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The Energy Portal

Welcome to Wikipedia's Energy portal, your gateway to energy. This portal is aimed at giving you access to all energy related topics in all of its forms.

Page contents: Selected article • Selected image • Selected biography • Did you know? • General images • Quotations • Related portals • Wikiprojects • Major topics • Categories • Help • Associated Wikimedia

Introduction

A plasma globe using electrical energy to create plasma, light, heat, movement, and a faint sound

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...)

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Selected article

The production of renewable energy in Scotland is a topic that came to the fore in technical, economic, and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European, and even global standards, with the most important potential sources being wind, wave, and tide. Renewables generate almost all of Scotland's electricity, mostly from the country's wind power.

In 2020, Scotland had 12 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity capacity, which produced about a quarter of total UK renewable generation. In decreasing order of capacity, Scotland's renewable generation comes from onshore wind, hydropower, offshore wind, solar PV and biomass. Scotland exports much of this electricity. On 26 January 2024, the Scottish Government confirmed that Scotland generated the equivalent of 113% of Scotland's electricity consumption from renewable energy sources, making it the highest percentage figure ever recorded for renewable energy production in Scotland. It was hailed as "a significant milestone in Scotland's journey to net zero" by the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, Neil Gray. It becomes the first time that Scotland produced more renewable energy than it actually consumed, and demonstrates the "enormous potential of Scotland's green economy" as claimed by Gray. (Full article...)

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Photo credit: Senior Airman Joshua Strang, United States Air Force
An aurora, caused by the release of energy as charged particles collide with atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

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Did you know?

According to research by the IPCC, government funding for most energy research programmes has been flat or declining for nearly 20 years, and is now about half the 1980 level?

Renewable energy in Iceland provides over 70% of the country's primary energy needs, and 99.9% of Iceland's electricity?

The Rance tidal power plant in France was the world's 1st electrical generating station powered by tidal energy?

A tropical cyclone (example pictured) can release heat energy at the rate of 50 to 200 trillion joules per day, roughly 200 times the world-wide electrical generating capacity?

Ordinary fossil fuel power plants convert between 36% and 48% of the fuel's energy into electricity, with the remainder being lost as waste heat, about half of which is unavoidable due to the second law of thermodynamics?

Burning biomass indoors leads to between 1.5 and 2 million deaths each year from indoor air pollution in developing nations?

Over 50% of world small hydroelectricity generating capacity is in China?

Charles Fritts developed the first solar cell in 1884, although its efficiency was less than 1%?

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Selected biography

James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. His most significant achievement was formulating a set of equations – eponymously named Maxwell's equations – that for the first time expressed the basic laws of electricity and magnetism in a unified fashion. Maxwell's contributions to physics are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

Maxwell studied natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and mental philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, before graduating in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where he would conduct much of his career. He built on Michael Faraday's work on magnetic induction, using elements of geometry and algebra to demonstrate that electric and magnetic fields travel through space, in the form of waves, and at the constant speed of light. Finally, in 1861, Maxwell proposed that light consisted of undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. In the same year he was elected to the Royal Society.

In 1864, Maxwell presented what are now known as Maxwell's equations to the Royal Society. These collectively describe the behaviour of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter.

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In the news

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)
13 October 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis: The Royal Saudi Air Force strikes a fuel depot near Sanaa, Yemen. The Houthis launch missiles upon multiple Saudi Arabian cities, including Riyadh and Dammam, in response. (BBC News) (CNN)
7 October 2026 – Climate change in Australia, Mining in Australia: Australia's High Court rejects MACH Energy's appeal to expand the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales, finding that planning authorities failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions from burning exported coal overseas. (AFP via France 24)
6 October 2026 –: Belgian physicist Francis Halzen from the University of Wisconsin–Madison is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin". (CNN)
22 September 2026 –: Moldova's parliament approves a 60-day state of emergency in the energy and water sectors as low levels in the Dniester and Prut rivers threaten water supplies and global conflicts raise energy costs. (AP)

General images

The following are images from various energy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Ffestiniog Power Station can generate 360 MW of electricity within 60 seconds of the demand arising. (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 2The launching ceremony of USS Nautilus January 1954. In 1958 it would become the first vessel to reach the North Pole. (from Nuclear power)
Image 3Polyethylene plastic main being placed in a trench (from Natural gas)
Image 4Seasonal cycle of capacity factors for wind and photovoltaics in Europe shown under idealized assumptions. The figure illustrates the balancing effects of wind and solar energy at the seasonal scale (Kaspar et al., 2019). (from Solar power)
Image 5Olkiluoto 3 under construction in 2009. It was the first EPR, a modernized PWR design, to start construction. (from Nuclear power)
Image 6Deaths caused by use of fossil fuels such as natural gas (areas of rectangles in chart) greatly exceed those resulting from production of wind energy, nuclear energy or solar energy (rectangles barely visible in chart). (from Natural gas)
Image 7World map showing where people without access to electricity lived in 2016⁠—mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent (from Sustainable energy)
Image 8Cracks at the historic Town Hall of Staufen im Breisgau presumed due to damage from geothermal drilling (from Geothermal power)
Image 9Honda Civic GX, a natural gas-powered automobile sold in North America from 1998 to 2015 (from Natural gas)
Image 10Hydro generation by country, 2021 (from Hydroelectricity)
$Image 11Reactor decay heat as a fraction of full power after the reactor shutdown, using two different correlations. To remove the decay heat, reactors need cooling after the shutdown of the fission reactions. A loss of the ability to remove decay heat caused the Fukushima accident. (from Nuclear power)$

Image 11Reactor 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)
Image 12Most waste packaging, small-scale experimental fuel recycling chemistry and radiopharmaceutical refinement is conducted within remote-handled hot cells. (from Nuclear power)
Image 13China'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)
Image 14Passive cooling features, such as these windcatcher towers in Iran, bring cool air into buildings without any use of energy. (from Sustainable energy)
Image 15Oil refinery in Iran (from Oil refinery)
Image 16Cooling towers at a geothermal power plant in Larderello, Italy.
Image 17Sample of crude oil (petroleum) (from Oil refinery)
Image 18Global geothermal electric capacity. Upper red line is installed capacity; lower green line is realized production. (from Geothermal power)
Image 19The Warwick Castle water-powered generator house, used for the generation of electricity for the castle from 1894 until 1940 (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 20A woman in rural Rajasthan, India, collects firewood. The use of wood and other polluting fuels for cooking causes millions of deaths each year from indoor and outdoor air pollution. (from Sustainable energy)
Image 21A breakdown of the products made from a typical barrel of US oil (from Oil refinery)
Image 22A photovoltaic power station in California, United States
Image 23Wind turbines in Xinjiang, China
Image 24Enhanced geothermal system 1: Reservoir 2: Pump house 3: Heat exchanger 4: Turbine hall 5: Production well 6: Injection well 7: Hot water to district heating 8: Porous sediments 9: Observation well 10: Crystalline bedrock (from Geothermal power)
Image 25Storage tanks and towers at Shell Puget Sound Refinery (Shell Oil Company), Anacortes, Washington (from Oil refinery)
Image 26Schematics of a grid-connected residential PV power system (from Solar power)
Image 27Pico hydroelectricity in Mondulkiri, Cambodia (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 28Natural gas extraction by countries in cubic meters per year around 2013 (from Natural gas)
Image 29Dry cask storage vessels storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies (from Nuclear power)
Image 30Schematic of the ITER tokamak under construction in France (from Nuclear power)
Image 31Actual annual deployments of solar PV vs predictions by the IEA for the period 2002–2016. Predictions have largely and consistently underestimated actual growth. (from Solar power)
Image 32Part of the 354 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) parabolic trough solar complex in northern San Bernardino County, California (from Solar power)
Image 33Burning of natural gas coming out of the ground (from Natural gas)
Image 34Anti-nuclear protest near nuclear waste disposal centre at Gorleben in northern Germany (from Nuclear power)
$Image 35Crude oil is separated into fractions by fractional distillation. The fractions at the top of the fractionating column have lower boiling points than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy bottom fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful products. All of the fractions are processed further in other refining units. (from Oil refinery)$

Image 35Crude oil is separated into fractions by fractional distillation. The fractions at the top of the fractionating column have lower boiling points than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy bottom fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful products. All of the fractions are processed further in other refining units. (from Oil refinery)
Image 36Death rates per unit of electricity production for different energy sources (from Nuclear power)
Image 37The map shows the commercial nuclear power plants in the world. Research reactors are not considered nuclear power plants.
  Operating reactors, building new reactors

  Operating reactors, planning new build

  No reactors, building new reactors

  No reactors, new in planning

  Operating reactors, stable

  Operating reactors, decided on phase-out

  Civil nuclear power prohibited

  No reactors
(from Nuclear power)
Image 38Production of technology such as renewable energy sources starts a positive feedback loop to form what has been called a virtuous cycle—the opposite of a vicious cycle. For example, as more and more solar modules are deployed, prices fall because of the economies of scale, allowing the technology to become cost-competitive in new applications that in turn increase demand for more deployment. (from Sustainable energy)
Image 39Merowe 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)
Image 40Fire-extinguishing operations after the Texas City refinery explosion (from Oil refinery)
Image 41The Hoover Dam in the United States is a large conventional dammed-hydro facility, with an installed capacity of 2,080 MW. (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 42The nuclear fuel cycle begins when uranium is mined, enriched, and manufactured into nuclear fuel (1), which is delivered to a nuclear power plant. After use, the spent fuel is delivered to a reprocessing plant (2) or to a final repository (3). In nuclear reprocessing, 95% of spent fuel can potentially be recycled to be returned to use in a power plant (4). (from Nuclear power)
Image 43Pile of asphalt-covered aggregate for formation into asphalt concrete (from Oil refinery)
Image 44The town of Pripyat abandoned since 1986, with the Chernobyl plant and the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement arch in the distance (from Nuclear power)
Image 45For cooking, electric induction stoves are one of the most energy-efficient and safest options. (from Sustainable energy)
Image 46Yearly hydro generation by continent (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 47Deaths caused as a result of fossil fuel use (areas of rectangles in chart) greatly exceed those resulting from production of sustainable energy (rectangles barely visible in chart). (from Sustainable energy)
Image 48The Three Gorges Dam in Central China is the world's largest power-producing facility of any kind. (from Hydroelectricity)
Image 49Guri Dam, a hydroelectric dam in Venezuela (from Sustainable energy)
Image 50Global 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)

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Quotations

"My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change. We recognize our responsibility and will meet it - at home, in our hemisphere, and in the world." – George W. Bush, 2001
"While the Kyoto Protocol is a crucial step forward, that step is far too small. And as we consider how to go further still, there remains a frightening lack of leadership." – Kofi Annan, 2006
"It is going to be very difficult to keep temperature increases down to between 2 and 3 degrees centigrade [3.6 - 5.4°F]. We should work very hard to do that." – Nicholas Stern, 2006
"Halting global warming requires urgent, unprecedented international cooperation, but the needed actions are feasible and have additional benefits for human health, agriculture and the environment." – James E. Hansen, 2004