In the 19th Century, Michael Faraday carried out the pioneering work that linked Electricity and Magnetism.

In
particular, he showed that an electrical current is generated in a conductor moving in a magnetic field.
The effect is greatly magnified if the conductor is replaced with a coil or coils of copper wire. If these coils are
mounted on a rotating shaft or armature, continuous rotation will produce a continuous alternating electrical
current. This is how nearly all electricity is generated today.
Now that we have a device (the generator, or alternator) that converts mechanical energy (rotation) into electrical
energy, the next problem is how to obtain the mechanical energy to keep the alternator spinning. Here is a brief
summary of some of the viable ways of generating electricity on a commercial scale.
Wind Power
Windmills have been around for centuries and all have harnessed the energy of moving air (wind!) through rotating
sails or fan blades. Traditionally, the mechanical energy was used directly, to turn a mill wheel. A modern wind
turbine simply couples the rotating shaft to an alternator armature. The last link in the chain is always the same electricity from mechanical rotation.
Hydro Electric Power
Here, the source energy (there always has to be one!) is gravitational potential energy. A mountain stream is
dammed in a high place, to create an artificial lake or reservoir. Farther down the mountain, the power station is
equipped with water turbines. These are simply highly efficient versions of the old fashioned water-wheel;
effectively they harness the kinetic energy of a carefully channelled waterfall to produce mechanical rotation. The
rest you know.
Tidal Power and Wave Power
These new technologies extract energy from the long-term bulk movement of water in a tidal estuary and from the
short-term wave motion of the surface. The principle remains the same, to harness the 'free' natural energy in
moving water to drive a mechanical turbine.
Solar Power - local
In a sense. all energy on Earth is solar energy, as even fossil fuels are chemical 'memories' of ancient sunshine.
But we're talking here about generating electricity from solar energy, and strangely enough, it's not very easy. The
problem is that you can't easily convert sunshine into mechanical rotation to drive alternators on a commercial
scale. Solar panels have no moving parts, and so the electricity they produce is 'DC' or direct current. This is like
the electricity from a battery. It's great for local use, e.g. running a small irrigation pump, but the big problem with
DC is that it is hard to distribute. (No time to explain that now - maybe another hub!)
Solar Power - commercial
Photovoltaic units, as described above, are best suited to localised applications like space or water heating.
However, commercial-scale solar power plants, though still expensive to build, are becoming viable, the more so
as the price of fossil fuels increases.
No single design for commercial solar power has yet won through, but all are based on the same idea - a large
array of reflectors to collect the sun's rays and focus them onto a receiver which is effectively pipe-work containing
a heat-absorbing fluid. Technologies are already well developed to store the collected energy as heat and to
convert it to electricity using steam or gas turbines at a steady rate, night and day. The biggest problem is that the

sun moves (OK, the Earth rotates!) and so ingenious tracking mechanisms are needed to make the reflectors
follow the sun through the daylight hours.
Ironically, the part of the world best suited for deploying this technology is the part that least needs it - the oil rich
deserts of the Middle East.
Geothermal Energy
This is another underdeveloped source. If you drill down into the Earth's crust, at first the temperature drops,
because the sun's warmth can't penetrate. But deeper, the temperature rises. Volcanoes are evidence of this molten lava is pretty hot! That well of energy is there to be tapped. As always, the final conversion process is the
familiar steam turbine. And, like solar energy, it is environmentally friendly, provided you don't accidentally trigger a
local volcano! But it is not as simple as it seems. The process of taking heat from a hot rock cools the rock locally.
There's plenty more heat surrounding it, but can it flow quickly enough to your collectors? Again, it's another
technology whose time will come, but not a panacaea.