Energy & Green Tech

Wind forecast improvement project saves millions for utilities

The wind doesn't always blow where it's needed–that's the biggest hurdle in fitting wind energy to the nation's portfolio of renewable energy. When the wind isn't blowing, utility companies must turn to other electricity ...

Energy & Green Tech

New tech brings resilience to small-town hydropower

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has celebrated the ribbon-cutting of its new Microgrid in a Box, which was deployed in partnership with the Fall River Electric Cooperative at its hydropower plant in rural Idaho.

Energy & Green Tech

Collecting energy from raindrops using solar panel technology

When raindrops fall from the sky, they can produce a small amount of energy that can be harvested and turned into electricity. It is a small-scale version of hydropower, which uses the kinetic energy of moving water to produce ...

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Electricity generation

Electricity generation is the process of creating electricity from other forms of energy.

The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820's and early 1830's by the British scientist Michael Faraday. His basic method is still used today: electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet.

For electric utilities, it is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. The other processes, electric power transmission, electricity distribution, and electrical power storage and recovery using pumped storage methods are normally carried out by the electrical power industry.

Electricity is most often generated at a power station by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by chemical combustion or nuclear fission but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. There are many other technologies that can be and are used to generate electricity such as solar photovoltaics and geothermal power.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA