In general terms and usage, electrical energy is commonly called electricity, with electrical energy being its more scientific form and usage. Electrical energy refers to a flow of power or charges along a conductor resulting in the creation of energy that can be utilized by a number of modern day appliances that can be used by us in myriad different ways in our everyday lives.

The forms of energy commonly used to produce electrical energy are known as primary energy sources, and these sources include coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear energy. These are refined, burned or processed in order to create the electrical energy we need to power our homes an appliances.

These primary sources of energy can be non-renewable or renewable energy forms, whereas electrical energy itself is neither as it is a byproduct of the processing of these forms.

Electrical energy can also be produced in ways other than burning fossil fuels or using nuclear processing plants. As our most widely used form of energy, and being very much an intrinsic part of nature, mankind has harnessed the power of nature in order to produce electrical energy by renewable, clean and safe means. To this end towns and cities have been developed and built near waterfalls and rivers, one of the primary sources of mechanical energy. This mechanical energy generated by the flow of the waterfall and river is harnessed by building wheels in the waterfall and withing river current which, in turn, rotate the wheels or turbines thereby generating the electricity that would power nearby towns and cities. Before this kind of power generation people were reliant on candles and kerosene lamps for their lighting and wood or coal-burning stoves for their heating and cooking requirements.

The first person to discover the fundamental principles of electrical energy was Benjamin Franklin and this can be seen in the well-known story of Franklin and his kite — irrespective of the veracity or otherwise of the story’s exact details. After this came Nikola Tesla who pioneered the notion of AC electrical energy which allowed electrical energy to be carried and transmitted over vast distances. This discovery allowed the use of electrical energy for lighting homes as well as powering the kinds of machines that would be more efficient and effective at heating homes.

In short, electrical energy is not energy itself in its own right but rather is a method of transferring energy from one object to another, or from one element to another. It is the energy being transferred that we call the electrical energy, and to facilitate this transfer process a conductor or circuit is necessary. Here, we come back to the story of Benjamin Franklin and his kite. When the lightning struck his kite the electrical energy in the lightning was transferred to his kite and the kite acted as the conductor or circuit. When electrical energy is transferred it can be used or stored, in this story’s case in the form of a key in a jar. We can see ubiquitous examples of such methods of storage in the batteries and cells we use every day to power appliances, from cellular phones to remote control units.

(Energy FAQ Series)

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