Beginning in Time Immemorial - Fire is discovered to be good for cooking, heating
and scaring wild animals away.
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3000 B.C. |
Humans began using petroleum. Mesopotamians of
that era used rock oil in architectural adhesives, ship caulks, medicines,
and roads. The Chinese of two millennia ago refined crude oil for use in
lamps and in heating homes. |
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2800 B.C. |
Sumerian clay tablets record oil sales by amphorae.
This olive oil is used in Sumerian lamps and in cooking. |
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1100 B.C. |
Scattered records exist of the use of coal as
a fuel. |
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200 B.C. |
First practical use of natural gas is attributed
to the Chinese. They used it to make salt from brine in gas-fired evaporators,
boring shallow wells with crude percussion rigs and conveying the gas to
the evaporators via bamboo pipes. |
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250 - 400 A.D. |
Near Arles in France, the Romans built a water-powered
mill with 16 wheels that had an output of over 40 horsepower . |
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600 A.D. |
Arab and Persian chemists discovered that petroleum’s
lighter elements could be mixed with quicklime to make Greek fire,
the napalm of its day. |
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800-1500 A.D. |
Viking ships use wind energy to dominate the
oceans. |
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874 A.D. |
Iceland received its first inhabitants from Norway.
Geothermal energy keeps them warm. |
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1400s |
The invention of firebricks, which made chimneys
cheap to build, helped create a home heating market for coal. |
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1570s |
Despite its drawbacks (smoke and fumes), coal
was firmly established as a domestic fuel. The total amount of coal consumed
in the United States in all the years before 1800 was an estimated 108,000
tons, much of it imported. The U.S. market for coal expanded slowly and
it was not until 1885 that the young and heavily forested nation burned
more coal than wood. |
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1700s |
A French military officer noted that Indians living near Fort Duquesne
(now the site of Pittsburgh) set fire to an oil slicked creek as part
of a religious ceremony.
Nearly all energy in the United States was still supplied by muscle
power and fuel wood with small amounts of coal used to make coke--vital
for casting the cannon. Mills made use of waterpower, and wind power
enabled transport by ship.
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1800-1826 |
First electric battery made.
In England, the Domesday Book survey of 1806 counted 5,624 mills in
the south and east (found throughout Europe and elsewhere) and were used
for a wide variety of mechanical tasks in addition to milling, from pressing
oil to making wire. Some installations were surprisingly large.
Humphrey Davy built a battery-powered arc lamp.
The first energy utility in US was founded.
The relationship between electricity and magnetism was confirmed.
First electric motor developed by Faraday.
Ohms Law published.
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1830-1839 |
Michael Faraday built an induction
dynamo based on principles of electromagnetism, induction, generation
and transmission.
First industrial electric motors built.
First fuel cell designed.
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1840-1865 |
Experiments were conducted with battery powered electric trains.
A giant 72-foot waterwheel with an output of 572 horsepower, dubbed
Lady Isabella, was erected at a mine site on the Isle of Mann.
The first oil well, Edwin L. Drake’s
homemade drilling rig at Titusville, Pennsylvania, struck oil on August
27, 1859.
Mathematical theory of electromagnetic fields published. Maxwell
created a new era of physics when he unified magnetism, electricity and
light. One of the most, if not the very most, significant events of the
19th century was Maxwell's discovery of the four laws of electrodynamics.
This led to electric power, radios, and television.
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1870-1880 |
Draft animals accounted for more than half of the total horsepower of
all prime movers.
Gas turbine patented.
First combustion engine designed to use alcohol and gasoline was made.
Edison Electric Light Co. (US)
and American Electric and Illuminating (Canada) founded.
First commercial power station opens in San Francisco using brush generator
and arc lights.
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1881-1887 |
Thomas Edison opened the first
electricity generating plant (in London) in January 1881.
Edison’s Pearl Street Station opened in New York as the first American
plant to generate electricity. Within a month after the first electricity
generating plant in America began operating, it was feeding 1,300 lightbulbs.
Within a year, it was feeding 11,000 bulbs--each a hundred times brighter
than a candle.
First hydroelectric station opens (Wisconsin).
Transformer invented.
Steam turbine invented.
Stanley develops transformer and invents the alternating current electric
system.
Tesla invented the induction motor
with a rotating magnetic field. This made unit drives for machines and
AC power transmission economically feasible.
Electron discovered.
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1898-1988 |
Energy recovery from garbage incineration started
in New York City. The primary focus for the next eight decades was on waste
volume reduction through incineration, and energy recovery was used primarily
for process heat. |
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1900s-1950 |
Windmills were used to pump water and to generate
electricity at remote sites. |
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1900-1910 |
Highest voltage transmission line (60 Kilovolt) built.
Texas’s vast Spindletop Oil Field was discovered.
5-Megawatt turbine was built for Fisk St. Station (Chicago).
First successful gas turbine built (France).
World’s first all turbine station begins operation (Chicago).
Shawinigan Water & Power installs world’s largest generator (5,000
Watts) and world’s longest and highest voltage line (136 Km and 50 Kilovolts)
to Montreal.
A 5 megawatt steam-driven turbine generator (the first of its type and
the largest of any generator then built) was commissioned.
First geothermal electricity commercialization began in Italy.
First electric vacuum cleaner produced.
First electric washing machine sold.
Henry Ford’s Model T designed to use ethanol, gasoline, or any combination
of the two fuels.
First pumped storage plant (Switzerland).
Special theory of relativity published. Einstein created a new era of
physics when he unified mass, energy, magnetism, electricity and light.
One of the most, if not the very most, significant events of the 20th
century was Einstein's discovery of e=mc2. This led to nuclear
power, nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and astrophysics.
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1911-1919 |
First air conditioning unit built.
First air pollution control device (a cinder catcher was installed.
First electric refrigerator made.
Federal government begins construction of Muscle Shoals Dam (origin
of Tennessee Valley Authority).
End of World War I (Nov. 1918)
Atomic fission theory developed
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1920-1930 |
First U.S. station to only burn pulverized coal.
Federal Power Commission (FPC) created.
Coal accounted for about 75 percent of U.S. total energy use.
Connecticut Valley Power Exchange (CONVEX) starts, pioneering interconnection
between utilities.
First television components are built.
First all-welded natural gas pipeline over 200 miles in length was built
from Louisiana to Texas.
Construction of Boulder Dam began.
Federal Trade Commission begins investigation of holding companies.
Jet engine patented.
Kerosene and fuel oil began displacing wood for some commercial, transportation,
and residential uses.
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1933-1939 |
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) established.
Nuclear chain reaction described.
Public Utility Holding Company Act.
Federal Power Act.
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bonneville Power Administration.
First night baseball game in major leagues.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Rural Electrification
Administration (REA) Act. REA loaned money at low interest and helped
to set up electricity cooperatives.
Highest steam temperature in electricity generation reaches 900 degrees
Fahrenheit vs. 95% degrees Fahrenheit
287 Kilovolt line runs 266 miles to Boulder (Hoover) Dam.
Boulder Dam completed.
Man-made fission of uranium occurs.
First jet flight engine developed.
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1940-1949 |
First U.S. fuel ethanol plant built.
First sustained nuclear reaction happened in Chicago. Enrico Fermi’s
group achieved the reaction for the first time at the University of Chicago
in a primitive graphite moderated reactor built on a vacant squash court.
First atomic bomb detonated.
Atomic Energy Act establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
Transistor invented.
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1950s |
Electricity and natural gas displaced wood heat in homes and commercial
buildings.
Distillate fuel oil heated about 22 percent of U.S. household.
Over a third of all U.S. housing units were warmed by coal.
Natural gas was used to warm about 25 percent of U.S. households,
Electricity was used to warm only 0.6 percent of U.S. households.
Most coal was consumed in the industrial sector, but many homes were
still heated by coal and the transportation sector still consumed significant
amounts in steam-driven trains and ships.
An experimental reactor sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
generated the first electricity from nuclear power. The British completed
the first operable commercial reactor, at Calder Hall, in 1956. The U.S.
Shippingport unit, a design based on power plants used in nuclear submarines,
followed a year later.
First practical nuclear reactor for submarines.
First 345 Kilovolt transmission line.
First nuclear power station ordered.
First high voltage direct current (HVDC) line (20 megawatts/1900 Kilovolts,
96 Km).
Atomic Energy Act of 1954 allows private ownership of nuclear reactors.
Nuclear submarine (Nautilus) commissioned by U.S. Navy.
The British completed the first operable commercial nuclear reactor
at Calder Hall.
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1960s |
Clean Air Act.
Northeast electricity blackout.
National Electric Reliability Council (NERC) formed.
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
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1970s |
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed.
Water and Environmental Quality Act.
The Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments significantly expanded the role of
the Federal Government in controlling air pollution.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 signed into law, affecting discharges from
power plants and energy-intensive industries.
The Arab Oil Embargo was instituted against the United States and Holland
by several Arab nations.
To protect against supply disruptions, the United States began to build
a Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975 was enacted to
achieve a number of goals, among which was the establishment of the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve and increasing automobile fuel efficiency.
Brown’s Ferry nuclear accident.
New York City electricity blackout.
Department of Energy (DOE) formed.
Carter energy plan developed.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was formed as a national
laboratory that provides research and development support for solar, photovoltaic,
geothermal, wind and other renewable technologies.
Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) passed, ends utility
monopoly over generation.
Natural Gas Policy Act partially deregulates wellhead prices.
Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act limits use of natural gas in
electric generation (repealed 1987).
Microwave ovens located in 8 percent of U.S. households.
Three Mile Island nuclear accident happened.
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1973-1993 |
Fuel consumption per motor vehicle fell, miles
traveled per vehicle generally fell until the early 1980s and then resumed
a pattern of increase, and the fuel rate (i.e., miles per gallon) improved
greatly. |
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1980s |
First U.S. wind farm built.
Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act establishes
regional regulation and planning.
PURPA ruled unconstitutional by Federal judge.
U.S. Supreme Court upholds legality of PURPA in FERC v. Mississippi.
Hydrothermal generating capacity in US exceeds 1,000 megawatts.
Nova Scotia tidal power plant is the first of its kind in North America.
Citizens Power, first power marketer, goes into business.
Chernobyl nuclear accident (USSR).
Washington had recycling legislation mandating a state MSW reduction
goal through recycling.
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1990s |
Clean Air Act amendments mandate additional pollution controls.
More than 2,200 megawatts of wind energy capacity was installed in California--
more than half of the world's capacity at the time.
16 percent of households owned one or more personal computers.
National Energy Policy Act passed.
15 States had adopted recycling legislation. Today, there are over 7,000
recycling programs, covering one-third of the U.S. population; more than
1,000 bills are proposed per year that endorse some type of recycling
law, incentive, or program. Many State goals are to reduce Municipal Solid
Waste (MSW) by 50 percent or more.
Commercial production of variable speed wind turbine begins (USA).
Worldwide geothermal capacity exceeds 6,000 megawatts.
ISO New England begins operation (first ISO).
New England Electric sells power plants (first major plant divestiture).
99 percent of U.S. households had a color television and 47 percent
had central air conditioning.
Eighty-five percent of all households had one refrigerator; the remaining
15 percent had two or more.
Microwaves could be found in 83 percent of U.S. households.
35 percent of U.S. households had personal computers.
Only 0.2 percent of all U.S. housing units were warmed by coal.
Only about 11 percent of all U.S. housing units were warmed by distillate
fuel oil.
More than 50 percent of all U.S. households used natural gas for warmth.
Electricity was used for 29 percent of U.S. households used for warmth.
California opens deregulated electricity market.
Scottish Power (UK) buys Pacificorp in the first foreign takeover of
a US utility. National (UK) Grid then announces purchase of the New England
Electric System.
Electricity marketed on Internet for the first time.
FERC issues Order 2000, promoting regional transmission.
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2000 |
Fuel cells achieve new highs in efficiency. |
