Home Reading: Reinis Lavrinovičs Eef, Rebno1 081REB412

Home reading
Reinis Lavrinovičs
EEF, REBNO1
081REB412
Electricity generation
Thales' experiments with amber rods were the first studies into the production of
electrical energy. While this method, now known as the triboelectric effect, is
capable of lifting light objects and even generating sparks, it is extremely
inefficient. It was not until the invention of the voltaic pile in the eighteenth
century that a viable source of electricity became available. The voltaic pile, and its
modern descendant, the electrical battery, store energy chemically and make it
available on demand in the form of electrical energy. The battery is a versatile and
very common power source which is ideally suited to many applications, but its
energy storage is finite, and once discharged it must be disposed of or recharged.
For large electrical demands electrical energy must be generated and transmitted
in bulk.
Electrical energy is usually generated by electro-mechanical generators driven by

steam produced from fossil fuel combustion, or the heat released from nuclear
reactions; or from other sources such as kinetic energy extracted from wind or
flowing water. Such generators bear no resemblance to Faraday's homopolar disc
generator of 1831, but they still rely on his electromagnetic principle that a
conductor linking a changing magnetic field induces a potential difference across its
ends. The invention in the late nineteenth century of the transformer meant that
electricity could be generated at centralised power stations, benefiting from
economies of scale, and be transmitted across countries with increasing efficiency.
Since electrical energy cannot easily be stored in quantities large enough to meet
demands on a national scale, at all times exactly as much must be produced as is
required. This requires electricity utilities to make careful predictions of their
electrical loads, and maintain constant co-ordination with their power stations. A
certain amount of generation must always be held in reserve to cushion an
electrical grid against inevitable disturbances and losses.
Demand for electricity grows with great rapidity as a nation modernises and its
economy develops. The United States showed a 12% increase in demand during
each year of the first three decades of the twentieth century, a rate of growth that
is now being experienced by emerging economies such as those of India or China.
Historically, the growth rate for electricity demand has outstripped that for other
forms of energy.
Environmental concerns with electricity generation have led to an increased focus

on generation from renewable sources, in particular from wind- and hydropower.
While debate can be expected to continue over the environmental impact of
different means of electricity production, its final form is relatively clean.
Uses
Electricity is an extremely flexible form of energy, and has been adapted to a huge,
and growing, number of uses. The invention of a practical incandescent light bulb
in the 1870s led to lighting becoming one of the first publicly available applications
of electrical power. Although electrification brought with it its own dangers,
replacing the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within
homes and factories. Public utilities were set up in many cities targeting the
burgeoning market for electrical lighting.
The Joule heating effect employed in the light bulb also sees more direct use in
electric heating. While this is versatile and controllable, it can be seen as wasteful,
since most electrical generation has already required the production of heat at a
power station. A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued legislation
restricting or banning the use of electric heating in new buildings.Electricity is
however a highly practical energy source for refrigeration, with air conditioning
representing a growing sector for electricity demand, the effects of which electricity
utilities are increasingly obliged to accommodate.
Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed the electrical telegraph,

demonstrated commercially in 1837 by Cooke and Wheatstone, was one of its
earliest applications. With the construction of first intercontinental, and then
transatlantic, telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled
communications in minutes across the globe. Optical fibre and satellite
communication technology have taken a share of the market for communications
systems, but electricity can be expected to remain an essential part of the process.
The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in the electric motor,
which provides a clean and efficient means of motive power. A stationary motor
such as a winch is easily provided with a supply of power, but a motor that moves
with its application, such as an electric vehicle, is obliged to either carry along a
power source such as a battery, or by collecting current from a sliding contact such
as a pantograph, placing restrictions on its range or performance.
Electronic devices make use of the transistor, perhaps one of the most important
inventions of the twentieth century, and a fundamental building block of all modern
circuitry. A modern integrated circuit may contain several billion miniaturised
transistors in a region only a few centimetres square.
New words
Circuit - circuit ['sʒ:kɪt] n

1. riņķojums
2. apkārtmērs
3. apbraukšana
4. el. kontūrs; ķēde
5. el. cikls
short circuit - īssavienojums
rod [rɒd] n
1. nūja; stienis
2. rīkste
3. scepteris, zizlis
4. makšķere
5. garuma mērs, aptuveni 5m
6. nūjiņa (mikrobs)
7. tehn. kārts; lata; stienis
combustion [kəm'bʌstʃɚn] n
1. [sa]degšana
2. ķīm. oksidēšana; oksidācija
resemblance [rɪ'zembləns] n līdzība

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Electrical energy is usually generated by electro-mechanical generators driven by

Environmental concerns with electricity generation have led to an increased focus

Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed the electrical telegraph,

Circuit - circuit ['sʒ:kɪt] n

resemblance [rɪ'zembləns] n līdzība

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