Energy Makes Things Happen

Fact: Nearly everything we do in modern society is made possible by energy. Electricity heats and cools our homes and powers necessary appliances such as refrigerators and stoves. Transportation fuels help us drive around town or travel to other parts of the world.

Fact: Various forms of energy power our schools, businesses, hospitals, and factories. One of our Nation's most important sources of energy is nuclear power.

Electricity, the Most Recognizable Energy

Fact: Electricity is produced at power plants by converting a basic source of energy into electricity. In the United States, the basic sources of energy are fossil fuel (coal, oil, or natural gas), uranium, or water. Other sources of energy are wind, solar, biomass, or geothermal.

Fact: Most power plants produce electricity by heating water to create steam. The steam passes over and turns huge turbine blades that move a shaft that turns a generator. The spinning motion produces a flow of electrons. Electricity is simply a flow of electrons.

Fact: Electricity produced by a generator is transmitted from the power plant through a complex system of wires to places such as homes, schools, hospitals, farms, and factories.

Fact: Power companies are a type of business known as a "utility" because they sell an essential service to the public. Other utilities are water and natural gas companies.

The Growing Need for Energy

Fact: We need lots of energy. Because of energy, we can turn on lights, go places in cars and airplanes, and use computers. More and more energy will be used in years to come because of increased technology and more people living on Earth.

Fact: Electricity lights our homes and runs almost all of our appliances, like refrigerators, computers and televisions. It can also warm and heat our homes. Most electricity is produced in power plants from coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power.

Fact: Heating and cooling systems use more energy than any other systems in our homes. We can help save energy and money by making sure our homes are well insulated and our heating and cooling systems are properly maintained.

Fact: Fuel for our cars and trucks accounts for less than one-third of the energy we use in the United States.

How Nuclear Fits

Fact: Some electricity is made from nuclear power. The energy from nuclear power comes from the center of an atom of uranium, a metal found in rocks all over the world.

Fact: Nuclear power plants don't have smokestacks. They do not put harmful chemicals into the air while making electricity.

Fact: Instead of burning fuel to make electricity, nuclear power plants split apart uranium atoms into even tinier particles. The process creates heat, and this heat is used as fuel.

Fact: Uranium fuel is formed into ceramic pellets. The pellets are only about the size of your fingertip, but each one produces a lot of energy.

To learn more, visit the Energy Information Administration's Energy Kid's Page