Where does our Energy come from?
Monday, August 25th, 2008With cars the energy question is easy, we pay every other week or so for gas to keep our engines running. With our homes it’s a little different. The electricity used in our homes is typically generated at large government-regulated power plants through special nuclear reactions, or through burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Once created, the electricity is then added to the huge network of interconnected power lines called the grid. Then, we homeowners buy the electric companies’ power implicitly whenever we turn on a lamp or turn on the A/C. Afterward, they bill us monthly for our usage. This power hierarchy, they produce and we buy, has been the norm until the last few decades when people started generating their own power from solar panels and wind turbines.
Below is a pie chart of the energy producers in the United States. It was taken from the EIA’s (Energy Information Administration) 2006 statistics
Where Our Energy Comes From
See how clean your local power is, enter your zip code and get the skinny on your power suppliers (this tool powered and hosted by the EPA)
Want to know a little more about how each method produces energy? Check out the great non-technical articles over at the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) website.
>>Learn more about Natural Gas Plants
>>Learn more about Coal Power Plants
>>Learn more about Nuclear Power
>>Learn more about Renewable Energy Sources