ElectricityHOW IT’S MADE

• A commonly missed fact about generators is that they are, in essence, a regular DC motor.

• To understand generators/motors first you have to understand magnets and electromagnets.

• Firstly, all magnets have a magnetic field.

Generators

Magnet types• There are two main types of magnets: The magnetized

iron (regular) magnets, and the electromagnet.

• Both play a part in a generator.

Put it all together• To sum up motors, the combination of a magnet and

electromagnet takes electrical energy, and turn it into kinetic energy.

• A generator takes kinetic energy (like the flow of the river in dams), and turns it into electrical energy.

• And now for the demonstration.

Solar Energy• How do solar panels convert light/heat energy from the

sun into electricity?

• Photovoltiac (PV) solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. These panels are usually installed on the top or near homes and commercial facilities where they have maximum exposure to the sun. PV systems are effective any time the sun is shining. When sunlight is intense and strikes a PV module directly, more electricity is produced.

Solar Energy:

Rays of sunlight possess energy packets called photons. and when the solar panels are exposed to sunlight, the photons present in the sunlight will knock off the extra electron present in the silicon/phosphorous molecule due to its unstable structure. Then the passage of electrons will generate the electricity.

Solar Energy

SILICON

• Large crystals made out of silicon produce electrical currents when they are struck by light. Silicon can do this because the electrons in the crystals move when they are exposed to light.

• The silicon turns a good part of light energy into electricity, but it is hard to grow and so it is expensive!

Nuclear Power

nuclear power is created when in a power plant they split uranium, this is called fission the splitting of the uranium creates heat which in turns create steam, then steam the goes on to push a turbine creating electricity.

There are two types of nuclear power plants in the USA. There is pressurized and boiling the difference is in the nuclear power plant there is a tank full of water. In a pressurized power plant the tank is pressurized so it does not boil on the other hand the boiling power plant the tank is not pressurized so it boils.

Boiling and Pressurized Nuclear Power Plants

Fun Facts About Nuclear Power Plants

In a nuclear power plant the steam that they use turns back into water to be used again

In the USA nuclear power plants create 20% of our energy

Dams

• Dams are great ways to create electricity. They can create huge amounts of electricity without letting off any exhausts harmful to our atmosphere. Dams help your families today by making their electricity much cheaper.

How It Works• The water behind the dam funnels through

the dam. It is forced by its own mass to push through the turbines. That spins the blades which turns the shaft and rotor. The rotor is made of metal. This 172 ton metal shaft is spinning super fast (about 90 revolutions per minute) against the stator. A stator is a giant magnet. The friction between the rotor and the stator and the stator is great. They create a lot of static electricity. It is then gathered by copper wires and sent to your home.

Other Ways to Make Green Electricity

• Wind

• Tidal

• Geothermal

• Wave

• Solar Panels

Batteries

•Electric Batteries are considered an electric device mostly consisting or one or possibly more electrochemical cells that as we know convert stored chemical energy into a source of electric energy.

Batteries store chemical energy and created electrical energy • As we begin to break down how batteries store chemical

energies by creating an electical energy, we can take a look at a battery and see that it does provide two ends. One end is called the positive(Cathode) and the other a negative(Anode). Now if one is to connect the two terminals with a wire, a circuit is then formed. At that point electrons will flow through the wire and which then creates a current of electricity inside the battery, and then a reaction between the chemicals take place. However; a reaction will only take place if there is a flow of electrons between the positive and negative terminal, and thus they can be stored for a very long time.

Diagram of Anode and Cathodes