- Industry: Energy
- Number of terms: 9078
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
California’s primary energy policy and planning agency
The smallest unit of an element consisting of a dense positively charged nucleus (of protons and neutrons) orbited by negatively charged electrons.
Industry:Energy
Radiation that has traveled a straight path from the sun, as opposed to diffuse radiation.
Industry:Energy
The revenue requirement of a utility divided by the utility's sales. Average cost typically includes the costs of existing power plants, transmission, and distribution lines, and other facilities used by a utility to serve its customers. It also included operating and maintenance, tax, and fuel expenses.
Industry:Energy
Natural heat from within the earth, captured for production of electric power, space heating or industrial steam.
Industry:Energy
The operating control of an integrated electric system to: Assign generation to specific generating plants and other sources of supply to effect the most reliable and economical supply as the total of the significant area loads rises or falls. Control operations and maintenance of high-voltage lines, substations and equipment, including administration of safety procedures. Operate the interconnection. Schedule energy transactions with other interconnected electric utilities.
Industry:Energy
The energy demand in a given geographical area over a period of time. For example, the number of kilowatt-hours used in a 24-hour period, divided by 24, tells the average demand for that period.
Industry:Energy
The delivery of electricity to the retail customer's home or business through low voltage distribution lines.
Industry:Energy
Gradual changing of global climates due to buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels has reached levels greater than what can be absorbed by green plants and the seas.
Industry:Energy
In the petroleum industry, a barrel is 42 U.S. gallons. One barrel of oil has an energy content of 6 million British thermal units. It takes one barrel of oil to make enough gasoline to drive an average car from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back (at 18 miles per gallon over the 700-mile round trip).
Industry:Energy
The presence of trace atmospheric gases make the earth warmer than would direct sunlight alone. These gases (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), tropospheric ozone (O3), and water vapor (H2O)) allow visible light and ultraviolet light (short-wave radiation) to pass through the atmosphere and heat the earth's surface. This heat is re-radiated from the earth in form of infrared energy (long-wave radiation). The greenhouse gases absorb part of that energy before it escapes into space. This process of trapping the long-wave radiation is known as the greenhouse effect. Scientists estimate that without the greenhouse effect, the earth's surface would be roughly 54 degrees Fahrenheit colder than it is today too cold to support life as we know it. See GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE.
Industry:Energy
