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Commercial coal mines are first opened in Virginia. Coal will go on to fuel the industrial revolution and assist in the expansion of America. It is the major power source in America for many years.
http://www.fe.doe.gov/education/energylessons/coal/coal_history.html
http://geology.com/articles/history-of-energy-use/ -
Benjamin Franklin ‘discovers’ electricity. His experiments would help create the battery we use today and helped further our understanding of electricity, so we could create other things.
http://mrnussbaum.com/history-2-2/franklin-2/ -
James Watt improves and develops a better steam engine, which will also help power America through the industrial revolution. This engine will be used in trains to help expand America even further.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_steam_power -
William Hart digs the first successful natural gas well in Fredonia, New York.
http://www.apga.org/apgamainsite/aboutus/facts/history-of-natural-gas -
Oil tapped at its source. William Smith, working for Edwin Drake, drilled into the ground in Titusville, Pennsylvania. They struck oil at a depth of 69 feet.
http://www.history.com/topics/oil-industry -
First Solar Cell created. Charles Fritts made the first solar cells out of selenium. However, it couldn’t compete with coal power until the middle of the 1900s.
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200904/physicshistory.cfm -
First hydroelectric plant. The first plant was opened in the west, in San Bernadino, California. It is followed by the Hoover Dam in 1937 which generates power from the Colorado River.
http://www.hydro.org/policy/history-of-hydro/ -
Charles Bush built a 60-foot tower with a 56-foot rotor which generated 12kW of electricity.
https://cleantechnica.com/2014/06/22/americas-first-wind-turbine-generated-electricity-1888/ -
This plant had a capacity of 250 kW, but it had to be shut down due to a glitch. In 1946 the first geothermal heat pump was installed in Portland, Oregon.
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/geothermalenergyhistory.php -
First commercial nuclear power plant. The first nuclear power plant opens on the Ohio River under the name the Shippingport Atomic Power Station. This was opened as part of President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program.
https://nuclear.duke-energy.com/2012/07/31/a-brief-history-of-nuclear-power-in-the-u-s
