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Portal:Energy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Energy Portal
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Welcome to Wikipedia's energy portal, your gateway to the subject of energy and its effect on the world around us.
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Introduction
Energy is a set of physics measures. Popularly the term is most often used in the context of energy as a technology: energy resources, their consumption, development, depletion, and conservation. Biologically, bodies rely on food for energy in the same sense as industry relies on fuels to continue functioning. Since economic activities such as manufacturing and transportation can be energy intensive, energy efficiency, energy dependence, energy security and price are key concerns. Increased awareness of the effects of global warming has led to international debate and action for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, like many previous energy use patterns it is changing not due to depletion or supply constraints but due to problems with waste, extraction or geopolitical scenarios.
In the context of natural science, energy can take several different forms: thermal, chemical, electrical, radiant, nuclear, etc. These are often grouped as being either kinetic energy or potential energy. Many of these forms can be readily transformed into another with the help of a device; from chemical energy to electrical energy using a battery, for example. Most energy available for human use ultimately comes from the sun which generates it with nuclear fusion. The enormous potential for fusion and other basic nuclear reactions is expressed by the famous equation E = mc2. However, the types of fusion contemplated on Earth are not capable of releasing anywhere near the theoretical maximum available at 100% conversion of matter to energy. Nor would it happen quickly. Nor would there be any guarantee that vast energy sources would not be used for war or ecosystem disruption. So energy conserving strategies will remain the primary and central way in which people resolve energy supply or distribution constraints: Physically, the watt not used is always by definition the safest to rely on, the easiest to supply and the cheapest to consume, and it always will be. The laws of thermodynamics forbid any more effective strategy than conservation from working better. All nature's diverse life forms have bodies that reflect energy conservation as one, if not the, primary constraint: In energy terms, all bodies are at maximum entropy at their surface where they shed the excess heat they generate as a function of being alive.
The concepts of energy and its transformations are useful in explaining natural processes on larger scales: Meteorological phenomena like wind, rain, lightning and tornadoes all result from energy transformations brought about by solar energy on the planet. Life itself is critically dependent on biological energy transformations; organic chemical bonds are constantly broken and made to make the exchange and transformation of energy possible. Read more...
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The internal combustion engine is widely used to power a great variety of vehicles and other devices. It is an engine in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. This exothermic reaction of a fuel with an oxidizer creates gases of high temperature and pressure, which are permitted to expand.
The defining feature of an internal combustion engine is that useful work is performed by the expanding hot gases acting directly to cause movement, for example by acting on pistons, rotors, or even by pressing on and moving the entire engine itself.
Internal combustion engines are most commonly used for mobile propulsion systems, where their high power-to-weight ratios, together with excellent fuel energy-density, are advantageous. They have appeared in almost all automobiles, motorbikes, many boats, and in a wide variety of aircraft and locomotives. Where very high power is required, such as jet aircraft, helicopters and large ships, they appear mostly in the form of gas turbines. They are also used for electric generators and by industry.
The most common fuels in use today are hydrocarbons derived from petroleum including diesel, gasoline and liquified petroleum gas. Most internal combustion engines designed for gasoline can run on natural gas or liquified petroleum gases without modifications except for the fuel delivery components. Liquid and gaseous biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel can also be used, and trials of hydrogen fuel have been in progress for some years. Read more...
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Did you know?
- The concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide has increased from about 280 parts per million to about 380 ppm since the start of the Industrial Revolution. That's an increase of 35.71%. The estimated population of the world in 1750 was 791 Million people. The estimated population of the world on June 30th, 2007 was 6.6 Billion people. That's an increase of 734.39%.?
- In the 1990s Bougainville conflict, islanders cut off from oil supplies due to a blockade used coconut oil to fuel their vehicles?
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Selected biography
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born 31 March 1948) is an American politician, teacher, businessman, and environmentalist. From 1993 to 2001, he was the 45th Vice President of the United States, serving while Bill Clinton was President. In the 2000 election Gore won the popular vote but not the electoral college victory.
Gore lectures widely on the topic of global warming and has given his keynote presentation at least 1,000 times across the world. In 2006 he starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, discussing global warming and the environment, based on his presentation.
Gore was one of the first politicians to grasp the seriousness of climate change and to call for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. He held the first congressional hearings on the subject in the late 1970s. Gore pushed strongly for the passage of the Kyoto Treaty in the United States during the late 1990s.
In 2007 Al Gore and Richard Branson announced the Virgin Earth Challenge, offering a $25 million prize for the first viable design which results in the removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases. He is also one of the backers of the Live Earth concerts to promote action on climate change. Read more...
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Energy news
- 14 July 2010: Archimede solar power plant, which combines molten salt heat transfer and storage technology and combined-cycle gas facility, is commissioned.
- 28 June 2010: The drilling rig operator Noble Corporation enters into a definitive agreement to buy Frontier Drilling for US$2.16 billion
- 25 June 2010: Shareholders of XTO Energy approve a merger with ExxonMobil.
- 17 June 2010: Swedish Parliament passes a law allowing a replacement of the existing nuclear capacities of Sweden with new reactors first time after the nuclear moratorium of 1980.
- 11 June 2010: Bulgaria terminates the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline project due environmental concerns.
- 11 June 2010: Dutch gas transportation company Gasunie joins the NEL pipeline project which will transport natural gas from the Nord Stream pipeline to the German gas grid.
- 10 June 2010: The first natural gas liquefaction plant in South America, Peru LNG, is inaugurated.
- 9 June 2010: APX-ENDEX, Belpex and Nord Pool Spot agree to create a cross-border intraday electricity market, which include Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
- 9 June 2010: The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company cooperates with Spain's Abengoa Solar and France's Total S.A. to build the Shams solar power station, the largest solar power station in the world.
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