Smoke stacks on a power plant. Picture source: shutterstock
When we talk about “energy,” we mean the electricity that makes other things work, like lights, refrigerators, air conditioners, and computers. Do you ever wonder where this energy comes from?
Electric power lines. Picture source: blogs.columbia.law.edu
Electricity is made by power plants. Most of the power plants in the United States, and around the world, burn coal to make electricity. The problem is that burning coal creates air pollution. This air pollution is unhealthy for people to inhale. It’s also causing Earth’s climates to change, which is creating very strange weather for people around the world. Some areas are getting too dry. Others are having really bad storms. The messed up weather is affecting people’s lives!
The good news is that people around the world are developing other ways to create energy.
In the country of Denmark, I saw many wind turbines around the country. Instead of burning coal to generate electricity, the wind does the work! I saw the turbines in farmers’ fields, as well as offshore in the ocean. Take a look at my video below. The wind turbines are very quiet, but the wind created quite a noise blowing across my microphone.
When I was travelling around the country of Iceland, I saw hydro-thermal power stations making energy. The heat from magma underground is used to turn large turbines to generate electricity. Click here to see photos and videos.
Chirpy checks out the steam pipes that take the hot water to the turbines. The steam you see at the power plant in the distance is just water vapor from the hot water. It’s not air pollution.
Traveling through upstate New York, I saw another great way to create energy without causing a lot of air pollution: hydro-electric power. New York’s hydro-electric power station is located next to the Niagara River. There’s so much water flowing so rapidly down the river, that it creates a strong force. The force of the flowing water can be used to turn turbines.
This turbine is on display at the hydro-electric power station’s visitor center. Turbines like this one are used to create energy.
The moving turbines generate electricity, just like burning coal, or blowing wind, or the pressure of hot steam.
The Niagara River flowing down from Niagara Falls. You can see the dam in the background that diverts the water through the hydro-electric power station.
This hydro-electric power station sends the energy it generates to the high-powered electric lines you see in the background.
Yet another way to generate energy is by harnessing the sun’s heat. Solar panels convert the sun’s heat into electricity. The town of Clarkestown, close to our own school district, has set up over 6,000 solar panels to generate energy for its government buildings. Click here to see photos and videos.
Solar panels set up in West Nyack.
Can you think of other ways to generate energy without creating air pollution?
Wow that is amazing how you can use wind turbines and hydro- electric also to make electricity instead of using power plants witch is not good for the earth and that causes more increased climate change. I think that our town should start to use wind turbines to make electricity.
This was very interesting to read! I didn’t realize how much energy power plants use and how much we are doing to get rid of them! There’s so many ways to save electricity! I learned a lot from reading this page!
We think this is interesting because we think we are using so much.But luckly we are finding ways to help our environment.We thought the picture of saving energy was intreaging.
Wow thats a lot of solar panels in one place! Its really cool how the dam converts the water to the hydro-electric power plant.
Wow I didn’t know that magma can power electricity that’s awesome and the lakes looked very nice
Wow! There are a lot of ways to generate electricity that I didn’t know about!
I once saw a place like the one in the picture with a lot of solar panels.
I cant wait to help! Also I want to go see windmills they look and sound really cool!
Its so cool of how many ways you can generate electricity. I cant wait to try one out some day!
Wow there were so many solar panels in one place and there was 6000 of them that is like an entire field. I also didn’t know that turbines use hot water I thought they all used wind. Overall i’ve learned a lot.
The different ways people make energy good for the earth is fascinating! My favorite is the solar panels. Everyone can use them which makes it better because people wouldn’t have wind turbines in their backyard, but wind turbines are awesome too because in places with a lot of plains with nothing on them we could put them there.
1 thing i learned is that Niagara Falls is using a hydro-electric powerstation so the don’t pollute the air.
I learned that instead of burning coal to generate energy, the wind does the work. I also learned that another way to generate energy is by harnessing the sun’s heat.
I think it is great that around us people have all ready started to take action!
What I found really interesting is hydro-thermal power stations. I knew what hydro and thermal meant, but I did not know that it hydro-thermal electricity was a thing! It is amazing how it can detect magma from underground and use that heat to turn turbines! Those machines must cost a lot of money, to detect the heat then transfer that thermal heat to a generator to turn turbines.
One thing learned when I looked at this blog page was that wind turbines can create energy. That is really cool because it does not waste energy.
I found the hydro-thermal energy very fascinating. To think that the icelanders made use of the magma by using to power turbine is amazing. I found it very weird to think that we are making the Earths weather wacky.
Wow! I never knew people could create electricity by using the heat of the magma underground! I also learned that you can use the force from water to fuel turbines.
I think that it is so cool and helpful, that clarkstown has over 6,000 solar panels! THat is a crazy amount! It is one little town also! Clarkstown has put so muche efort into keeping our environment clean.
We learned that wind turbines create energy. It spins because of the wind.
That was so cool. I have never seen so many solar panels. I didn’t know that hydroelectric power stations could be that big or anywhere near that size.
We think that it is not good that people are putting more pollution i the air. WE also thought that it was cool that clarkstown schools put 6,000 solar panels outside the school
I learned that hot water is piped into a pit. Kind of like a pool.
Wow! I didn’t know windmills and other machines have such a big effect on the planet around us
In class we learned that there is a machine were people use a hand crank to power a light bulb without batteries, instead it is magnets using friction on the copper wire. That doesn’t create air pollution.
I learned that hot water is used to create electricity
I learned that solar panels can help create electricity as well as a river or waterfall! I did not know that! I can buy solar panels to help create electricity without air pollution.
I think that maybe we could use the ocean waves as a source of electricity. The ocean always has waves and so we could use that force to turn a turbine that is hooked onto a buoy. I also learned that scientists use the Niagara River as a electricity source!
I learned that Clarkstown has a field of over 6,000 solar panels