Portal:Energy/Did you know/1

A compact fluorescent lamp

• Buildings constructed to the German Passivhaus standard use 75% to 95% less energy for space heating and cooling than current new buildings in the United States?

• Estonia generates more than 90% of its electrical power from oil shale?

• Crossing 4,000 km (2,500 miles), the Druzhba pipeline is the world's longest oil pipeline?

• Coal is ground to a powder before being burnt in fossil fuel power plants?

• Compact fluorescent lamps (pictured) use about 1/4 of the energy of normal incandescent light bulbs, and pay for themselves after about 500 hours of use?

• Nuclear power in France produces 78% of all the country's electricity - more than in any other nation?

• Positive lightning bolts are typically six to ten times more powerful than normal lightning — and aircraft are not designed to withstand them?

• Dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy which permeates all of space?