Electrical energy

Electrical energy is the common form of energy that we all are familiar with. It is the energy that powers your computer, washing machine, fridge, TV, light bulbs and several other things in your home. Electrical energy is a secondary energy source as it is produced by converting different primary sources. The sources can be further categorized into clean vs non-clean sources. Clean energy sources do not release greenhouse gases and hence environment friendly. Non-clean energy sources such as coal can be very bad for the environment as they release various hydrocarbons when burnt, which can cause global warming.

Following are some examples of sources we commonly use to generate electricity -

Source	Renewable/Non-Renewable	Clean Energy?
Coal	Non-Renewable	No
Natural gas	Non-Renewable	Yes (Relatively)
Nuclear energy	Non-Renewable	Yes, but they produce radioactive waste
Solar energy	Renewable	Yes
Wind energy	Renewable	Yes

How is electrical energy produced and transmitted?

_epa.gov

Electricity is generally produced far away from its final destination typically closer to the energy source. Electricity is produced by giant power plants, which convert some form of primary source and then it is transmitted closer to the destination via high voltage transmission lines. Then it is converted to a low voltage source in a substation before being distributed.

Batteries

One interesting aspect of electricity is that it cannot be stored directly. So in order to store electrical energy we have to convert into other forms of energy. For instance batteries store the energy in the form of chemical energy. When the battery is connected to an electrical circuit the stored chemical energy is converted back to electrical energy.

Electrical circuits

An electrical circuit is formed when an energy source is connected in a closed loop to something that consumes the energy. Following is an example of a very basic electric circuit that connects a battery to a light bulb. Real life circuits are for more complex with 100s or 1000s of components connected together.

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