Every day you spend hundreds of minutes using electricity, but you probably don’t even think about how it works when you use it! Whether you are turning on a lightbulb, making your morning coffee, or cooking dinner for your family you are likely relying on electrical currents. Where does this energy come from though?
The Discovery of Electrical Currents
It all started in 1831, when Michael Faraday discovered that moving a magnet inside a coil of wire creates an electrical current.1 We now use technology in generators to convert energy into the electricity that we use every day. A power plant uses turbines to power these generators, then this electrical current is delivered to your home through a circuit of power lines.
Electricity can be generated by renewable or non-renewable sources. Renewable energy sources use solar panels, wind mills, or other methods such as biofuel to generate energy. Non-renewable resources would be the use of fossil fuels such as coal or oil.
Recent Trends
Recently, as the negative impact of fossil fuels is being seen in our environment, people are relying more on green energy sources for their electricity production. Solar and wind powered energy are becoming more common in many individual’s everyday lives.
You may not stop to think about what your life would be like without electricity, and we often take it for granted because it has always been easily accessible to us. But the generation of electricity only began fairly recently in history, and before this homes would be heated with fires, and houses were lit with kerosene lamps. Thomas Edison only patented the original lightbulb in 1880, just over a hundred years ago!2 Try living a day without the use of electricity and see just how much we have come to take it for granted in our everyday lives!
1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/faraday_michael.shtml
2 https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/history-electricity/