A Brief History of EnergyA Brief History of Energy

Early Days in the Energy Early Days in the Energy BusinessBusiness

How has the Energy—Human relationship changed How has the Energy—Human relationship changed over time?over time?

For most of human history, 95% of human energy For most of human history, 95% of human energy went into subsistencewent into subsistence

It was virtually impossible to support civilization on It was virtually impossible to support civilization on these early hunting and gathering systems—there these early hunting and gathering systems—there was no surplus.was no surplus.

You need a surplus to feed all those people who are You need a surplus to feed all those people who are not farmers: rulers, soldiers, artisans, builders, not farmers: rulers, soldiers, artisans, builders, artists etc.artists etc.

Even in Ancient Egypt, one of the greatest and Even in Ancient Egypt, one of the greatest and longest-lasting civilizations, there was only about 5% longest-lasting civilizations, there was only about 5% of food production available to feed all non-farmers.of food production available to feed all non-farmers.

Early Times: Sources of Early Times: Sources of EnergyEnergy

The Age of Capital: SteamThe Age of Capital: Steam

This broke the “tyranny of labor” and This broke the “tyranny of labor” and allowed each person to produce allowed each person to produce much, much moremuch, much more

This relied on the harnessing and This relied on the harnessing and transmission of energy based on transmission of energy based on fossil fuelsfossil fuels

Capital starts to replace laborCapital starts to replace labor

The ProgressionThe Progression We have moved from LOCAL sources We have moved from LOCAL sources

of energy to IMPORTED sourcesof energy to IMPORTED sources We have moved from RENEWABLE We have moved from RENEWABLE energy to FOSSIL (NON-RENEWABLE) energy to FOSSIL (NON-RENEWABLE)

ENERGYENERGY We may be testing our life-support We may be testing our life-support

system’s capacity to cope with the system’s capacity to cope with the consequences of so much combustion.consequences of so much combustion.

The Age of Capital: SteamThe Age of Capital: Steam

The Progress of Energy 2

The Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution

The Scope of the Energy The Scope of the Energy RevolutionRevolution

It greatly increased It greatly increased productionproduction (output) (output) It greatly increased It greatly increased productivityproductivity It greatly increased It greatly increased distributiondistribution in terms in terms

of speed and volumeof speed and volume It allowed the It allowed the growth of citiesgrowth of cities so people so people

could work in could work in factoriesfactories It allowed these same people to be It allowed these same people to be fedfed..

Thermal EfficiencyThermal Efficiency Most energy is now derived from Most energy is now derived from

COMBUSTIONCOMBUSTION You burn something to produce heat You burn something to produce heat

to produce motion, steam, transform to produce motion, steam, transform elements etc.elements etc.

Our efficiency has been in finding Our efficiency has been in finding more compressed forms of, almost more compressed forms of, almost always, always, fossil energyfossil energy..

Thermal CompressionThermal Compression

How did this affect our How did this affect our lives?lives?

It moved us from farms to towns, and It moved us from farms to towns, and from towns to suburbs.from towns to suburbs.Up to around 1840, the

farmer in America could not feed many other people, and could not send perishable goods very far. This limited the ability to feed non-farm population. So, problems of production and distribution kept 90% of us on the land.

How did this affect our How did this affect our lives?lives?

Then, once steam came, we could produce more per farmer, and this allowed people to leave the land for the cities.In the cities factories were built around huge steam engines that worked machines—people had to live near those.The railroads allowed us to send the food to the cities rapidly, and reliably. So all these things came together: production, distribution and surplus.