Future Energy

Alex Raynham

Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 3 Factfiles

Right now, all over the world, people are using energy. As we drive our cars, work on our computers, or even cook food on a wood fire, we probably do not stop to think about where the energy comes from. But when the gas is gone and there is no more coal – what then? Scientists are finding new answers all the time. Get ready for the children whose running feet make the energy to bring water to their village; for the power station that uses warm and cold water to make energy; for the car that saves energy by growing like a plant…

Raynham Alex

Future Energy

FUTURE ENERGY

Gas goes across the earth in great pipes. Oil and coal travel from one country to another in big ships, often for thousands of miles. We do not think about this when we take a cold drink from the fridge, or turn on a light. Energy has always been there when we wanted it.

But the clock is ticking. The oil, coal, and gas will not last forever. Scientists are working hard to find new ways to get energy, and some of their ideas will surprise you. A car that sails with the wind, a turbine at the bottom of a river, machines that use the heat from people’s bodies – these are some of the places that the energy of the future will come from. And that future is not far away …

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First published 2012

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ISBN: 978 0 19 479449 7

A complete recording of Future Energy is available on CD. Pack ISBN: 978 0 19 479448 0

Printed in China

Word count (main text): 10,244

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cover image: Corbis (solar panels/Tetra Images)

The publishers would like to thank the following for their permission to reproduce photographs: Alamy Images pp.4 (Coal miners/Miguel Sayago), 24 (Petrol pumps/Sandy Young), 26 (Solar cooking/ Joerg Boethling), 33 (Itaipu hydroelectric dam/Mike Goldwater), 37 (Turbine/Frances Roberts); Andrew Engineering Ltd p.39 (Ground loop); Corbis pp.7 (Fuel tanker ships/Tim Wright), 11 (Rusting oil barrels/Ashley Cooper), 12 (Heavy traffic/David Butow/CORBIS SABA), 16 (Nuclear storage pond/Ocean), 22 (Sugar cane harvest/Tim Page), 27 (Solar-powered airplane/Denis Balibouse/Pool/epa), 28 (The PS20 solar tower/Ashley Cooper), 31 (Bahrain World Trade Centre/Hamad I Mohammed/X01444/Reuters), 41 (Human-powered Daedalus Aircraft/Charles O’Rear), 50 (1973 Opec Oil Crisis/H.Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock), 54 (Crowds in Shanghai/Imaginechina); Maybach pp.52 (Maybach DRS), 52 (Maybach DRS); Oxford University Press p.32 (Windmill); Peter Lyons p.32 (Greenbird wind powered car); PlayPump p.42 (PlayPump roundabout); Rex Features pp.14 (Freegans/John Alex Maguire), 18 (Damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power St