Making Electrical Energy

Electricity is versatile — it can be used for heating, lighting, communications and computation. It is also portable and can be moved long distances at a relatively low cost.

Let’s think historically. In the mid-1800s in BC, moving water was used to directly drive machinery in sawmills. In the early 1900s, sawmills used moving water to generate electrical energy for themselves. Even if extra energy was created, there was no way to move it far away to other users. But once transmitting electrical energy over long distances became feasible, generation stations became common and energy could be distributed to people for various uses.

Electrical energy generation is one of the crucial components of a modern society. Without cheap and abundant energy, our lives would be very different. Imagine your life without a computer, TV, game console, cell phone, or any lights: there would be nothing to do but sleep once the sun went down.