timeline of energy use in the U.S

  • Coal

    Coal
    Coal is a combustible black or dark brown rock consisting mainly of carbonized plant matter, found mainly in underground deposits and widely used as fuel.
  • Fossil Fuels

    Fossil Fuels
    Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.
  • geothermal energy

    geothermal energy
    Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.
  • solar energy

    solar energy
    Solar enrgy is a radiant energy emitted by the sun
  • wind power

    wind power
    wind power is a power obtained by harnessing the energy of the wind.
  • Petroleum

    Petroleum
    Petroleum is a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that is present in certain rock strata and can be extracted and refined to produce fuels including gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil; oil.
  • natural gas

    natural gas
    natural gas is a flammable gas, consisting largely of methane and other hydrocarbons, occurring naturally underground (often in association with petroleum) and used as fuel.
  • hydroelectric dams

    hydroelectric dams
    Hydroelectric power is produced as water passes through a dam, and into a river below. The more water that passes through a dam, the more energy is produced. Once a dam is built, an artificial man-made lake is created behind the dam. Electricity is produced by a device called a turbine.
  • Biomass

    Biomass
    Biomass is the total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.
    Organic matter used as a fuel, especially in a power station for the generation of electricity.
  • nuclear power

    nuclear power
    Nuclear power is a electric or motive power generated by a nuclear reactor