Thanks for bringing this here for perspective of just what it is when we think about the energy we use and take for granted daily

My power will be out today for scheduled maintenance. The notice says 8 - 4, though it likely will be for a much shorter period at some point during those hours (and the power may go on and off multiple times during maintenance). A neighbor thinks it's to replace a power pole that's very badly warped in a couple of places. He may be right. But then again my neighbor is a little warped himself, so we'll see...

is largely the history of leveraging energy to produce more work in less time.

Levers? Lets human energy do work that it couldn't do otherwise.

Plows? Harness animal energy.

Water wheels and windmills?

Turbines and steam engines burning wood, coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, solar ...


A huge breakthrough was being able to transport this energy from place to place, making the work portable, so that increased productivity wasn't tied to specific locations. Another was learning to store that work for use later.