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Explore how humans use energy — from generating electricity to developing energy-efficient technologies. Search-Icon Created with Sketch. KQED is a proud member of. They would need to gather wood, create a reaction by rubbing sticks together or striking flint, which would cause that wood to burn.
All of it is energy at work. But if you were to dive into a conversation about electricity, the amount of processes you can discuss becomes suddenly diminished. Today, there are plenty of things, such as cars as was mentioned earlier, that are moving away from combustion and to more efficient forms of energy, such as electricity.
But to make these forms truly efficient, they need to come from an efficient and renewable source. In many places, electricity is generated with combustion, such as burning fossil fuels.
But there are better ways of producing electricity, many of them clean and renewable. With each of these options, you can produce electricity and make it the dominant form of energy. The benefit of this would be reducing the burning of fossil fuels and turning the trajectory of our climate towards something positive and healthy while still advancing our own home comforts, technology, and saving ourselves some money.
The important thing is what kind of energy, where we are getting it, and how much of it we can use until it runs out.
And you can improve the source of that power, such as with a solar panel system. Wink wink , nudge nudge. Suppose V is the potential difference existing across a circuit, I is the current flowing through it and Q is the charge. Electrical Power is defined as the rate at which work is done on an electrical system. As we have discussed recently that doing work generates energy. Thus power can be given as the rate of consumption of electrical energy.
Now we are aware that work done is given as. Thus the unit of power is Watt. But as watt denotes a small quantity then KWh i. So, this discussion concludes that both electrical energy and power are associated with the current flowing through an electrical circuit.
Looking at these statistics in the context of the targets discussed in the introduction suggests the energy sector will need a major overhaul in the coming years. As the demand for electricity and pressure to move away from fossil fuels increases, so will the requirement for additional electricity generating capacity nuclear, wind and solar and transmission infrastructure.
For example, if the UK is to meet its target of phasing out ICE vehicles in then it may have to more than double its electricity generation capacity, including the electricity generated from fossil fuels, in the space of a few decades. Additionally, the reliability and inertia of the traditional fossil fuel burning power plant will be gradually replaced by erratic and decentralised sources of electricity, specifically wind and solar.
This combination of erratic supply and demand will create a need for a smarter grid system which can dynamically distribute, store and supply electrical energy in response to changing trends. These challenges are serious but will also stoke innovation in the energy sector, especially if the price of energy in the form of electricity rises in response to the increased demand.
The prize is potentially massive for disruptors who can bring smarter data management tools, high performance storage solutions or low cost generation solutions to the market. This week Cambridge Consultants are at the European Utility Week in Amsterdam to see how the energy sector is responding to these challenges.
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