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Introduction
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 capacity to do work and in the form of heat and light. Energy is a conserved quantity – the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant, although it can be converted in form. 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. These are not mutually exclusive.
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. (Full article...)
Selected article
The major petroleum strikes that began the rapid growth in petroleum exploration and speculation occurred in Southeast Texas, but soon reserves were found across Texas and wells were constructed in North Texas, East Texas, and the Permian Basin in West Texas. By 1940 Texas had come to dominate U.S. production. Some historians even define the beginning of the world's Oil Age as the beginning of this era in Texas.
Selected image
Photo credit: Luc Lviatour
Electricity ionizing the gas in a plasma lamp.
Did you know?
- During World War I, the German Army produced shale oil from Yarmouk oil shale deposits in Jordan to operate the Hijazi Railway (pictured)?
- Dennis Spurgeon, formerly chief operating officer at uranium supplier USEC Inc., became the United States Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in 2006?
- Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited was the first offshore oil company to exploit the Athabasca oil sands in Canada?
- Teesside Power Station is the largest combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in Europe.?
- The Klaipėda Geothermal Demonstration Plant in Lithuania was the first geothermal plant in the Baltic Sea region?
- Hitachi Zosen Corporation built the first oil tanker in Japan in 1908 per an order by Standard Oil Company?
- Coalbed methane is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds?
- When constructed in 1906, the Baku–Batumi pipeline was the world's longest kerosene pipeline?
Selected biography
Fermi was well-known for his simplicity in solving problems. Whenever possible, he avoided complicated mathematics and obtained quick results based on order of magnitude estimates. Fermi also meticulously recorded his calculations in notebooks, and later used to solve many new problems that he encountered based on these earlier known problems.
After accepting the 1938 Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Fermi immigrated to New York with his family to escape the anti-Semitic laws of Fascist Italy, as his wife Laura was Jewish.
After working at Columbia University, Fermi went to the University of Chicago and began studies that led to the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1). The first artificial, self-sustaining, nuclear chain reaction was initiated within CP-1, on December 2, 1942.
In the news
- 25 October 2026 – Islamist insurgency in Niger, Foreign relations of Algeria, Foreign relations of Niger
- Algeria's parliament approves the deployment of army units to Madama, Niger, to protect energy infrastructure, marking Algeria's first foreign military deployment since 1973. (BBC News)
- 21 October 2026 –
- The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) of the United Kingdom approves production from the Jackdaw gas field after energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh authorized the NSTA to grant consent, allowing operator Adura to begin supplying gas by late October. (UPI)
- 21 October 2026 – 2026 Italian unrest
- Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi announces a crackdown on truck drivers and farmers protesting in southern Italy over the past month against high fuel prices by blocking highways and transport routes, reporting that they have identified 1,339 individuals, reported 71, and fined 242. (Ansa in Italian)
- 17 October 2026 – Gen Z protests
- Yellow vests activists hold mass demonstrations across France against rising fuel prices and join the student protests. (Al Jazeera)
- 14 October 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- A Russian ballistic missile attack strikes a power station in the Dniprovskyi District, Kyiv, Ukraine, leaving more than 1,000 residential buildings without heating. (BBC News)
General images
Yearly hydro generation by continent (from Hydroelectricity)
Merowe Dam in Sudan. Hydroelectric power stations that use dams submerge large areas of land due to the requirement of a reservoir. These changes to land color or albedo, alongside certain projects that concurrently submerge rainforests, can in these specific cases result in the global warming impact, or equivalent life-cycle greenhouse gases of hydroelectricity projects, to potentially exceed that of coal power stations. (from Hydroelectricity)
Activity of spent UOx fuel in comparison to the activity of natural uranium ore over time (from Nuclear power)
Kenyan dairy farmer lighting a biogas lamp. Biogas produced from biomass is a renewable energy source that can be burned for cooking or light. (from Sustainable energy)
Survey respondents in the European Union and US considered investment in nuclear energy to be a higher priority than those in China, though all three favored renewable energy much more strongly than nuclear overall. (from Nuclear power)
The outdoor section of a heat pump. In contrast to oil and gas boilers, they use electricity and are highly efficient. As such, electrification of heating can significantly reduce emissions. (from Sustainable energy)
Sample of diesel fuel (from Oil refinery)
Part of the 354 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) parabolic trough solar complex in northern San Bernardino County, California (from Solar power)
Olkiluoto 3 under construction in 2009. It was the first EPR, a modernized PWR design, to start construction. (from Nuclear power)
A comparison of levelized cost of energy (LCOE) over time for nuclear power and other sources. While wind turbines and solar panels can be mass-produced and thus enjoy learning curve effects, nuclear are almost always one-of-a-kind projects due to the limited number of reactors being built. The source of this chart, Our World in Data notes that the costs presented here is the global average, and these costs were driven up by 2 projects in the United States. The organization recognises that the median cost of the most exported and produced nuclear energy facility in the 2010s the South Korean APR1400, remained "constant", including in export. (from Nuclear power)
Electrification rates of different countries compared to OECD Europe (from Sustainable energy)
Oil refinery in Iran (from Oil refinery)
Natural gas processing plant in Aderklaa, Lower Austria (from Natural gas)
The multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), used in several space missions such as the Curiosity Mars rover (from Nuclear power)
Honda Civic GX, a natural gas-powered automobile sold in North America from 1998 to 2015 (from Natural gas)
Sulphur (from Oil refinery)
World map showing where people without access to electricity lived in 2016—mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent (from Sustainable energy)
Museum Hydroelectric power plant "Under the Town" in Užice, Serbia, built in 1900 (from Hydroelectricity)
Reactor decay heat as a fraction of full power after the reactor shutdown, using two different correlations. To remove the decay heat, reactors need cooling after the shutdown of the fission reactions. A loss of the ability to remove decay heat caused the Fukushima accident. (from Nuclear power)
The launching ceremony of USS Nautilus January 1954. In 1958 it would become the first vessel to reach the North Pole. (from Nuclear power)
Part of the Senftenberg Solarpark, a solar photovoltaic power plant located on former open-pit mining areas close to the city of Senftenberg, in Eastern Germany. The 78 MW Phase 1 of the plant was completed within three months. (from Solar power)
Manhole for domestic gas supply, London, UK (from Natural gas)
Sample of crude oil (petroleum) (from Oil refinery)
Global geothermal electric capacity. Upper red line is installed capacity; lower green line is realized production. (from Geothermal power)
Benefitting from favorable policies and declining costs of modules, photovoltaic solar installation has grown consistently. In 2023, China added 60% of the world's new capacity. (from Solar power)
China's count of multi-country patent filings has surged since the mid-2010s, leading in batteries and solar, though Europe still dominates in wind energy and smart grids. China also leads in highly cited publications in global peer-reviewed journals. (from Sustainable energy)
A breakdown of the products made from a typical barrel of US oil (from Oil refinery)
Fire-extinguishing operations after the Texas City refinery explosion (from Oil refinery)
Wind turbines in Xinjiang, China
Global energy usage is highly unequal. High income countries such as the United States and Canada use 100 times as much energy per capita as some of the least developed countries in Africa. (from Sustainable energy)
The Three Gorges Dam in Central China is the world's largest power-producing facility of any kind. (from Hydroelectricity)
Russia was a key oil and gas supplier to Europe (map from 2013). This changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. (from Energy policy)
Map of solar resources from World bank (from Solar power)
Nuclear fuel assemblies being inspected before entering a pressurized water reactor in the United States (from Nuclear power)
Construction close to high-pressure gas-transmission pipelines is discouraged, often with standing warning signs. (from Natural gas)
The Hoover Dam in the United States is a large conventional dammed-hydro facility, with an installed capacity of 2,080 MW. (from Hydroelectricity)
Natural gas bus in Salamanca, Spain (from Natural gas)
A gas bill from Baltimore, Maryland, 1834, for manufactured coal gas, before the introduction of ground-extracted methane gas. (from Natural gas)
The warming influence (called radiative forcing) of long-lived greenhouse gases has increased substantially in the last 40 years, with carbon dioxide and methane being the dominant drivers of global warming. (from Natural gas)
Following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident since 1986, 50,000 households were displaced after radiation leaked into the air, soil and sea. Radiation checks led to bans of some shipments of vegetables and fish. (from Nuclear power)
Actual annual deployments of solar PV vs predictions by the IEA. Their predictions have consistently grossly underestimated the actual increases. (from Solar power)
Schematic flow diagram of a typical natural gas processing plant (from Natural gas)
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Quotations
- "The world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China. Yet, China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India and Germany are among the top emitters. Yet, India was also exempt from Kyoto." – George W. Bush, 2001
- "The newly industrialized States cannot, for example, be asked to apply restrictive environmental standards to their emerging industries unless the industrialized States first apply them within their own boundaries." – Pope John Paul II, 1990
- "We should work together to make sure the international community upholds the goals and framework established in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities." – Hu Jintao, 2007
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