Electrical Energy

Electical energy is the energy we get from electricity and it supports our modern lifestyles. Electical energy powers everything from the alarm clock that woke you up this morning, to your cellphones, and even life saving equipment in hospitals.

There are many ways that we use to produce electrical energy, here are some examples.

Hydro-electric dams use falling water to create electical energy. This works by having the falling water spin turbines, which converts the energy from falling energy to mechanical energy. This mechanical energy spins a turbine, which spins a generator changing it into electrical energy.

Electricity is also produced in power plants that burn fossil fuels. These are called thermo-electric (fuel-burning) power stations. In these power plants fuels are burned to boil water, converting chemical energy to thermal energy. The steam is used to spin a turbine (mechanical energy). The mechanical energy is then used to turn a generator which converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy.

This video explains how electricity is actually generated

The first 3 minutes are the most important!!!

Renewable or non-renewable? Again it depends on the source of the mechanical energy used to make electrical energy. Hydro electricity just used water and gravity, however; the formation of fossil fuels takes millions of years.

Sources of Thermal Energy