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Electric generators use electromagnetic induction to convert mechanical energy into electricity. They were first invented by Anyos Jedlik in Hungary in the 1820s and became suitable for industrial use after Nikola Tesla’s work in the 1880s. Today, generators come in all sizes and are used to power everything from bicycle lights to hydroelectric dams. The majority of the world’s electricity is generated by thermal sources, but efforts are being made to increase the use of hydroelectric, nuclear, and renewable sources.
An electric generator is a device that generates electricity from mechanical energy, usually through electromagnetic induction. Electromagnetic induction works by forcibly moving a loop of wire (a rotor) around a stationary rod (a stator) which provides an electric field, through a permanent magnet or electromagnet. By Faraday’s law, this induces a current in the rotor, which can be used to power machinery or charge batteries. Possible sources of mechanical energy include steam engines, water falling through a turbine or water wheel, an internal combustion engine, a crank, a wind turbine, compressed air, solar energy, and many others. The electric generator is the foundation of our modern electric society. If the electric generators were to stop working, so would most of the economy.
The electric generator was first invented by Hungarian inventor and engineer Anyos Jedlik between 1827 and 1830. Jedlik invented the generator, a simple dynamo, at least six years before Warner von Siemens in Germany and Charles Wheatstone in Great Britain, whose names are usually associated with the invention of the device. Although the electric generator was invented around 1830, it would not be until Nikola Tesla’s pioneering work on rotating magnetic fields around 1882 that generators would become suitable for industrial use. The electrification of the United States occurred in the 1890s, helping to bring about the Second Industrial Revolution, with which electricity is strongly associated.
Today, electric generators exist in every imaginable size, from 3-6 watt generators to power bicycle lights to hydroelectric generators at China’s Three Gorges Dam, which will deliver 22.5 gigawatts of power when fully installed in 2012. The current world electricity production is approximately 20,000 terawatt hours, of which approximately 66% is generated by thermal (combustion of fossil fuels), 16% by hydroelectricity, 15% by nuclear power and 2% by renewable sources such as energy wind or solar. For environmental and health reasons, global efforts are underway to expand electricity generation from hydroelectric, nuclear and renewable sources and to contract fossil fuel electricity generation.
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