Once energy from the Sun gets to Earth, several things can happen to it:

• Energy can be scattered or absorbed by aerosols in the atmosphere.
• Short wavelengths are absorbed by ozone in the stratosphere.
• Clouds may act to either reflect energy out to space or absorb energy, trapping it in the atmosphere.

All of the energy from the Sun that reaches the Earth arrives as solar radiation, part of a large collection of energy called the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Solar radiation includes visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared, radio waves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Radiation is one way to transfer heat.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: Heat, or thermal, energy from Earth’s interior.

Most of the energy that reaches the Earth’s surface comes from the Sun. About 44 percent of solar radiation is in the visible light wavelengths, but the Sun also emits infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths.

Alexander Lodygin

Michael Faraday

1879 After many experiments, Thomas Edison invented an incandescent light bulb that could be used for about 40 hours without burning out. By 1880 his bulbs could be used for 1200 hours. 1879 Electric lights (Brush arc lamps) were first used for public street lighting, in Cleveland, Ohio.

physicist Nikola Tesla

History of discoveries timeline English scientist William Gilbert coined the word electricus after careful experiments. German scientist Otto von Guericke invented the device that creates static electricity. This is the first ever electric generator.

First Crude Electric Vehicle Is Developed Around 1832, Robert Anderson develops the first crude electric vehicle, but it isn’t until the 1870s or later that electric cars become practical. Pictured here is an electric vehicle built by an English inventor in 1884. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian.

1. Ben Franklin, Michael Faraday, and Thomas Edison made important contributions to our understanding of and harnessing of electricity.

During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-83).

In 1885 the ZBD model alternating-current transformer was invented by three Hungarian engineers: Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri and Károly Zipernowsky. (ZBD comes from the initials of their names).

There are three primary types of voltage transformers (VT): electromagnetic, capacitor, and optical.

At 107 minutes long, “The Current War” is a brief film for a battle that lasted several years. The war ended as AC won, Edison moved on to other inventions and Edison Electric and other companies merged to form General Electric. Tesla, played by Nicholas Hoult, demonstrates his AC moters and transformers.

Alternating current technology was developed further by the Hungarian Ganz Works company (1870s), and in the 1880s: Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, Lucien Gaulard, and Galileo Ferraris.

Ferncliff Cemetery, New York, United States