Jump to content

Portal:Energy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main pageNew articles & Tasks
The Energy Portal
Welcome to Wikipedia's Energy portal, your gateway to energy. This portal is aimed at giving you access to all energy related topics in all of its forms.
Page contents: Selected articleSelected imageSelected biographyDid you know?General imagesQuotationsRelated portalsWikiprojectsMajor topicsCategoriesHelpAssociated Wikimedia

Introduction

A plasma globe, using electrical energy to create plasma, light, heat, movement and a faint sound

Energy (from Ancient Greek ἐνέργεια (enérgeia) 'activity') is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light. Energy is a conserved quantity—the law of conservation of energy states that energy can be converted in form, but not created or destroyed; matter and energy may also be converted to one another. The unit of measurement for energy in the International System of Units (SI) is the joule (J).

Forms of energy include the kinetic energy of a moving object, the potential energy stored by an object (for instance due to its position in a field), the elastic energy stored in a solid object, chemical energy associated with chemical reactions, the radiant energy carried by electromagnetic radiation, the internal energy contained within a thermodynamic system, and rest energy associated with an object's rest mass.

All living organisms constantly take in and release energy. The Earth's climate and ecosystems processes are driven primarily by radiant energy from the sun. The energy industry provides the energy required for human civilization to function, which it obtains from energy resources such as fossil fuels, nuclear fuel, and renewable energy. (Full article...)

Selected article

Four-stroke internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is widely used to power a great variety of vehicles and other devices. It is an engine in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. This exothermic reaction of a fuel with an oxidizer creates gases of high temperature and pressure, which are permitted to expand.

The defining feature of an internal combustion engine is that useful work is performed by the expanding hot gases acting directly to cause movement, for example by acting on pistons, rotors, or even by pressing on and moving the entire engine itself.

Internal combustion engines are most commonly used for mobile propulsion systems, where their high power-to-weight ratios, together with excellent fuel energy-density, are advantageous. They have appeared in almost all automobiles, motorbikes, many boats, and in a wide variety of aircraft and locomotives. Where very high power is required, such as jet aircraft, helicopters and large ships, they appear mostly in the form of gas turbines. They are also used for electric generators and by industry.

The most common fuels in use today are hydrocarbons derived from petroleum including diesel, gasoline and liquified petroleum gas. Most internal combustion engines designed for gasoline can run on natural gas or liquified petroleum gases without modifications except for the fuel delivery components. Liquid and gaseous biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel can also be used, and trials of hydrogen fuel have been in progress for some years.

Selected image

Photo credit: Andreas Tille
Geysers erupt periodically due to surface water being heated by geothermal heat.

Did you know?

An incandescent light bulb
An incandescent light bulb
  • Saudi Aramco is the largest oil corporation in the world and the world's largest in terms of proven crude oil reserves and production?

Selected biography

{{{caption}}}
James Watt (19 January 1736 – 19 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer. His improvements to the steam engine, which had hardly changed for fifty years, produced a source of power that transformed the world of work, and was the key innovation that brought forth the Industrial Revolution.

In recognition of Watt's achievements, the SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him.

James Watt was born on 19th of January, 1736 in Greenock, a seaport on the Firth of Clyde. His father was a shipwright, shipowner and contractor, while his mother, Agnes Muirhead, came from a distinguished family and was well-educated. Both were Presbyterians and strong Covenanters. Watt attended school irregularly and instead was mostly schooled at home by his mother.

After studying instrument-making for a year in London, the University of Glasgow offered him the opportunity to set up a small workshop within the university. It was established in 1757. After four years, Watt began to experiment with steam, finally producing a working model steam engine in 1765. Strapped for resources to develop a full-scale engine, Watt was forced to take up employment as a surveyor for eight years. Finally, in 1776, the first engines were installed and working in commercial enterprises.

After further improvements, Watt and foundry owner Matthew Boulton established Boulton and Watt in 1794 to exclusively manufacture steam engines. By 1824 it had produced 1,164 steam engines having a total nominal horsepower of about 26,000.

In the news

22 November 2024 –
Energy company Phillips 66 is indicted in United States federal court on six charges of violating the Clean Water Act in Los Angeles County, California, United States. (CBS News)
20 November 2024 –
Indian billionaire and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani is indicted in the U.S. for his role in an alleged multi-billion dollar bribery and fraud scheme where he and seven others paid Indian government officials US$265 million to obtain contracts for Adani Green Energy. (AsiaOne) (Bloomberg)
18 November 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian energy crisis, 17 November 2024 Russian strikes on Ukraine
Ukraine re-implements nationwide rolling blackouts primarily due to yesterday's destruction of energy infrastructure by Russian airstrikes. (Reuters)
17 November 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure, Ukrainian energy crisis

General images

The following are images from various energy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Quotations

WikiProjects

Major topics

Help

Puzzled by energy?
Can't answer your question?
Don't understand the answer?


For further ideas, to leave a comment, or to learn how you can help improve and update this portal, see the talk page.

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache