Saturday, 01 March 2008 17:35

Turning on

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Electricity is easy to understand, right? It's generated by burning something somewhere or maybe from sunlight or wind, and then races down the wires just in time for you to turn the lights on.

Not quite. Electrical power is so ubiquitous that we don't really feel the need to understand it – and in an ideal world we wouldn't need to – but in today's energy conscious

world it is perhaps interesting to think about just what happens to get power to our homes. Well, help is at hand. In an article in BBC News Online, environment correspondent Richard Black explains just what happens when you flick the switch.

Last modified on Saturday, 01 March 2008 17:37
Jason Walsh

Jason Walsh is Ireland correspondent of the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor newspaper and has contributed to other publications including the Irish Examiner, the Irish Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Sunday Times, the Washington Times, El Mundo, PressEurop and USA Today.