Introduction

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. !any times it's really hard work" #ars, 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. $ut where does energy come from% &here 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. &he forms of energy we will look at include:

Electricity $iomass Energy ' energy from plants (eothermal Energy )ossil )uels ' #oal, *il and +atural (as ,ydro -ower and *cean Energy +uclear Energy .olar Energy Wind Energy &ransportation 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. )inally, we'll look at the newer forms of energy... and take a look at energy in the future.

Chapter 1: Energy ' What Is It%

Energy causes things to happen around us. /ook out the window. 0uring the day, the sun gives out light and heat energy. At night, street lamps use electrical energy to light our way. When a car drives by, it is being powered by gasoline, a type of stored energy. &he 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 1thermal energy2, light 1radiant energy2, mechanical energy, and nuclear energy.

.tored and !oving Energy

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

.tored energy is called potential energy. !oving energy is called kineti energy. With a pencil, try this e3ample to know the two types of energy. -ut the pencil at the edge of the desk and push it off to the floor. &he moving pencil uses kinetic energy. +ow, pick up the pencil and put it back on the desk. 4ou used your own energy to lift and move the pencil. !oving it higher than the floor adds energy to it. As it rests on the desk, the pencil has potential energy. &he higher it is, the further it could fall. &hat means the pencil has more potential energy.

,ow 0o We !easure Energy%

Energy is measured in many ways. *ne of the basic measuring blocks is called a $tu. &his stands for $ritish thermal unit and was invented by, of course, the English. $tu is the amount of heat energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree )ahrenheit, at sea level. *ne $tu e5uals about one blue'tip kitchen match. *ne thousand $tus roughly e5uals: *ne average candy bar or 678 of a peanut butter and 9elly sandwich. It takes about :,;;; $tus to make a pot of coffee. Energy also can be measured in 9oules. <oules sounds e3actly like the word 9ewels, as in diamonds and emeralds. A thousand 9oules is e5ual to a $ritish thermal unit. 1,!!! "o#les $ 1 %t# .o, it would take : million 9oules to make a pot of coffee. &he term 9oule is named after an English scientist &a'es (res ott &o#le who lived from =>=> to =>>?. ,e discovered that heat is a type of energy. *ne 9oule is the amount of energy needed to lift something weighing one pound to a height of nine inches. .o, if you lifted a five'pound sack of sugar from the floor to the top of a counter 1:@ inches2, you would use about =8 9oules of energy. Around the world, scientists measure energy in 9oules rather than $tus. 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.

/ike in the metric system, you can have kilo9oules A kilo means =,;;;. 1,!!! "o#les $ 1 kilo"o#le $ 1 %t# A piece of buttered toast contains about B=8 kilo9oules 1B=8,;;; 9oules2 of energy. With that energy you could:

<og for C minutes

$icycle for =; minutes Walk briskly for =8 minutes .leep for ='=7: hours Dun a car for @ seconds at >; kilometers per hour 1about 8; miles per hour2 /ight a C;'watt light bulb for ='=7: hours *r lift that sack of sugar from the floor to the counter :=,;;; times"

#hanging Energy
Energy can be transformed into another sort of energy. $ut it cannot be created A+0 it cannot be destroyed. Energy has always e3isted in one form or another. ,ere are some changes in energy from one form to another. .tored energy in a flashlight's batteries becomes light energy when the flashlight is turned on. )ood 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. 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 1or is transmitted through the air2. &he 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. &he engine changes the chemical energy into heat and kinetic energy to power the car. A toaster changes electrical energy into heat and light energy. 1If you look into the toaster, you'll see the glowing wires.2 A television changes electrical energy into light and sound energy.

)ood Energy
Energy changes form at each step in the food chain. &ake an ear of corn as an e3ample. .unlight is taken in by the leaves on the corn stalk and transformed through photosynthesis. &he plant takes in sunlight and combines it with carbon dio3ide from the air and water and minerals from the ground. &he plant grows tall and creates the ears of corn ' its seeds. &he energy of the sunlight is stored in the leaves and inside the corn kernels. &he corn kernels are full of energy stored as sugars and starch. &he corn is harvested and is fed to chickens and other animals. &he chickens use the stored energy in the corn on the cob to grow and to move. .ome energy is stored in the animal in its muscle tissue 1protein2 and in the fat. &he chicken reaches maturity, a farmer slaughters it and prepares it to be sold. It's transported to the grocery store. 4our parents buy the chicken at the supermarket, bring it home and cook it 1using energy2. 4ou then eat the chicken's meat and fat and convert that stored energy into energy in your own body. !aybe you ate the chicken at a picnic. &hen you went and played baseball. 4ou'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 o3ygen and e3hale carbon dio3ide. &hat carbon dio3ide is then used by other plants to grow. .o, it's a big circle"

,eat Energy
,eat is a form of energy. We use it for a lot of things, like warming our homes and cooking our food. ,eat energy moves in three ways:

1. Cond# tion ). Con*e tion +. ,adiation #onduction 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. &he heat is being conducted from the hot area of the soup to the colder area of spoon. !etals are e3cellent conductors of heat energy. Wood or plastics are not. &hese bad conductors are called insulators. &hat's why a pan is usually made of metal while the handle is made of a strong plastic. #onvection is the movement of gases or li5uids 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. &he warmer soup moves up from the heated area at the bottom of the pan to the top where it is cooler. &he cooler soup then moves to take the warmer soup's place. &he movement is in a circular pattern within the pan 1see picture above2. &he wind we feel outside is often the result of convection currents. 4ou can understand this by the winds you feel near an ocean. Warm air is lighter than cold air and so it rises. 0uring the daytime, cool air over water moves to replace the air rising up as the land warms the air over it. 0uring the nighttime, the directions change ' the surface of the water is sometimes warmer and the land is cooler.

Dadiation is the final form of movement of heat energy. &he sun's light and heat cannot reach us by conduction or convection because space is almost completely empty. &here is nothing to transfer the energy from the sun to the earth. &he 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. 0arker surfaces absorb more of the radiation and lighter surfaces reflect the radiation. .o you would be cooler if you wear light or white clothes in the summer.

Chapter ): 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. ,ere's something you can do to see the importance of electricity. &ake a walk through your school, house or apartment and write down all the different appliances, devices and machines that use electricity. 4ou'll be amaEed at how many things we use each and every day that depend on electricity. $ut what is electricity% Where does it come from% ,ow does it work% $efore 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. &he 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. &he nucleus is made up of neutrons and protons. Electrons contain a negative charge, protons a positive charge. +eutrons are neutral F they have neither a positive nor a negative charge. &here are many different kinds of atoms, one for each type of element. An atom is a single part that makes up an element. &here are ==> different known elements that make up every thing" .ome elements like o3ygen we breathe are essential to life. Each atom has a specific number of electrons, protons and neutrons. $ut 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. .o, if an atom had si3 protons, it should also have si3 electrons. &he element with si3 protons and si3 electrons is called carbon. #arbon is found in abundance in the sun, stars, comets, atmospheres of most planets, and the food we eat. #oal is made of carbonG so are diamonds. .ome 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. &he electrons move from one atom to another in a flow. *ne electron is attached and another electron is lost. &his chain is similar to the fire fighter's bucket brigades in olden times. $ut 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. &he 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. &he charge is passed from atom to atom when electricity is passed. .cientists and engineers have learned many ways to move electrons off of atoms. &hat means that when you add up the electrons and protons, you would wind up with one more proton instead of being balanced. .ince 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 1H2 because it has too many protons. .ince it got kicked off, the free electron moves around waiting for an unbalanced atom to give it a home. &he free electron charge is negative, and has no proton to balance it out, so we say that it has a negative charge 1'2. .o what do positive and negative charges have to do with electricity%

.cientists and engineers have found several ways to create large numbers of positive atoms and free negative electrons. .ince positive atoms want negative electrons so they can be balanced, they have a strong attraction for the electrons. &he electrons also want to be part of a balanced atom, so they have a strong attraction to the positive atoms. .o, the positive attracts the negative to balance out. &he more positive atoms or negative electrons you have, the stronger the attraction for the other. .ince we have both positive and negative charged groups attracted to each other, we call the total attraction charge. Energy also can be measured in 9oules. <oules sounds e3actly like the word 9ewels, as in diamonds and emeralds. A thousand 9oules is e5ual to a $ritish thermal unit. When electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created. &his is what happens in a piece of wire. &he electrons are passed from atom to atom, creating an electrical current from one end to other, 9ust like in the picture. Electricity is conducted through some things better than others do. Its resistance measures how well something conducts electricity. .ome things hold their electrons very tightly. Electrons do not move through them very well. &hese things are called insulators. Dubber, plastic, cloth, glass and dry air are good insulators and have very high resistance. *ther materials have some loosely held electrons, which move through them very easily. &hese are called conductors. !ost metals F like copper, aluminum or steel F are good conductors.

Where 0oes the Word 'Electricity' #ome )rom%

Electrons, electricity, electronic and other words that begin with electr... all originate from the (reek word elektor, meaning beaming sun. In (reek, elektron is the word for amber. Amber is a very pretty goldish brown stone that sparkles orange and yellow in sunlight. Amber is actually fossiliEed tree sap" It's the stuff used in the movie <urassic -ark. !illions of years ago insects got stuck in the tree sap. .mall insects which had bitten the dinosaurs, had blood with 0+A from the dinosaurs in the insect's bodies, which were now fossiliEed in the amber. Ancient (reeks discovered that amber behaved oddly ' like attracting feathers ' when rubbed by fur or other ob9ects. &hey didn't know what it was that caused this phenomenon. $ut the (reeks had discovered one of the first e3amples of static electricity 1see #hapter B2. &he /atin word, electricus, means to produce from amber by friction. .o, we get our English word electricity from (reek and /atin words that were about amber.

Chapter +: Desistance and .tatic 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. &ake a piece of wire. &he 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 =;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;; 1=3=;::2 electrons. Electricity flows or moves through some things better than others do. &he measurement of how well something conducts electricity is called its resistance.

Desistance in wire depends on how thick and how long it is, and what it's made of. &he thickness of wire is called its gauge. &he smaller the gauge, the bigger the wire. .ome of the largest thicknesses of regular wire is gauge =. 0ifferent types of metal are used in making wire. 4ou can have copper wire, aluminum wire, even steel wire. Each of these metals has a different resistanceG how well the metal conducts electricity. &he lower the resistance of a wire, the better it conducts electricity. #opper is used in many wires because it has a lower resistance than many other metals. &he 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. &he higher the resistance, the hotter it can get. .o, a coiled wire high in resistance, like the wire in a hair dryer, can be very hot. .ome things conduct electricity very poorly. &hese are called insulators. Dubber is a good insulator, and that's why rubber is used to cover wires in an electric cord. (lass 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. &hese are glass insulators. &hey keep the metal of the wires from touching the metal of the towers.

.tatic Electricity
Another type of electrical energy is static electricity. Inlike current electricity that moves, static electricity stays in one place. Try this e-peri'ent... Dub a balloon filled with air on a wool sweater or on your hair. &hen hold it up to a wall. &he balloon will stay there by itself. &ie strings to the ends of two balloons. +ow rub the two balloons together, hold them by strings at the end and put them ne3t to each other. &hey'll move apart. Dubbing the balloons gives them static electricity. When you rub the balloon it picks up e3tra electrons from the sweater or your hair and becomes slightly negatively charged. &he negative charges in the single balloon are attracted to the positive charges in the wall. &he two balloons hanging by strings both have negative charges. +egative charges always repel negative charges and positive always repels positive charges. .o, the two balloons' negative charges push each other apart. .tatic 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 9ump between you and the metal ob9ect. .huffling your feet picks up additional electrons spread over your body. When you touch a metal doorknob or something with a positive charge the electricity 9umps across the small gap from your fingers 9ust before you touch the metal knob. If you walk across a carpet and touch a computer case, you can damage the computer. *ne other type of static electricity is very spectacular. It's the lightning in a thunder and lightning storm. #louds become negatively charged as ice crystals inside the clouds rub up against each other. !eanwhile, on the ground, the positive charge increases. &he clouds get so highly charged that the electrons 9ump from the ground to the cloud, or from one cloud to another cloud. &his causes a huge spark of static electricity in the sky that we call lightning. 4ou can find out more about lightning at Web Weather for Jids 'www.ucar.edu76;th7webweather7

$ut What Is .tatic Electricity%

4ou'll remember from #hapter : that the word electricity came from the (reek words elektor, for beaming sun and elektron, both words describing amber. Amber is fossiliEed tree sap millions of years old and has hardened as hard as a stone. Around C;; $#E 1$efore the #ommon Era2 (reeks noticed a strange effect: When rubbing elektron against a piece of fur, the amber would start attracting particles of dust, feathers and straw. +o one paid much attention to this strange effect until about =C;; when 0r. William (ilbert investigated the reactions of magnets and amber and discovered other ob9ects can be made electric. (ilbert said that amber ac5uired what he called resinous electricity when rubbed with fur. (lass, however, when rubbed with silk, ac5uired what he termed vitreous electricity. ,e thought that electricity repeled the same kind and attracts the opposite kind of electricity. (ilbert and other scientists of that time thought that the friction actually created the electricity 1their word for the electrical charge2. In =@6@, $en9amin )ranklin in America and William Watson in England both reached the same conclusion. &hey said all materials possess a single kind of electrical fluid. &hey didn't really know anything about atoms and electrons, so they called how it behaved a fluid. &hey thought that this fluid can penetrate matter freely and couldn't be created or destroyed. &he two men thought that the action of rubbing 1like rubbing amber with fur2 moves this unseen fluid from one thing to another, electrifying both. )ranklin defined the fluid as positive and the lack of fluid as negative. &herefore, according to )ranklin, the direction of flow was from positive to negative. &oday, we know that the opposite is true. Electricity flows from negative to positive. *thers took the idea even further saying this that two fluids are involved. &hey said items with the same fluid attract each other. And opposite types of fluid in ob9ects will make them repel each other. All of this was only partially right. &his is how scientific theories develop. .omeone thinks of why something occurs and then proposes an e3planation. 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 ob9ects... the two ob9ects are really e3changing electrons.

Chapter .: #ircuits
Electrons with a negative charge, can't 9ump through the air to a positively charged atom. &hey 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 5uickly. 0epending 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 #hapter B, 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. )or e3ample, 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. &his works something like a tollbooth on a freeway bridge. #opper wire is 9ust one type of bridge we use in circuits. $efore electrons can move far, however, they can collide with one of the atoms along the way. &his slows them down or even reverses their direction. As a result, they lose energy to the atoms. &his energy appears as heat, and the scattering is a resistance to the current. &hink of the bridge as a garden hose. &he current of electricity is the water flowing in the hose and the water pressure is the voltage of a circuit. &he diameter of the hose is the determining factor for the resistance. #urrent refers to the movement of charges. In an electrical circuit F 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. &his charge changes into electrical energy when the poles are connected in a circuit F 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. &he light bulb changes the electrical energy into light and heat energy.

#ircuit E3periment
As a boy, Tho'as Edisonbuilt a small laboratory in his cellar. ,is early e3periments helped develop a very in5uisitive mind. ,is whole life was spent thinking about how things work and dreaming up new inventions. &he light bulb and movie pro9ector are 9ust two of doEens of inventions. 4ou 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. /ere0s What 1o# need: =. -enlight bulb :. )lashlight battery B. &wo C pieces of insulated wire 1any kind will work2 6. &ape to keep the wire on the end of the battery 8. A small piece of thin flat metal to make a switch C. .mall block of wood /ere0s What to Do =. &o make a switch: &ake the block of wood and stick one thumb tack in. -ush the other thumbtack through the thin piece of flat metal. -ush the thumb tack into the wood so that the piece of metal can touch the other thumb tack 1see picture2.

:. B. 6. 8. C.

#onnect the first piece of wire to a thumbtack on the switch. -lace the light bulb in the center of this wire piece. &ape the end of the first piece of wire to one end of the battery. &ape your second piece of wire to the opposite end of the battery. Attach the end of your second piece of wire to the remaining thumbtack on the switch.

4ou've created an electrical circuit.

When you press the switch connecting the two thumbtacks, your circuit is closed and your current flows F turning your light bulb on. When your switch is up, your circuit is open and your current can not flow F turning your light bulb off, 9ust like &homas Edison's may have done. &he number of electrons we are willing to let across the circuit at one time is called current . We measure current using amperes, or Amps . *ne A!- is defined as C,:8;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;; 1C.:8 3 =;=>2 electrons moving across your circuit every second" .ince no one wants to remember such a big number, that big number is called a coulomb, after the scientist #harles A #oulomb who helped discover what a current of electricity is. &he amount of charge between the sides of the circuit is called voltage. We measure Koltage in Kolts. &he word *olt is named after another scientist, Ale3ader Kolta, who built the world's first battery. 4ou'll remember that back in #hapter =, we defined energy as the ability to do work. Well, one volt is defined as the amount of electrical charge needed to make one #oulomb 1C:8,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;;,;;; electrons2 do one a specific amount of work F which is labeled one 9oule. <oule is also named after a scientist, <ames -rescott <oule. 0o you remember him from #hapter :% Koltage, #urrent and Desistance are very important to circuits. If either voltage or current is too big you could break the circuit. $ut 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.

An Electrical #ircuit
(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 s5uirrels running on them. A 5uestion many people ask ... is, ',ow come the s5uirrels don't get electrocuted%' &o answer that 5uestion, we need to understand e3actly 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 tiny microwaves. &hese fly around inside the oven area until they locate the ,ungry ,ombre ,eat 'n' Eat ,earty $urrito entreeG they then signal the location to each other by slapping their tails in a distinctive pattern. &he workers, or drones, then ... swarm around the 5ueenG this causes the rapid warming that makes the entree edible and leads via amino acids, to digestion. &his 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. .o we see that s5uirrels have nothing whatsoever to do with it. &here is no need for you to worry about s5uirrelsG believe me, they are not worrying about you.

(lease 2ote: T/IS IS A &34E555

-arallel #ircuits"
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 ne3t to the first one, we would have two circuits between the charges. We call these parallel circuits because they run parallel to each other. 4ou can have as many parallel circuits as you want. -arallel circuits share the same voltage, but they allow more paths for the electricity to go over. &his means that the total number of electrons that can get across 1the current2 can increase, without breaking either circuit.

Electric !otors
An ele tri 'otor #ses ir #its wo#nd ro#nd and ro#nd. These wo#nd ir #its are s#spended between 'agnets. 1We send a 'thank you' to ,ow .tuff Works Website for their electric motor graphic.2

A motor works through electromagnetism. It has a coiled up wire 1the circuit2 that sits between the north and south poles of a magnet. When current flows through the coiled circuit, another magnetic field is produced. &he north pole of the fi3ed magnet attracts the south pole of the coiled wire. &he two north poles push away, or repulse, each other. &he motor is set up in a way that attraction and repulsion spins the center section with the coiled wire.

Chapter 6: .tored Energy and $atteries

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be saved in various forms. *ne 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 LemdashG 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. $ut reaction takes place only if there is a flow of electrons. $atteries 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.

,ow the #hemical Deaction &akes -lace in a $attery

A very simple modern battery is the Einc'carbon battery, called the carbon battery for short. &his battery contains acidic material within and a rod of Einc down the center. ,ere's where knowing a little bit of chemistry helps. When Einc is inserted into an acid, the acid begins to eat away at the Einc, releasing hydrogen gas and heat energy. &he acid molecules break up into its components: usually hydrogen and other atoms. &he process releases electrons from the Minc atoms that combine with hydrogen ions in the acid to create the hydrogen gas. If a rod of carbon is inserted into the acid, the acid does nothing to it. $ut if you connect the carbon rod to the Einc rod with a wire, creating a circuit, electrons will begin to flow through the wire and combine with hydrogen on the carbon rod. &his still releases a little bit of hydrogen gas but it makes less heat. .ome of that heat energy is the energy that is flowing through the circuit. &he energy in that circuit can now light a light bulb in a flashlight or turn a small motor. 0epending on the siEe of the battery, it can even start an automobile. Eventually, the Einc rod is completely dissolved by the acid in the battery, and the battery can no longer be used. )or a great on'line page about batteries, visit the EnergiEer /earning #enter.

.idebar
As we read in #hapter =, Alessandro Kolta created the first battery 1also see our .uper .cientists page2. Kolta called his battery the Koltaic -ile. ,e stacked alternating layers of Einc, cardboard soaked in salt water and silver. It looked like this: 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.

0ifferent &ypes of $atteries

0ifferent types of batteries use different types of chemicals and chemical reactions. .ome of the more common types of batteries are:

Alkaline battery F Ised in 0uracellN and EnergiEerN and other alkaline batteries. &he electrodes are Einc and manganese'o3ide. &he electrolyte is an alkaline paste. /ead'acid battery F &hese are used in automobiles. &he electrodes are made of lead and lead'o3ide with a strong acid as the electrolyte. /ithium battery F &hese batteries are used in cameras for the flash bulb. &hey are made with lithium, lithium' iodide and lead'iodide. &hey can supply surges of electricity for the flash. /ithium'ion battery F &hese batteries are found in laptop computers, cell phones and other high'use portable e5uipment. +ickel'cadmium or +i#ad battery F &he electrodes are nickel'hydro3ide and cadmium. &he electrolyte is potassium'hydro3ide.

Minc'carbon battery or standard carbon battery F Minc and carbon are used in all regular or standard AA, # and 0 dry'cell batteries. &he electrodes are made of Einc and carbon, with a paste of acidic materials between them serving as the electrolyte.

)ood F Another !ethod of .toring Energy

$atteries store energy in a chemical process, but there are other ways of storing energy. #onsider the food chain on our planet. -lants, like grass in a meadow, convert the sun's energy through photosynthesis into stored chemical energy. &his energy is stored in the plant cells is used by the plant to grow, repair itself and reproduce itself. #ows 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 7: &urbines, (enerators and -ower -lants

As we learned in Chapter ), electricity flows through wires to light our lamps, run &Ks, computers and all other electrical appliances. $ut where does the electricity come from% In this chapter, we'll learn how electricity is generated in a power plant. In the ne3t few chapters, we'll learn about the various resources that are used to make the heat to produce electricity. InChapter 8, we'll learn how the electricity gets from the power plant to homes, school and businesses. &hermal 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. &he 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 firebo3 to make heat. Dunning through the fire bo3 and above that hot fire are a series of pipes with water running through them. &he heat energy is conducted into the metal pipes, heating the water in the pipes until it boils into steam. Water boils into steam at :=: degrees )ahrenheit or =;; degrees #elsius. &he top picture on the right is of a small power plant located at !ichigan .tate Iniversity. &he 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 left, you'll see the turbine and generator at !.I's power plant. &he big pipe on the left side is the steam inlet. *n the right side of the turbine is where the steam comes out. &he steam is fed under high pressure to the turbine. &he turbine spins and its shaft is connected to a turbogenerator that changes the mechanical spinning energy into electricity. &he third picture on the right is of the turbine fan before it is placed inside the turbine housing. 4ou can see a close'up of the turbine blades on the fourth picture. &he 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. &hat'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. &his is not the same steam that is used inside the turbine. &he cooled water then goes back into the boiler where it is heated again and the process repeats over and over. !ost power plants in #alifornia use cleaner'burning natural gas to produce electricity. *thers use oil or coal to heat the water. +uclear power plants use nuclear energy to heat water to make electricity. .till 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 ne3t few chapters.

,ow the (enerator Works

&he turbine is attached by a shaft to the turbogenerator. &he generator has a long, coiled wire on its shaft surrounded by a giant magnet. 4ou can see the inside of the generator coil with all its wires in the picture on the right. &he 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. &he electric generator is converting mechanical, moving energy into electrical energy. &he generator is based on the principle of electromagnetic induction discovered in =>B= by !ichael )araday, a $ritish scientist. )araday discovered that if an electric conductor, like a copper wire, is moved through a magnetic field, electric current will flow 1or be induced 2 in the conductor. .o the mechanical energy of the moving wire is converted into the electric energy of the current that flows in the wire. &he 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 8. All power plants have turbines and generators. .ome turbines are turned by wind, some by water, some by steam.

Chapter 8: Electricity &ransmission .ystem

After electricity is produced at power plants it has to get to the customers that use the electricity. *ur 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 :8,;;; volts. A volt is a measurement of electromotive force

in electricity. &his is the electric force that pushes electrons around a circuit. Kolt is named after Alessandro Kolta, an Italian physicist who invented the first battery. &he electricity first goes to a transformer at the power plant that boosts the voltage up to 6;;,;;; 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. &he long thick cables of transmission lines are made of copper or aluminum because they have a low resistance. 4ou'll remember from #hapter B that the higher the resistance of a wire, the warmer it gets. .o, some of the electrical energy is lost because it is changed into heat energy. ,igh voltage transmission lines carry electricity long distances to a substation. &he power lines go into substations near businesses, factories and homes. ,ere transformers change the very high voltage electricity back into lower voltage electricity. )rom these substations 1like in the photo to the right2, 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 1see picture2 or in a utility bo3 converts the power to even lower levels to be used in your house. &he voltage is eventually reduced to ::; volts for larger appliances, like stoves and clothes dryers, and ==; volts for lights, &Ks and other smaller appliances. Dather than over'head lines, some new distribution lines are underground. &he power lines are protected from the weather, which can cause line to break. ,ave you ever seen what happens after an ice storm% &he picture on the right shows high voltage towers that crumpled from the weight of ice during a =??> ice storm that hit #anada and parts of the Inited .tates. !ore than =,;;; high voltage towers and B;,;;; wooden utility poles were destroyed in #anada by the storm. #lose to =.6 million people in Ouebec and :B;,;;; in *ntario were without electricity. In many places, power not fully restored for up to a week. Weather people called it the most destructive storm in #anadian 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 bo3 into your home. &he fuse bo3 protects the house in case of problems. When a fuse 1or a circuit breaker2 blows or trips something is wrong with an appliance or something was short' circuited.

Energy .afety +ote"

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 9: )ossil )uels ' #oal, *il and +atural (as Where )ossil )uels #ome )rom
&here are three ma9or 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 F hence the name fossil fuels. &he age they were formed is called the #arboniferous -eriod. It was part of the -aleoEoic Era. #arboniferous gets its name from carbon, the basic element in coal and other fossil fuels. &he #arboniferous -eriod occurred from about BC; to :>C 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. &he water and seas were filled with algae F the green stuff that forms on a stagnant pool of water. Algae is actually millions of very small plants. .ome deposits of coal can be found during the time of the dinosaurs. )or e3ample, thin carbon layers can be found during the late #retaceous -eriod 1C8 million years ago2 F the time of &yrannosaurus De3. $ut the main deposits of fossil fuels are from the #arboniferous -eriod. )or more about the various geologic eras, go towww.# 'p.berkeley.ed#:help:ti'e;or'.ht'l As the trees and plants died, they sank to the bottom of the swamps of oceans. &hey formed layers of a spongy material called peat. *ver many hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay and other minerals, which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary. !ore and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more and more. It began to press down on the peat. &he peat was s5ueeEed and s5ueeEed until the water came out of it and it eventually, over millions of years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum, and natural gas.

#oal
#oal is a hard, black colored rock'like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, o3ygen, nitrogen and varying amounts of sulphur. &here are three main types of coal F anthracite, bituminous and lignite. Anthracite coal is the hardest and has more carbon, which gives it a higher energy content. /ignite is the softest and is low in carbon but high in hydrogen and o3ygen content. $ituminous is in between. &oday, the precursor to coalApeatAis still found in many countries and is also used as an energy source. &he earliest known use of coal was in #hina. #oal from the )u'shun mine in northeastern #hina may have been used to smelt copper as early as B,;;; years ago. &he #hinese thought coal was a stone that could burn. #oal is found in and throughout the many of the lower 6> states of I... rest of the world. #oal is mined out

of the ground using various methods. .ome coal mines are dug by sinking vertical or horiEontal shafts deep under ground, and coal miners travel by elevators or trains deep under ground to dig the coal. *ther coal is mined in strip mines where huge steam shovels strip away the top layers above the coal. &he layers are then restored after the coal is taken away. &he coal is then shipped by train and boats and even in pipelines. In pipelines, the coal is ground up and mi3ed with water to make what's called a slurry. &his is then pumped many miles through pipelines. At the other end, the coal is used to fuel power plants and other factories.

*il or -etroleum
*il is another fossil fuel. It was also formed more than B;; million years ago. .ome scientists say that tiny diatoms are the source of oil. 0iatoms are sea creatures the siEe of a pin head. &hey do one thing 9ust like plantsG 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=2. ,ere they were buried under sediment and other rock 1:2. &he rock s5ueeEed the diatoms and the energy in their bodies could not escape. &he 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 1B2. *il has been used for more than 8,;;;'C,;;; years. &he ancient .umerians, Assyrians and $abylonians used crude oil and asphalt 1 pitch 2 collected from large seeps at &uttul 1modern'day ,it2 on the Euphrates Diver. A seep is a place on the ground where the oil leaks up from below ground. &he ancient Egyptians, used li5uid oil as a medicine for wounds, and oil has been used in lamps to provide light. &he 0ead .ea, near the modern #ountry of Israel, used to be called /ake Asphaltites. &he 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 +orth America, +ative Americans used blankets to skim oil off the surface of streams and lakes. &hey used oil as medicine and to make canoes water'proof. 0uring the Devolutionary War, +ative Americans taught (eorge 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. -etroleum oil began to replace whale oil in lamps because the price for whale oil was very high. 0uring this time, most petroleum oil came from distilling coal into a li5uid or by skimming it off of lakes F 9ust as the +ative Americans did. &hen on August :@, =>8?, Edwin /. 0rake 1the man standing on the right in the black and white picture to the right2, struck li5uid oil at his well near &itusville, -ennsylvania. ,e found oil under ground and a way that could pump it to the surface. &he well pumped the oil into barrels made out of wood. &his method of drilling for oil is still being used today all over the world in areas where oil can be found below the surface. *il 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. &he 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.

&o find oil and natural gas, companies drill through the earth to the deposits deep below the surface. &he oil and natural gas are then pumped from below the ground by oil rigs 1like in the picture2. &hey then usually travel through pipelines or by ship. *il is found in => of the 8> counties in #alifornia. Jern #ounty, the #ounty where $akersfield is found, is one of the largest oil production places in the country. $ut we only get one'half of our oil from #alifornia wells. &he rest comes from Alaska, and an increasing amount comes from other countries. In the entire I..., more than 8; percent of all the oil we use comes from outside the country... most of it from the !iddle East. *il is brought to #alifornia by large tanker ships. &he petroleum or crude oil must be changed or refined into other products before it can be used.

Defineries

*il 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. *il is made into many different products F fertiliEers for farms, the clothes you wear, the toothbrush you use, the plastic bottle that holds your milk, the plastic pen that you write with. &hey all came from oil. &here are thousands of other products that come from oil. Almost all plastic comes originally from oil. #an you think of some other things made from oil% &he products include gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation or 9et fuel, home heating oil, oil for ships and oil to burn in power plants to make electricity. ,ere's what a barrel of crude oil can make. In #alifornia, @6 percent of our oil is used for transportation F cars, planes, trucks, buses and motorcycles. We'll learn more about transportation energy in Chapter 19.

+atural (as
.ometime between C,;;; to :,;;; years $#E 1$efore the #ommon Era2, the first discoveries of natural gas seeps were made in Iran. !any early writers described the natural petroleum seeps in the !iddle East, especially in the $aku region of what is now AEerbai9an. &he gas seeps, probably first ignited by lightning, provided the fuel for the eternal fires of the fire'worshiping religion of the ancient -ersians. +atural gas is lighter than air. +atural gas is mostly made up of a gas called methane. !ethane is a simple chemical compound that is made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It's chemical formula is #,6 F one atom of carbon along with four atoms hydrogen. &his gas is highly flammable. +atural gas is usually found near petroleum underground. It is pumped from below ground and travels in pipelines to storage areas. &he ne3t chapter looks at that pipeline system. +atural gas usually has no odor and you can't see it. $efore it is sent to the pipelines and storage tanks, it is mi3ed with a chemical that gives a strong odor. &he odor smells almost like rotten eggs. &he odor makes it easy to smell if there is a leak.

nergy !afety Note"

If you smell that rotten egg smell in your house, tell your folks and get out of the house #uickly. $on%t turn on any lights or other electrical devices. & spark from a light switch can ignite the gas very easily. 'o to a neighbor%s house and call (-)-) for emergency help.

.aving )ossil )uels

)ossil fuels take millions of years to make. We are using up the fuels that were made more than B;; million years ago before the time of the dinosaurs. *nce they are gone they are gone. .o, it's best to not waste fossil fuels. &hey are not renewableG they can't really be made again. We can save fossil fuels by conserving energy.

Chapter <: +atural (as 0istribution .ystem

We learned in Chapter 9 that natural gas is a fossil fuel. It is a gaseous molecule that's made up of two atoms F one carbon atom combined with four hydrogen atom. It's chemical formula is #,6. &he picture on the right is a model of what the molecule could look like. 0on't confuse natural gas with gasoline, which we call gas for short. /ike oil, natural gas is found under ground and under the ocean floor. Wells are drilled to tap into natural gas reservoirs 9ust like drilling for oil. *nce a drill has hit an area that contains natural gas, it can be brought to the surface through pipes. &he natural gas has to get from the wells to us. &o do that, there is a huge network of pipelines that brings natural gas from the gas fields to us. .ome of these pipes are two feet wide. +atural gas is sent in larger pipelines to power plants to make electricity or to factories because they use lots of gas. $akeries use natural gas to heat ovens to bake bread, pies, pastries and cookies. *ther businesses use natural gas for heating their buildings or heating water. )rom 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. Energy can be found in a number of different forms. It can be chemical energy, electrical energy, heat 1thermal energy2, light 1radiant energy2, mechanical energy, and nuclear energy. 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 1another form of gas that's often made when oil is refined2 or bottled gas is used instead of natural gas. -ropane is also called /-(, or li5uefied petroleum gas, is made up of methane and a mi3ture with other gases like butane. -ropane turns to a li5uid when it is placed under slight pressure. )or regular natural gas to turn into a li5uid, it has to be made very, very cold. #ars 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 o3ygen 1the process of combustion2, you produce carbon dio3ide and water vaporG plus the energy that's released in heat and light. .ome impurities are contained in all natural gas. &hese include sulphur and butane and other chemicals. When burned, those impurities can create air pollution. &he amount of pollution from natural gas is less than burning a more comple3 fuel like gasoline. +atural gas'powered cars are more than ?; percent cleaner than a gasoline'powered car. &hat's why many people feel natural gas would be a good fuel for cars because it burns cleanly.

Chapter 1!: $iomass Energy

$iomass is matter usually thought of as garbage. .ome of it is 9ust stuff lying around '' dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left'over crops, wood chips 1like in the picture to the right2, and bark and sawdust from lumber mills. It can even include used tires and livestock manure. 4our trash, paper products that can't be recycled into other paper products, and other household waste are normally sent to the dump. 4our trash contains some types of biomass that can be reused. Decycling biomass for fuel and other uses cuts down on the need for landfills to hold garbage. &his stuff nobody seems to want can be used to produce electricity, heat, compost material or fuels. #omposting material is decayed plant or food products mi3ed together in a compost pile and spread to help plants grow. #alifornia produces more than C; million bone dry tons of biomass each year. *f this total, five million bone dry tons is now burned to make electricity. &his is biomass from lumber mill wastes, urban wood waste, forest and agricultural residues and other feed stocks. If all of it was used, the C; million tons of biomass in #alifornia could make close to :,;;; megawatts of electricity for #alifornia's growing population and economy. &hat's enough energy to make electricity for about two million homes" ,ow biomass works is very simple. &he waste wood, tree branches and other scraps are gathered together in big trucks. &he trucks bring the waste from factories and from farms to a biomass power plant. ,ere the biomass is dumped into huge hoppers. &his is then fed into a furnace where it is burned. &he heat is used to boil water in the boiler, and the energy in the steam is used to turn turbines and generators 1see Chapter 92. $iomass can also be tapped right at the landfill with burning waster products. When garbage decomposes, it gives off methane gas. 4ou'll remember in chapters > and ? that natural gas is made up of methane. -ipelines are put into the landfills and the methane gas can be collected. It is then used in power plants to make electricity. &his 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. &his gas can be burned right at the farm to make energy to run the farm. Ising biomass can help reduce global warming compared to a fossil fuel'powered plant. -lants use and store carbon dio3ide 1#*:2 when they grow. #*: stored in the plant is released when the plant material is burned or decays. $y replanting the crops, the new plants can use the #*: produced by the burned plants. .o using biomass and replanting helps close the carbon dio3ide cycle. ,owever, if the crops are not replanted, then biomass can emit carbon dio3ide that will contribute toward global warming. .o, 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. &oday, new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. *ne way is to produce ethanol, a li5uid alcohol fuel. Ethanol can be used in special types of cars that are made for using alcohol fuel instead of gasoline. &he alcohol can also be combined with gasoline. &his reduces our dependence on oil F a non'renewable fossil fuel.

Chapter 11: (eothermal Energy

(eothermal Energy has been around for as long as the Earth has e3isted. (eo means earth, and thermal means heat. .o, geothermal means earth'heat. ,ave you ever cut a boiled egg in half% &he egg is similar to how the earth looks like inside. &he yellow yolk of the egg is like the core of the earth. &he 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. $elow the crust of the earth, the top layer of the mantle is a hot li5uid rock called magma. &he crust of the earth floats on this li5uid magma mantle. When magma breaks through the surface of the earth in a volcano, it is called lava. )or every =;; meters you go below ground, the temperature of the rock increases about B degrees #elsius. *r for every B:> feet below ground, the temperature increases 8.6 degrees )ahrenheit. .o, if you went about =;,;;; feet below ground, the temperature of the rock would be hot enough to boil water. 0eep under the surface, water sometimes makes its way close to the hot rock and turns into boiling hot water or into steam. &he hot water can reach temperatures of more than B;; degrees )ahrenheit 1=6> degrees #elsius2. &his is hotter than boiling water 1:=: degrees ) 7 =;; degrees #2. 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 -ool at 4ellowstone +ational -ark pictured on the left. *r, it sometimes e3plodes into the air as a geyser, like *ld )aithful (eyser pictured on the right. About =;,;;; years ago, -aleo'Indians used hot springs in +orth American for cooking. Areas around hot springs were neutral Eones. Warriors of fighting tribes would bathe together in peace. Every ma9or hot spring in the Inited .tates can be associated with +ative American tribes. #alifornia hot springs, like at the (eysers in the +apa area, were important and sacred areas to tribes from that area. In other places around the world, people used hot springs for rest and rela3ation. &he ancient Domans built elaborate buildings to en9oy hot baths, and the <apanese have en9oyed natural hot springs for centuries.

(eothermal &oday
&oday, people use the geothermally heated hot water in swimming pools and in health spas. *r, the hot water from below the ground can warm buildings for growing plants, like in the green house on the right. In .an $ernardino, in .outhern #alifornia, hot water from below ground is used to heat buildings during the winter. &he hot water runs through miles of insulated pipes to doEens of public buildings. &he #ity ,all, animal shelters, retirement homes, state agencies, a hotel and convention center are some of the buildings which are heated this way. In the #ountry of Iceland, many of the buildings and even swimming pools in the capital of Deyk9avik 1DE#J'yah' vick2 and elsewhere are heated with geothermal hot water. &he country has at least :8 active volcanoes and many hot springs and geysers.

(eothermal Electricity
,ot water or steam from below ground can also be used to make electricity in a geothermal power plant.

In #alifornia, there are =6 areas where we use geothermal energy to make electricity. &he red areas on the map show where there are known geothermal areas. .ome are not used yet because the resource is too small, too isolated or the water temperatures are not hot enough to make electricity. &he main spots are:

&he (eysers area north of .an )rancisco In the northwest corner of the state near /assen Kolcanic +ational -ark In the !ammoth /akes area ' the site of a huge ancient volcano In the #oso ,ot .prings area in Inyo #ounty In the Imperial Kalley in .outhern #alifornia. .ome of the areas have so much steam and hot water that it can be used to generate electricity. ,oles are drilled into the ground and pipes lowered into the hot water, like a drinking straw in a soda. &he hot steam or water comes up through these pipes from below ground. 4ou can see the pipes running in front of the geothermal power plant in the picture. &his power plant is (eysers Init P => located in the (eysers (eothermal area of #alifornia. A geothermal power plant is like in a regular power plant e3cept that no fuel is burned to heat water into steam. &he steam or hot water in a geothermal power plant is heated by the earth. It goes into a special turbine. &he turbine blades spin and the shaft from the turbine is connected to a generator to make electricity. &he steam then gets cooled off in a cooling tower. &he white smoke rising from the plants in the photograph above is not smoke. It is steam given off in the cooling process. &he cooled water can then be pumped back below ground to be reheated by the earth. ,ere's a cut'away showing the inside of the power plant. &he hot water flows into turbine and out of the turbine. &he 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 8.

#alifornia's geothermal power plants produce about one'half of the world's geothermally generated electricity. &he geothermal power plants produce enough electricity for about two million homes.

(eothermal 7 (round .ource ,eat -umps

&hough 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 =; feet below ground level stays the same temperature, between 8; and C; degrees )ahrenheit 1=; and =C degrees #2. 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. -ipes are buried in the ground near the building. Inside these pipes a fluid, like the antifreeEe in a car radiator, is circulated. In winter, heat from the warmer ground goes through the heat e3changer of a heat pump, which sends warm air into the home or business. 0uring hot weather, the process is reversed. ,ot air from inside the building goes through the heat e3changer and the heat is passed into the relatively cooler ground. ,eat removed during the summer can also be used to heat water.

Chapter 1): ,ydro -ower

When it rains in hills and mountains, the water becomes streams and rivers that run down to the ocean. &he moving or falling water can be used to do work. Energy, you'll remember is the ability to do work. .o moving water, which has kinetic energy, can be used to make electricity. )or hundreds of years, moving water was used to turn wooden wheels that were attached to grinding wheels to grind 1or mill2 flour or corn. &hese were called grist mills or water mills. In the year =;>C, the Domesday Book was written. &he multi' volume books are very large. ,and'written on the pages of the books are lists of all properties, homes, stores and other things in England. &he 0omesday $ook listed 8,C:6 waterwheel'driven mills in England south of the &rent Diver. &hat was about one mill for each 6;; 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. &he flow of the river then turns the wheel at the bottom like in the moving graphic on the right. &oday, moving water can also be used to make electricity. ,ydro means water. ,ydro'electric means making electricity from water power. ,ydroelectric power uses the kinetic energy of moving water to make electricity. 0ams can be built to stop the flow of a river. Water behind a dam often forms a reservoir /ike the picture of .hasta 0am in +orthern #alifornia pictured on the right. 0ams are also built across larger rivers but no reservoir is made. &he river is simply sent through a hydroelectric power plant or powerhouse. 4ou can see this in the picture of &he 0alles 0am on the #olumbia Diver along the border of *regon and Washington .tate. ,ydro is one of the largest producers of electricity in the Inited .tates. Water power supplies about =; percent of the entire electricity that we use. In states with high mountains and lots of rivers, even more electricity if made by hydro power. In #alifornia, for e3ample, about =8 percent of all the electricity comes from hydroelectric. &he state of Washington leads the nation in hydroelectricity. &he (rand #oulee, #hief <oseph and <ohn 0ay dams are three of si3 ma9or dams on the #olumbia Diver. About >@ percent of the electricity made in Washington state is produced by hydroelectric facilities. .ome of that electricity is e3ported from the state and used in other states.

,ow a ,ydro 0am Works

&he water behind the dam flows through the intake and into a pipe called a penstock. &he water pushes against blades in a turbine, causing them to turn. &he turbine is similar to the kind used in a power plant that we learned about in Chapter 7. $ut instead of using steam to turn the turbine, water is used. &he turbine spins a generator to produce electricity. &he electricity can then travel over long distance electric lines to your home, to your school, to factories and businesses. ,ydro power today can be found in the mountainous areas of states where there are lakes and reservoirs and along rivers.

Chapter 1+: +uclear Energy F )ission and )usion

Another ma9or form of energy is nuclear energy, the energy that is trapped inside each atom. *ne of the laws of the universe is that matter and energy can't be created nor destroyed. $ut they can be changed in form. !atter can be changed into energy. &he world's most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, created the mathematical formula that e3plains this. It is:

&his e5uation says: QenergyR e5uals m QmassR times c* Qc stands for the velocity or the speed of light. c* means c times c, or the speed of light raised to the second power A or c's5uared.R 4ou can listen to Einstein's voice e3plaining this at: www.aip.org:history:einstein:*oi e1.ht' -lease note that some web browser software may not show an e3ponent 1raising something to a power, a mathematical e3pression2 on the Internet. +ormally c's5uared is shown with a smaller * placed above and to the right of the c. .cientists used Einstein's famous e5uation as the key to unlock atomic energy and also create atomic bombs. &he ancient (reeks said the smallest part of nature is an atom. $ut they did not know :,;;; years ago about nature's even smaller parts. As we learned in hapter ), 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.

+uclear )ission
An atom's nucleus can be split apart. When this is done, a tremendous amount of energy is released. &he energy is both heat and light energy. Einstein said that a very small amount of matter contains a very /AD(E amount of energy. &his energy, when let out slowly, can be harnessed to generate electricity. When it is let out all at once, it can make a tremendous e3plosion in an atomic bomb. A nuclear power plant 1like 0iablo #anyon +uclear -lant shown below2 uses uranium as a fuel. Iranium 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. &he 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. &hose 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. $ut in atomic bombs, almost pure pieces of the element Iranium':B8 or -lutonium, of a precise mass and shape, must be brought together and held together, with great force. &hese conditions are not present in a nuclear reactor. &he reaction also creates radioactive material. &his material could hurt people if released, so it is kept in a solid form. &he very strong concrete dome in the picture is designed to keep this material inside if an accident happens.

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

Power plant drawing courtesy Nuclear Institute

&his water from around the nuclear core is sent to another section of the power plant. ,ere, in the heat e3changer, it heats another set of pipes filled with water to make steam. &he steam in this second set of pipes turns a turbine to generate electricity. $elow is a cross section of the inside of a typical nuclear power plant.

+uclear )usion

Another form of nuclear energy is called fusion. )usion means 9oining smaller nuclei 1the plural of nucleus2 to make a larger nucleus. &he sun uses nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. &his 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 e3tra particle called a neutron. Also given off in this fusion reaction is energy" &hanks to the Iniversity of #alifornia, $erkeley for the picture. .cientists have been working on controlling nuclear fusion for a long time, trying to make a fusion reactor to produce electricity. $ut 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 1.: *cean Energy

&he world's ocean may eventually provide us with energy to power our homes and businesses. Dight now, there are very few ocean energy power plants and most are fairly small. $ut how can we get energy from the ocean% &here 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. /et's take a look at each.

Wave Energy
Jinetic energy 1movement2 e3ists in the moving waves of the ocean. &hat energy can be used to power a turbine. In this simple e3ample, to the right, the wave rises into a chamber. &he rising water forces the air out of the chamber. &he 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. &his is only one type of wave'energy system. *thers actually use the up and down motion of the wave to power a piston that moves up and down inside a cylinder. &hat piston can also turn a generator. !ost wave'energy systems are very small. $ut, they can be used to power a warning buoy or a small light house.

&idal Energy
Another form of ocean energy is called tidal energy. When tides comes into the shore, they can be trapped in reservoirs behind dams. &hen when the tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out 9ust like in a regular hydroelectric power plant. &idal energy has been used since about the ==th #entury, 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 =C feet between low tide to high tide is needed. &here are only a few places where this tide change occurs around the earth. .ome power plants are already operating using this idea. *ne plant in )rance makes enough energy from tides 1:6; megawatts2 to power :6;,;;; homes. &his facility is called the /a Dance .tation in )rance. It began making electricity in =?CC. It produces about one fifth of a regular nuclear or coal'fired power plant. It is more than =; times the power of the ne3t largest tidal station in the world, the =@ megawatt #anadian Annapolis station.

*cean &hermal Energy #onversion 1*&E#2

&he idea is not new. Ising the temperature of water to make energy actually dates back to =>>= when a )rench Engineer by the name of <ac5ues 0'Arsonval first thought of *&E#. &he 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. $ut below the surface, the ocean gets very cold. &hat's why scuba divers wear wet suits when they dive down deep. &heir wet suits trapped their body heat to keep them warm. -ower plants can be built that use this difference in temperature to make energy. A difference of at least B> degrees )ahrenheit is needed between the warmer surface water and the colder deep ocean water. Ising this type of energy source is called *cean &hermal Energy #onversion or *&E#. It is being demonstrated in ,awaii. !ore info on *&E# can be found on the archive pages for the +atural Energy /aboratory of ,awaii at:www.hawaii.go*:dbedt:ert:ote =nelha:ote .ht'l

Chapter 16: .olar Energy

We have always used the energy of the sun as far back as humans have e3isted on this planet. As far back as 8,;;; years ago, people worshipped the sun. Da, the sun'god, who was considered the first king of Egypt. In !esopotamia, the sun'god .hamash was a ma9or deity and was e5uated with 9ustice. In (reece there were two sun deities, Apollo and ,elios. &he influence of the sun also appears in other religions F Moroastrianism, !ithraism, Doman religion, ,induism, $uddhism, the 0ruids of England, the AEtecs of !e3ico, the Incas of -eru, and many +ative American tribes. We know today, that the sun is simply our nearest star. Without it, life would not e3ist 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 F drying our clothes. -lants use the sun's light to make food. Animals eat plants for food. And as we learned in Chapter 6, decaying plants hundreds of millions of years ago produced the coal, oil and natural gas that we use today. .o, fossil fuels is actually sunlight stored millions and millions of years ago. Indirectly, the sun or other stars are responsible for A// 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 F a star e3ploding. /et's look at ways in which we can use the sun's energy.

.olar ,ot Water

In the =>?;s solar water heaters were being used all over the Inited .tates. &hey 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 =; times the price we pay for natural gas today. And electricity was even more e3pensive if you even had any in your town" !any homes used solar water heaters. In =>?@, B; percent of the homes in -asadena, 9ust east of /os Angeles, were e5uipped with solar water heaters. As mechanical improvements were made, solar systems were used in AriEona, )lorida and many other sunny parts of the Inited .tates. &he picture shown here is a solar water heater installed on the front roof of a house in -omona Kalley, #alifornia, in =?== 1the panels are circled above the four windows2.

$y =?:;, ten of thousands of solar water heaters had been sold. $y then, however, large deposits of oil and natural gas were discovered in the western Inited .tates. As these low cost fuels became available, solar water systems began to be replaced with heaters burning fossil fuels. &oday, solar water heaters are making a comeback. &here are more than half a million of them in #alifornia alone" &hey heat water for use inside homes and businesses. &hey also heat swimming pools like in the picture. -anels 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. &hat warmed water can then be used in a swimming pool.

.olar &hermal Electricity

.olar energy can also be used to make electricity. .ome solar power plants, like the one in the picture to the right in #alifornia's !o9ave 0esert, 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. &he mirror focuses the sunlight to strike the pipe, and it gets so hot that it can boil water into steam. &hat steam can then be used to turn a turbine to make electricity. In #alifornia's !o9ave 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 B8;,;;; homes. &he problem with solar energy is that it works only when the sun is shining. .o, on cloudy days and at night, the power plants can't create energy. .ome solar plants, are a hybrid technology. 0uring 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 #entral &ower -ower -lant, like the one to the right ' the .olar &wo -ro9ect. .unlight is reflected off =,>;; mirrors circling the tall tower. &he mirrors are called heliostats and move and turn to face the sun all day long. &he 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. &hat fluid can be used to boil water to make steam to turn a turbine and a generator. &his e3perimental power plant is called .olar II. It was re'built in #alifornia's desert using newer technologies than when it was first built in the early =?>;s. .olar II will use the sunlight to change heat into mechanical energy in the turbine. &he power plant will make enough electricity to power about =;,;;; homes. .cientists say larger central tower power plants can make electricity for =;;,;;; to :;;,;;; homes.

.olar #ells or -hotovoltaic Energy

We can also change the sunlight directly to electricity using solar cells. .olar cells are also called photovoltaic cells F or -K cells for short F and can be found on many small appliances, like calculators, and even on spacecraft. &hey were first developed in the =?8;s for use on I... space satellites. &hey are made of silicon, a special type of melted sand.

When sunlight strikes the solar cell, electrons 1red circles2 are knocked loose.&hey move toward the treated front surface 1dark blue color2. An electron imbalance is created between the front and back. When the two surfaces are 9oined by a connector, like a wire, a current of electricity occurs between the negative and positive sides. &hese individual solar cells are arranged together in a -K module and the modules are grouped together in an array. .ome of the arrays are set on special tracking devices to follow sunlight all day long. &he 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. .olar energy can be stored in batteries to light a roadside billboard at night. *r the battery for an emergency roadside cellular telephone when around. also use -K cells. &hey convert sunlight directly into motors on the car. of solar energy, we think of satellites in outer space. ,ere's e3tending out from a satellite.

energy can be stored in a no telephone wires are .ome e3perimental cars energy to power electric $ut when most of us think a picture of solar panels

Chapter 17: Wind Energy

Wind can be used to do work. &he 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. &his is one form of work. )armers have been using wind energy for many years to pump water from wells using windmills like the one on the right. In ,olland, 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, 9ust like a water wheel is turned by water power. &oday, the wind is also used to make electricity. $lowing wind spins the blades on a wind turbine F 9ust like a large toy pinwheel. &his device is windmill. A windmill grinds pump water. &he blades of the turbine mounted on a turning

called a wind turbine and not a or mills grain, or is used to are attached to a hub that is shaft. &he shaft goes through

a gear transmission bo3 where the turning speed is increased. &he 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. 4ou can use a single smaller wind turbine to power a home or a school. A small turbine 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 #alifornia. And wind is blowing in many places all over the earth. &he only problem with wind is that it is not windy all the time. In #alifornia, it is usually windier during the summer months when wind rushes inland from cooler areas, like the ocean to replace hot rising air in #alifornia's warm central valleys and deserts. In order for a wind turbine to work efficiently, wind speeds usually must be above =: to =6 miles per hour. Wind has to be this speed to turn the turbines fast enough to generate electricity. &he turbines usually produce about 8; to B;; kilowatts of electricity each. A kilowatt is =,;;; watts 1kilo means =,;;;2. 4ou can light ten =;; watt light bulbs with =,;;; watts. .o, a B;; kilowatt 1B;;,;;; watts2 wind turbine could light up B,;;; light bulbs that use =;; watts" As of =???, there were ==,BC> wind turbines in #alifornia. &hese turbines are grouped together in what are called wind farms, like those in -alm .prings in the picture on the right. &hese wind farms are located mostly in the three windiest areas of the state:

Altamont -ass, east of .an )rancisco .an (orgonio -ass, near -alm .prings &ehachapi, south of $akersfield &ogether these three places in #alifornia make enough electricity to supply an entire city the siEe of .an )rancisco" About == percent of the entire world's wind'generated electricity is found in #alifornia. *ther countries that use a lot of wind energy are 0enmark and (ermany. *nce electricity is made by the turbine, the electricity from the entire wind farm is collected together and sent through a transformer. &here the voltage is increase to send it long distances over high power lines.

Chapter 18: Denewable Energy vs. )ossil )uels

In Chapter 9, we discussed the world's supply of fossil fuels A oil, coal and natural gas and how it is being depleted slowly because of constant use. )ossil fuels are not renewable, they can't be made again. *nce they are gone, they're gone. In Chapters 11 to 17, we learned that there's no shortage of renewable energy from the sun, wind and water and even stuff usually thought of as garbage A dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left'over crops, sawdust, even livestock manure, can produce electricity and fuels A resources collectively called biomass. &he sunlight falling on the Inited .tates in one day contains more than twice the energy we consume in an entire year. #alifornia has enough wind gusts to produce == percent of the world's wind electricity. #lean 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. )oul air results in so'called greenhouse gases. About '>=S of all I... greenhouse gases are carbon dio3ide emissions from energy'related sources. Denewable energy resource development will result in new 9obs for people and less oil we have to buy from foreign countries. According to the federal government, America spent T=;? billion to import oil in :;;;. If we fully develop self'renewing resources, we will keep the money at home to help the economy. #ontinued research has made renewable energy more affordable today than :8 years ago. &he cost of wind energy has declined from 6; cents per kilowatt'hour to less than 8 cents. &he cost of electricity from the sun, through photovoltaics 1literally meaning light'electricity 2 has dropped from more than T=7kilowatt'hour in =?>; to nearly :;cents7kilowatt'hour today. And ethanol fuel costs have plummeted from T6 per gallon in the early =?>;s to T=.:; today. $ut there are also drawbacks to renewable energy development. )or e3ample, solar thermal energy involving the collection of solar rays through collectors 1often times huge mirrors2 need large tracts of land as a collection site. &his impacts the natural habitat, meaning the plants and animals that live there. &he environment is also impacted when the buildings, roads, transmission lines and transformers are built. &he fluid most often used with solar thermal electric generation is very to3ic and spills can happen. .olar or -K cells use the same technologies as the production of silicon chips for computers. &he manufacturing process uses to3ic chemicals. &o3ic chemicals are also used in making batteries to store solar electricity through the night and on cloudy days.. !anufacturing this e5uipment 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 B8; megawatts, about enough for a city of B;;,;;; people. that's a drop in the bucket compared to our needs. #alifornia alone needs about 88,;;; megawatts of electricity on a sunny, hot summer day. And the cost of producing that much electricity would be about four times more e3pensive than a regular natural gas'fired power plant. .o, 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. &he average wind farm re5uires =@ acres of land to produce one megawatt of electricity, about enough electricity for @8; to =,;;; homes. ,owever, farms and cattle graEing can use the same land under the wind turbines. Wind farms could cause erosion in desert areas. !ost often, winds farms affect the natural view because they tend to be located on or 9ust below ridgelines. $ird deaths also occur due to collisions with wind turbines and associated wires. &his issue is the sub9ect of on'going research. -roducing geothermal electricity from the earth's crust tends to be localiEed. &hat means facilities have to be built where geothermal energy is abundant. &here are several geothermal resource locations in #alifornia. &he (eysers area north of .an )rancisco is an e3ample. In the course of geothermal production, steam coming from the ground becomes very caustic at times, causing pipes to corrode and fall apart. (eothermal 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. -eople are displaced and prime farmland and forests are lost in the flooded areas above dams. 0ownstream, dams change the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the river and land. Inlike fossil fuels, which dirties the atmosphere, renewable energy has less impact on the environment Denewable energy production has some drawbacks, mainly associated with the use of large of tracts of land that affects animal habitats and outdoor scenery. Denewable energy development will result in 9obs and less oil imported from foreign countries. 2ote: )or those working on a school assignment comparing renewable vs. non'renewable energy, we'd suggest creating a -ro and #on list for each energy source. &hat will give you a a way to compare the various energy resources.

(o to #hapter =>: Energy ;or Transportation.

Chapter 19: Energy for &ransportation

In #alifornia, about one'half of A>> the energy we use goes into transportation F cars, planes, trucks, motorcycles, trains, buses. And of all the oil we use in the state about three'5uarters of all it goes into making gasoline and diesel fuel for vehicles. As we learned in Chapter 9, oil goes through a refinery where it is made into many different products. .ome of them are used for transportation: aviation fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel. )rom the refinery and larger storage tank farms, transportation fuels are usually trucked to service stations in tanker trucks. &hese trucks can hold =;,;;; gallons in each tank. &he 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. !id'grade gasoline is a combination of the two types. *ther 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. #alifornia has more than :C million vehicles on its roads. All the vehicles in the state used =6.6 billion gallons of gasoline in :;;=. &hat's more gasoline that all other countries e3cept for the Inited .tates and the former .oviet Inion. &his makes #alifornia the third'largest user of gasoline in the world5 ?o#rteen billion gallons o; gasoline is eno#gh to ;ill a line o; 1!,!!! gallon tanker tr# ks stret hed b#'per to b#'per ;ro' San ?ran is o to San Diego, ba k to San ?ran is o, and then part o; the way to Sa ra'ento5 $urning gasoline, however, creates air pollution. &hat's why oil companies are creating newer types of gasoline that are cleaner than the kind we use today. $eginning in =??C, all the gasoline sold in #alifornia will be this newer, cleaner type called reformulated gasoline. &he main ingredient in that gas, however, !&$E was found to hurt water supplies if it leaked. .o, that additive is being removed by :;;8. Another concern about using oil for transportation is that a lot of oil used comes form the !iddle East. &his makes the I... very vulnerable if there is political unrest. 0uring the =?@;s, Americans saw long lines at the gas pumps because oil from the !iddle East was turned off by the *il -roducing E3posting #ountries ' *-E#. And we're in in worse shape in :;;: because we're importing more and more oil form the !iddle East than ever before. $ecause of concerns about air pollution and petroleum'dependence, new clean'burning fuels made from fuels other than oil are being introduced. &hese fuels include methanol, ethanol, natural gas, propane and even electricity. &he car on the right uses methanol, the same fuel used in Indianapolis .peedway race cars. All these fuels are called alternative fuels because they are an alternative to gasoline and diesel. #ars and trucks that use them are called Alternative )uel Kehicles or A)Ks. Dight 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'5uarter of all the vehicles will run on alternative fuels by the year :;:8.

)or more on alternative fuel vehicles, we have a whole section on Energy Ouest. (o to our Transportation Se tion.

Chapter 1<: .aving Energy and Energy #onservation

.ome of the energy we can use is called renewable energy. &hese include solar, wind, geothermal and hydro. &hese types of energy are constantly being renewed or restored. $ut many of the other forms of energy we use in our homes and cars are not being replenished. )ossil fuels took millions of years to create. &hey cannot be made over night. And there are finite or limited amounts of these non'renewable energy sources. &hat means they cannot be renewed or replenished. *nce they are gone they cannot be used again. .o, 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, &Ks and radios that are not being used, watched or listened to. 4ou can turn off lights when no one is in the room. $y 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 9acket when we're cold... instead of turning up the heat. &he outer layers trap the heat inside, keeping it nice and warm. +ew space'age materials are being developed that insulate even better. &his person's fingers are protected by Aerogel Insulation !aterial created by the /awrence $erkeley +ational /aboratory. &he person cannot even feel the flame"

Decycling
&o make all of our newspapers, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and other goods takes lots of energy. Decycling these items A grinding them up and reusing the material again A uses less energy than it takes to make them from brand new, raw material. .o, we must all recycle as much as we can. We can also save energy in our cars and trucks. !ake 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. 0on't over'load a car. )or every e3tra =;; 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. 4ou can also save energy in your school. Each week you can choose an energy monitor who will make sure energy is being used properly.

&he energy monitor will turn off the lights during recess and after class. 4ou can make &urn It *ff signs for hanging above the light switches to remind yourself. Also check out our on'line pages on Sa*ing Energy. 4ou 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 )!: ,ydrogen and )uture Energy .ources

We learned in Chapter 9 that fossil fuels were formed before and during the time of the dinosaurs F when plants and animals died. &heir decomposed remains gradually changed over the years to form coal, oil and natural gas. )ossil fuels took millions of years to make. We are using up the fuels formed more than C8 million years ago. &hey can't be renewedG 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. .ome people suggest that we should start using hydrogen. ,ydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that accounts for @8 percent of the entire universe's mass. ,ydrogen is found on Earth only in combination with other elements such as o3ygen, carbon and nitrogen. &o use hydrogen, it must be separated from these other elements. &oday, hydrogen is used primarily in ammonia manufacturing, petroleum refining and synthesis of methanol. It's also used in +A.A's space program as fuel for the space shuttles, and in fuel cells that provide heat, electricity and drinking water for astronauts. )uel cells are devices that directly convert hydrogen into electricity. In the future, hydrogen could be used to fuel vehicles 1such as the 0aimler#hrysler2eCar . shown in the picture to the right2 and aircraft, and provide power for our homes and offices. ,ydrogen can be made from molecules called hydrocarbons by applying heat, a process known as reforming hydrogen. &his process makes hydrogen from natural gas. An electrical current can also be used to separate water into its components of o3ygen and hydrogen in a process called electrolysis. .ome algae and bacteria, using sunlight as their energy source, give off hydrogen under certain conditions. ,ydrogen as a fuel is high in energy, yet a machine that burns pure hydrogen produces almost Eero pollution. +A.A has used li5uid hydrogen since the =?@;s to propel rockets and now the space shuttle into orbit. ,ydrogen fuel cells power the shuttle's electrical systems, producing a clean by'product F pure water, which the crew drinks. 4ou can think of a fuel cell as a battery that is constantly replenished by adding fuel to it F it never loses its charge.

)uel #ell Ises

)uel 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 1stored on board2 and o3ygen 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. Deforming these fuels to create hydrogen will allow the use of much of our current energy infrastructure F gas stations, natural gas pipelines, etc. F while fuel cells are phased in. In the future, hydrogen could also 9oin electricity as an important energy carrier. An energy carrier stores, moves and delivers energy in a usable form to consumers. Denewable energy sources, like the sun, can't produce energy all the time. &he sun doesn't always shine. $ut hydrogen can store this energy until it is needed and can be transported to where it is needed. .ome e3perts think that hydrogen will form the basic energy infrastructure that will power future societies, replacing today's natural gas, oil, coal, and electricity infrastructures. &hey 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.

.olar -ower .atellites

*ne suggestion for energy in the future is to put huge solar power satellites into orbit around the earth. &hey would collect solar energy from the sun, convert it to electricity and beam it to Earth as microwaves or some other form of transmission. &he power would have no greenhouse gas emissions, but microwave beams might affect health adversely. And fre5uent rocket launches may harm the upper atmosphere. &his idea may not be practical for another centuryG if at all. &he 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.

*ther Ideas
.ome people have claimed they've invented a machine that will save the planet. *thers are convinced that there's a vast conspiracy by fossil fuel and 7 or nuclear power companies to stop such devices from getting to the public. .ome of these contraptions use theories called )ree Energy, *ver Inity or Mero'-oint Energy. As a matter of fact, you can find all sorts of information about such devices on the Internet. <ust plug in any of those words. $ut none of these devices have ever been proven, either theoretically or physically. &he free energy area is filled with con artists selling unintelligible information, often clouded with technical sounding 9argon, and seeking people with money to develop their inventions or ideas. As the old saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. !ost of these devices are perpetual motion machines, which violate known laws of science. Even the I... -atent *ffice will not issue a patent for such devices. With energy and the universe 1at least as we know it today2, there's no such thing as a free lunchG or free energy. 4ou 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 .tar &rek and in other science fiction stories% &he ideas are interesting, but they are still fiction. &hough science fiction has a basis in some fact. <ules Kerne wrote about traveling under the water more than a hundred years ago, and today we have submarines. ,e also wrote about going to the moon, and in =?C? humans first set foot on our closest neighbor in space. .o, 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 revolutioniEe the way we think about energy and our universe.