Explore the history of new energy sources

The History and Present Situation of Energy

Humans need different kinds of energy to survive, build cities and operate factories. Cooking and heating need heat energy, lighting needs electric energy, and everything needs solar energy ... It can be said that without energy, human beings cannot survive and society cannot develop.

The word "can" was first put forward by German scientist Robert Meyer. We can't see energy, but we can feel it through heat, light, electricity and movement.

The history of human energy utilization has roughly experienced three energy periods: firewood, coal and oil. The use of fire made man dominate a natural force for the first time, thus completely separating man from the animal kingdom. But at that time, human beings had not mastered the skills of converting thermal energy into mechanical energy, so firewood could not generate electricity. From the primitive society that ate raw meat and drank blood to the long slave society and feudal society, manpower and animal power were the main driving forces of production. The use of wind power and water power has enabled mankind to find a new energy source that can replace human and animal power. With the development of production, society needs more and more heat and electricity. However, the energy provided by firewood, wind power and water power is limited by many conditions and cannot be used on a large scale. The discovery of coal provided a lot of heat energy; The production of windmills and waterwheels has accumulated rich experience in mechanical manufacturing; So, the combination of the two, the steam engine appeared. The use of steam engine not only laid the foundation of industrialization in various countries, but also opened a new era in which human beings are powered by fossil fuels.

But the steam engine is very heavy and inefficient, so it can't be used in light vehicles such as cars and planes. Human beings invented a new heat engine-internal combustion engine in production practice. The use of internal combustion engine has caused changes in energy structure again and again, and oil has entered the historical stage. All countries in the world rely on oil to create a miracle of economic development.

So what energy sources are there on the earth and where do they come from?

The energy sources on the earth can be divided into three categories. The first is formed by the interaction between the earth and other celestial bodies, such as tidal energy; The second category comes from the earth's interior, such as geothermal energy and nuclear energy; The third category comes from outside the earth, mainly solar energy and its energy, such as coal, oil, natural gas, biomass energy, hydropower, wind energy, marine thermal energy and so on.

However, with the continuous development of human civilization, the demand for energy in society has increased inexorably. The energy consumption on the earth is increasing at an alarming rate. The total energy consumed in the 20th century is almost half of that consumed in the previous19th century. Over-exploitation and use of natural resources such as fossil fuels and forests by human beings have drastically reduced the natural fuel energy reserves on the earth. Moreover, due to the extensive use of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, the living environment of human beings has been more and more seriously polluted, leading to acid rain and climate warming. Many scientists believe that global temperature rise will bring disastrous consequences to mankind. Therefore, the rational development and utilization of energy has become the most important issue for the earth human family. Mankind must seriously "calculate" and "plan" all kinds of available energy, not only to meet the current demand, but also to consider the long-term impact and development, to consider adequate food and clothing for future generations, and to make the future of the earth's human family more comfortable and beautiful. Therefore, on the one hand, people study how to further develop and utilize conventional energy sources (also known as traditional energy sources) such as fossil fuels and hydropower reasonably, moderately and efficiently, such as studying ways to improve energy conversion efficiency and ways to improve energy development and utilization. , and focus on ways and measures from the aspect of throttling; On the other hand, people go to heaven, into the earth and into the sea, looking for ways to open sources everywhere, and exploring cheap and abundant clean new energy sources without affecting the ecological environment, such as developing solar energy, geothermal energy, nuclear fusion energy and ocean energy. In this way, a marginalized and comprehensive science and technology-energy technology has rapidly formed and flourished.