Alternative Energy and modifying our environment for the future

By Vayda
  • 2000 BCE

    China First To Use Coal As An Energy Source

    "As wood shortages began to appear, poor people began heating their homes by burning coal."
  • 200 BCE

    Europeans Harness Water Energy To Power Mills

    "The vertical waterwheel, invented perhaps two centuries before the time of Christ, spread across Europe within a few hundred years."

  • First Steam Engine Developed In England To Pump Water Out Of Coal Mines

    "[Thomas] Newcomen... built a steam machine close by a coal shaft... in 1712... Newcomen's first machine made twelve strokes a minute, raising 10 gallons of water with each stroke. Its strength is estimated at 5.5 horsepower, not impressive to us, but the 'fire engine,' as it was sometimes called, was a sensation in power-starved Britain and Europe."

  • World's First Geothermal District Heating System Built In Boise, Idaho

    "Folks in Boise, Idaho, feel the heat of the world's first district heating system as water is piped from hot springs to town buildings."

  • First Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction

    "In 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the 'Manhattan Project,' Fermi's work was relocated to the University of Chicago, where in December of that year, he and his team achieved the first controlled nuclear chain reaction."

  • Solar Two Plant Demonstrates Low Cost Method Of Storing Solar Energy

    "It demonstrated the ability to collect and store solar energy efficiently and to generate electricity when needed by the utility and its customers... Solar Two was conceived and built on the site of its predecessor, Solar One, by a consortium of U.S. utilities and industry and the Department of Energy (DOE)."

  • President Bush Unveils The Hydrogen Fuel Initiative To Promote Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development

    "[T]he Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) increased federal funding for hydrogen and fuel cell research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to $1.2 billion over five years."

  • California To Require 50% Of All Heavy Vehicles Sold In State Be Electric By 2035

    "The world's fifth-largest economy, California, will now require that half of all heavy vehicles (garbage trucks, tractor-trailers, cement mixers, etc.) sold in the state be all-electric by 2035, the same year all new passenger vehicles sold in the state are required to be electric."