The Energy Portal

Energy is a set of physics measures. Popularly the term is most often used in the context of energy as a technology: energy resources, their consumption, development, depletion, and conservation. Biologically, bodies rely on food for energy in the same sense as industry relies on fuels to continue functioning. Since economic activities such as manufacturing and transportation can be energy intensive, energy efficiency, energy dependence, energy security and price are key concerns. Increased awareness of the effects of global warming has led to international debate and action for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, like many previous energy use patterns it is changing not due to depletion or supply constraints but due to problems with waste, extraction or geopolitical scenarios.

In the context of natural science, energy can take several different forms: thermal, chemical, electrical, radiant, nuclear, etc. These are often grouped as being either kinetic energy or potential energy. Many of these forms can be readily transformed into another with the help of a device; from chemical energy to electrical energy using a battery, for example. Most energy available for human use ultimately comes from the sun which generates it with nuclear fusion. The enormous potential for fusion and other basic nuclear reactions is expressed by the famous equation E = mc2. However, the types of fusion contemplated on Earth are not capable of releasing anywhere near the theoretical maximum available at 100% conversion of matter to energy. Nor would it happen quickly. Nor would there be any guarantee that vast energy sources would not be used for war or ecosystem disruption. So energy conserving strategies will remain the primary and central way in which people resolve energy supply or distribution constraints: Physically, the watt not used is always by definition the safest to rely on, the easiest to supply and the cheapest to consume, and it always will be. The laws of thermodynamics forbid any more effective strategy than conservation from working better. All nature's diverse life forms have bodies that reflect energy conservation as one, if not the, primary constraint: In energy terms, all bodies are at maximum entropy at their surface where they shed the excess heat they generate as a function of being alive.

The concepts of energy and its transformations are useful in explaining natural processes on larger scales: Meteorological phenomena like wind, rain, lightning and tornadoes all result from energy transformations brought about by solar energy on the planet. Life itself is critically dependent on biological energy transformations; organic chemical bonds are constantly broken and made to make the exchange and transformation of energy possible

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