Brief History of Energy

• Lecture 2 is about a brief history of energy

Energy History

• In 1859, wood accounted for nearly all energy sources
• By the early 2000's oil became the predominant energy source
• The use of different energy sources from 1850 to 2000 progressed along with the development of technology
• Coal became a significant energy source with the invention of the steam engine
• The growing use of oil resulted from the creation of the gasoline engine and commercial aviation
• Nuclear energy increased upon the advent of television
• As the internet grew to become more widely used, the proportion of gas and other renewable energies grew

Fire Use

• The earliest definitive usage of fire was in China around 450,000 BC
• About 200,000 BC Homo Erectus achieved the first controlled usage of fire

Coal Use & Medieval Europe

• Coal was burned in China for heating and cooking up to 4000 years ago
• Coal was no secret in early medieval Europe, however, it was regarded as an inferior fuel
• Its soot and smoke caused coal to be ignored in favor of wood
• Poor people began heating their homes by burning coal with the increasing shortages of wood until the 13th century

Ancient Greece & Rome

• 2,500 years ago, coastal Greece had warm summers and cool winters
• Greeks used small, inefficient charcoal-burning heaters for warmth
• Charcoal came from burning wood, which was their primary energy source like it is for half the world's people today
• Fuel shortages were common by the 5th century B.C., and much of the forested land in Greece was depleted
• Diminishing local supplies meant wood had to be imported
• Olive groves as well as olive wood turned to charcoal for burning, reducing a valuable resource
• By the 4th century B.C., Athens outlawed the use of olive wood for fuel
• The Greeks designed houses that faced south to allow the low winter sun to heat the houses, while the higher summer sun cooling them
• Ancient Greek cities were planned so individual homes could maximize solar energy

Ancient Rome

• Use of wood in ancient Rome is analogous to the use of oil and gas in the US today
• Wealthy Romans had central heating that burned 275 lb of wood every hour, meaning local supplies were exhausted quickly
• Wood had to be imported from areas as far as 1,600 km
• The Romans used solar energy for similar but broader reasons than the Greeks
• Glass windows increased the effectiveness of solar heat
• They developed greenhouses to raise food and oriented large public bathhouses some hold up to 2,000 people to use passive solar energy
• Sunlight in bathhouses was considered be healthy
• It was illegal for one person to construct a building that shaded another's

Ancient societies & Sustainability

• Ancient Greeks and Romans experienced an energy crisis in their urban environments
• Moving toward solar energy, they proceeded toward what is now called sustainability
• Fossil fuels are becoming scarce so the same path to sustainability of ancient societies is needed

Natural Gas

• The first practical application of natural gas dates to 200 BCE
• The Chinese used it to make salt from brine in gas-fired evaporators, boring shallow wells and conveying the gas via bamboo pipes

Waterwheel

• It was invented perhaps two centuries before the time of Christ
• It spread across Europe in a few hundred years
• By the end of the Roman era, waterwheels powered mills to crush grain, full cloth, tan leather, smelt and shape iron, and saw wood and a variety of other early industrial processes
• Productivity increased, dependence on human and animal muscle power gradually declined, and locations with good water-power resources became centers of economic and industrial activity

Windmills

• The first windmills were recorded in Persia around 644 AD being used to grind grain
• Windmills were next introduced in Europe around 1100 with a horizontal axis to grind grain
• Waterworks were established that used water wheels in 1582 in London
• The mill reached its greatest size and its most efficient form in the hands of the Dutch engineers towards the end of the sixteenth century

Coal Use Begins

• By 1700, mine shafts were 200 feet deep
• There were problems from gases and especially flooding during this time
• Muscles of animals and humans as well as watermills and windmills lifted the water out of the mines
• Coal was used to power the heat engine
• In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built a steam machine that made twelve strokes a minute, raising 10 gallons of water with each stroke, and it was estimated at 5.5 horsepower
• It then became known as the fire engine.
• There were many Newcomen engines and mines could be dug twice as deep as before
• In 1700, Britain produced 2.7 million metric tons of coal
• In 1815, 23 million tons were produced
• This sum was said to be twenty times in energy equivalent than existing woodlands
• Thomas Newcomen's invention was the first machine to provide substantial power was not derived from muscle, water or wind
• Coal begins to displace other energy sources such as wood, beeswax, and tallow in the 1700's
• Widespread coal use began in Europe due to wood depletion in 1690
• First commercial coal production began in Richmond, Virginia, USA in 1748
• In 1839, French scientist Henry Becquerel discovers the photovoltaic effect; the production of electricity directly from the sun

Petroleum

• 1859 marked the first oil well drilled for the sole purpose of finding oil in Pennsylvania, USA
• In the 1800's, coal gas was replacing whale oil lamps for city lighting
• Storing & piping coal gas to customers was burdensome, expensive, poisonous & explosive
• Kerosene, discovered by Abraham Gesner, a Canadian chemist in 1853, proved in many circumstances to be a better choice
• In 1859, E.L. Drake was searching for petroleum
• He rejected digging and choose to seek it out with a drill driven by a small steam engine that hit at 71 feet
• He initiated America's and the world's first petroleum rush
• Before that boom ended in 1879, Oil Creek spouted 56 million gallons of petroleum and kerosene lamps were spreading everywhere

Factories of Note

• 1882 marked the first commercial-scale hydroelectric plant going into operation in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA
• Also 1882 saw the first electric plant was built by Thomas Edison in New York
• In 1888, the first windmill to generate electricity was developed in Cleveland, Ohio
• Charles F. Brush developed the world's first windmill that can generate electricity

Other Fuel Developments

• In 1860, the first solar power system was developed in France to produce steam to drive machinery
• 1892 saw the first geothermal district heating system built in Boise, Idaho, USA
• 1901 saw the modern oil industry born from Spindletop’s Lucas Gusher and the discovery of Texas' vast Spindletop Oil Field
• In 1935, the Hover Dam was completed on the Colorado River and named the world's largest hydroelectric power plant
• In 1942 the first controlled nuclear chain reaction occurred
• In 1951 the first nuclear power reactor to generate electricity was built in Idaho, USA
• In 1953 the first silicon solar cell was developed at Bell Laboratories
• Fracking became more common with the development of horizontal drilling in the 1990's
• In 2011, an earthquake off the coast of Japan damages four nuclear power plants

Wind Power & Solar

• In 1980, the world’s first wind farm was built in New Hampshire, USA consisting of 20 wind turbines, each costing 30 kilowatts
• In 198, Solar One began the first test of a large-scale thermal solar tower, power plant
• In 2018 It was ruled, that solar power be required on all new California homes by 2020
• As of 2020, global gas and oil markets faced an unprecedented situation due to the impact of COVID which caused oil demand to drop to the lowest it had been since 1995