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Energy technology involves developing safe, economic, and environmentally friendly systems for producing, transporting, and supplying energy. It requires overlapping disciplines such as physics, chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. Early energy technologies extracted energy from fire, while modern transportation energy technology uses petroleum and electricity. Alternative energy sources are being pursued to develop clean, efficient, and renewable sources of energy.
Energy technology is concerned with developing systems capable of producing, transporting and supplying energy in a safe, economic and, increasingly, environmentally friendly way. In general, it is a field of many overlapping disciplines. The hard sciences, such as physics and chemistry, are crucial to understanding where energy may be available. Engineering disciplines are needed to design systems that harness energy. Finally, environmental science is used to measure the impact of energy technology on the natural world.
Some of the earliest energy technologies were designed to extract energy from fire. Burning fuel, which could be wood, coal or oil, produces heat, a form of energy. Using this heat to boil water will create steam. In a steam engine, this steam is used to push a piston and turn a crankshaft, which is a form of mechanical energy. This rotational motion can be used to power machines in a factory or to turn a propeller on a ship.
In fact, most applications of transportation energy technology use this same basic process. Steamships revolutionized shipping methods during the early industrial revolution and later began to replace sailing ships as the primary warships. These steamships used coal for fuel. During the Second Industrial Revolution, transportation energy technology began to use petroleum as its primary fuel. Oil-based internal combustion engines are used in every country in the world for transportation applications.
In 1881, electricity was first generated at a central station and delivered to other places. Electricity is the flow of electrically charged particles; these particles can carry energy with them in a way analogous to water pressure. Therefore, the transport of energy to other places is a function of electricity.
Any energy source can be converted into electricity using energy technology. Sources of electricity in the United States include coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. Sources of electricity generation and transportation fuels often differ due to the different requirements for each application. Power plants need to be very efficient at generating as much electricity as possible. Transportation energy systems, on the other hand, can get away with lower fuel efficiency, because they also need to be small and light enough to fit into vehicles.
A growing concern is the development of alternative energy sources. Coal, oil, and natural gas are all non-renewable sources of energy, meaning they exist in limited quantities on Earth and could one day be consumed. The burning of coal and oil has negative environmental effects, which are also a growing concern. Energy technology is being pursued to develop clean, efficient, and renewable sources of energy for both electricity and transportation.
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