CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE 4 Electric Cars CHAPTER SIX 58 Water Waves and Heat CHAPTER Two 16 Fossil Fuels CHAPTER SEVEN 68 A Better Battery CHAPTER THREE 28 Renewable Fuel CHAPTER EIGHT 76 From Fission to Fusion CHAPTER FOUR 36 Solar Power CHAPTER NINE 88 The Future of Energy CHAPTER FIVE 46 Wind Energy 100 Essential Facts 102 Glossary 104 Additional Resources 106 Source Notes 110 Index 112 About the Author
ONE ELECTRIC CARS sleek silver sports car zips around a bend Its engine does not roar Instead it quietly whirs and whistles The car has no tailpipe and produces no exhaust Yet it can accelerate from 0 to 100 miles per hour 160 kmh in seconds This is the Tesla Roadster an electric car that runs on battery power The futuristic car carries 6 831 battery cells packed together and plugs into any power outlet It can travel approximately 250 miles 400 km on a full charge Electric vehicles EVs are just one of many cutting edge technologies that are helping prepare the world to meet future energy needs In the 2010s fossil fuels such as coal oil and natural gas powered the majority of our cars trucks homes businesses and factories in 2011 these fuels supplied 81 percent of the world's energy However the world cannot continue to rely on them First Earth has only a limited supply of these fuels They are not Tesla Motors introduced the Roadster renewable resources Second using fossil fuels is in
