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Jan 1, 1000
Windmills
Primitive windmills were built in Persia to grind corn, pump water, and crush sugarcane. -
Dutch Windmills
The Dutch started developing windmills that did everything from sawing wood to raising water -
Development of coke
Experimenters in England discovered the process to make coal from wood could be changed to create a fuel source called coke. -
Coal is preferred over other energy sources
Coal was used as the main source of energy and was developed into the steam engine (1712) and brought new ways of manipulating iron and other metals. -
Commercial Coal Production
Commercial Coal Production begins in Richmond, Virginia where coal was mined for commercial purposes for the first time. The picture is of a coal miner who is obviously mining. -
Natural Gas
The first natural gas well was drilled in New York, bringing much attention and speculation. (The picture is of a natural gas stove, common today.) -
Solar Power
The first solar powered system was built in France by Augustine Mouchot, who developed the first sun motor which was used to drive machinery. This is a picture of the scene and relative size of the motor. -
First Electric Plant
Thomas Edison built the first commercial electric utility on Wall Street, NY that developed into structures like the picture shown in the near future.
(This is the first event that has a set date, for the others I used January 1st as a default) -
Model T
Ford mass produces the worlds' first vehicle (pictured here) designed to run on either ethanol or gasoline. -
Nuclear Power Generator
The first nuclear power generator to produce useful electricity in Idaho was created. It could power only a string of four 100-watt lightbulbs, but could be developed to power much much more than that. -
Commercial Nuclear Power Plant
The first nuclear power plant to "go commercial" was made in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, called the Duquesne Light Company, pictured here -
Federal Involvement in wind
Led by NASA, federal involvement in wind energy advances technology producing 7.5 megawatts of power (1981) -
Chernobyl
The infamous Chernobyl nuclear accident takes place resulting in wide-spread radiation contamination when a reactor overheated (due to unauthorized experiments) and the water coolant flashed into steam, when the hydrogen had a chemical reaction causing a partial-core meltdown. The picture shows present day Chernobyl. -
Petroleum
The Chinese started to use petroleum as means of energy with lights and heating systems. -
BP Oil Spill
The drilling rig of the BP oil rig sank to the bottom of the ocean, causing pipeline breaks and leaking about 15000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico a day, by the end of it, 30 million gallons of oil had leaked into the gulf, making it the worst spill in US history. The picture is a spacial view of the spill taken by NASA. -
Japan's Nuclear Disaster
The severity of the nuclear disaster (caused by a tsunami) was raised to a 7 next to Chernobyl, with a 7 being the highest on the scale of severity. The picture is that of the accident.
