter energy system that could revolutionize the way we think about energy and our universe.

Go to the Conclusion of The Energy Story

or

Return to the Table of Contents

READ MORE ABOUT IT!

Here are some additional websites to check out.

o American Hydrogen Association - (www.clean-air.org)

o Ballard Power Systems
o California Energy Commission Hydrogen Links
o California Hydrogen Business Council
o How a Fuel Cell Works - How Stuff Works (www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm)
o "How Hydrogen Power Can Save America" - Wire Magazine, April 2003
(www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/hydrogen.html)
o Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter
o Hydrogen Information Network (www.eren.doe.gov/hydrogen/)
o United Technologies Company - How A Fuel Cell Works (www.utcfuelcells.com/fuelcell/how_fl.shtml)
o National Energy Technology Laboratory (www.netl.doe.gov/)

Conclusion
To make sure we have plenty of energy in the future, it's up
to all of us to use energy wisely. Imagination is more
important than
We must all conserve energy and use it efficiently. It's also knowledge, for knowledge
up to those who will create the new energy technologies of
is limited, whereas
the future.
imagination embraces the
All energy sources have an impact on the environment. entire world - stimulating
Concerns about the greenhouse effect and global warming, progress, giving birth to
air pollution, and energy security have led to increasing evolution.
interest and more development in renewable energy
sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, wave power and
- Albert Einstein
hydrogen.

But we'll need to continue to use fossil fuels and nuclear

energy until new, cleaner technologies can replace them.
One of you who is reading this might be another Albert
Einstein or Marie Curie and find a new source of energy.
Until then, it's up to all of us.

The future is ours, but we need energy to get there.