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Home Resource Centre Glossary
Home Resource Centre Glossary
Energy Terms |
| There are 45 entries in the glossary. | ||
| Pages: 1 | ||
| Term | Definition | |
| B-Value | A measure of a material's resistance to heat flow in units of Fahrenheit degrees x hours x square feet per Btu. The higher the R-value of a material, the greater its insulating capability. | |
| Barrel | A unit of volume equal to 42 U.S. gallons. One barrel weighs 306 pounds, or 5.80 million Btu of crude oil. Barrel is abbreviated as bbl. | |
| Battery | An energy storage device made up of one or more electrolyte cells. | |
| Biodiesel | An alternative fuel that can be made from any fat or vegetable oil. It can be used in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. Although biodiesel does not contain petroleum, it can be blended with diesel at any level or used in its pure form. | |
| Biofuels | Liquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass (plant) feedstocks, used primarily for transportation. | |
| Biomass | Any organic (plant or animal) material that is available on a renewable basis, including agricultural crops and agricultural wastes and residues, wood and wood wastes and residues, animal wastes, municipal wastes and aquatic plants. | |
| British thermal unit (btu) | The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit; equal to 252 calories. British thermal unit is abbreviated as Btu. | |
| Carbon Credits | Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emissions trading schemes that have been implemented to mitigate global warming. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world. There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon offsetters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project. This is reflected in their price; voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism. | |
| Chemical Energy | Energy stored in a substance and released during a chemical reaction such as burning wood, coal or oil. | |
| climate change | A term used to refer to all forms of climatic inconsistency but especially to significant change from one prevailing climatic condition to another. In some cases, "climate change" has been used synonymously with the term "global warming"; scientists, however, tend to use the term in a wider sense inclusive of natural changes in climate, including climatic cooling. | |
| Coal-Fired Power Plant | A power plant that uses coal as the fuel to generate electricity. | |
| Cofiring | The process of burning natural gas in conjunction with another fuel to reduce air pollutants. | |
| Cogeneration | The production oi electrical energy and another form of useful energy (such as heat or steam) through the sequential use of energy. | |
| Energy (term) | The ability to do work or the ability to move an object. Electrical energy is usual ly measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) while heat energy is usually measured in British thermal units (Btu). | |
| Energy Efficiency | Refers to activities that are aimed at reducing the energy used by substituting technically more advanced equipment, typically without affecting the services provided. Examples include high-efficiency appliances, efficient lighting programs, high-efficiency heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems or control modifications, efficient building design, advanced electric motor drives and heat recovery systems. | |
| Ethanol | A colorless liquid that burns to produce water and carbon dioxide. The vapor forms an explosive mixture with air and may be used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. | |
| Flat-Plate Solar Connector | A device designed to capture the sun's energy and produce low temperature heat energy. They are commonly used as collectors in solar heating systems. | |
| Fossil Fuels | Fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) that result from the compression of ancient plant and animal life formed over millions of years. | |
| Gas to Liquids (GTL) | A process that combines the carbon and hydrogen elements in natural gas molecules to make synthetic liquid petroleum products, such as diesel fuel. | |
| Generating Capacity | The amount of electrical power a power plant can produce. | |
| Generator | A device that turns mechanical energy into electrical energy. The mechanical energy is sometimes provided by an engine or turbine. | |
| Geothermal Energy | The heat or energy that is produced by natural processes inside the earth. It can be taken from hot springs, reservoirs of hot water deep below the ground or by breaking open the rock itself. | |
| Global Warming | An increase in the near surface temperature of the earth. Global warming has occurred in the distant past as the result of natural influences, but the term today is most often used to refer to the warming some scientists predict will occur as a result of increased anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. | |
| Greenhouse Effect | The effect of the earth's atmosphere, due to certain gases, in trapping heat from the sun; the atmosphere acts like a greenhouse. | |
| Horsepower | A unit for measuring the rate of work (or power) equivalent to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, or 746 watts. | |
| Hydroelectric Power Plant | A power plant that uses moving water to power a turbine generator to produce electricity. | |
| Hydrogen | A colorless, odorless, highly flammable gaseous element. It is the lightest of all gases and the most abundant element in the universe, occurring chiefly in combination with oxygen in water and also in acids, bases, alcohols, petroleum and other hydrocarbons. | |
| Kilowatt | A unit of power, usually used for electric power or to energy consumption (use). A kilowatt equals 1,000 watts. | |
| Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) | A group of hydrocarbon-based gases derived from crude oil refining or natural gas fractionation. They include ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, normal butane, butylene, isobutane and isobutylene. For convenience of transportation, these gases are liquefied through pressur-ization. | |
| Load | The power and energy requirements of users on the electric power system in a certain area or the amount of power delivered to a certain point. | |
| Mantra NextGen Power Inc | Mantra NextGen Power Inc. will develop two technologies:
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| Megawatt | A unit of electrical power equal to 1,000 kilowatts or one million watts. | |
| Methane | A colorless, flammable, odorless hydrocarbon gas (CH4) that is the major component of natural gas. It is also an important source of hydrogen in various industrial processes. Methane is a greenhouse gas. | |
| Natural Gas | An odorless, colorless, tasteless, nontoxic clean-burning fossil fuel. It is usually found in fossil fuel deposits and used as a fuel. | |
| Nonrenewable | Fuels that cannot be easily made or "renewed." We can use up nonrenewable fuels. Oil, natural gas and coal are nonrenewable fuels. | |
| Northwind Ethanol Inc. | Northwind Ethanol Inc. is a technology based company currently developing and commercializing new processes for the production of ethanol from low cost starches, with the intent to introduce the production of ethanol from abundant, low cost cellulosic material. | |
| Northwind Ethanol Ltd. | SEATTLE, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Mantra Venture Group Ltd. ('Mantra' - OTCBB: MVTG - FSE: 5MV) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement in principle for a joint venture agreement with Northwind Ethanol | |
| Renewable Fuels | Fuels that can be easily made or "renewed." We can never use up renewable fuels. Types of renewable fuels are solar, wind and hydropower energy. | |
| Solar Cell | An electric cell that changes radiant energy from the sun into electrical energy by the photovoltaic process. | |
| Solar Energy | The radiant energy of the sun, which can be converted into other forms of energy, such as heat or electricity. | |
| Turbine | A device with blades, which is turned by a force, e.g., that of wind, water, or high-pressure steam. The mechanical energy of the spinning turbine is converted into electricity by a generator. | |
| Uranium | A heavy, naturally occurring, radioactive element. | |
| Uranium Fuel Cycle | The series of steps involved in supplying fuel for nuclear power reactors. It includes mining, refining, the making of fuel elements, their use in a reactor, chemical processing to recover spent (used) fuel, re-enrichment of the fuel material and remaking into new fuel elements. | |
| Watt | A metric unit of power, usually used in electric measurements, which gives the rate at which work is done or energy is used. | |
| Yellowcake | A natural uranium concentrate that takes its name from its color and texture. Yellowcake typically contains 70 to 90 percent U308 (uranium oxide) by weight. It is used as feedstock for uranium fuel enrichment and fuel pellet fabrication. | |
| Glossary V2.0 | ||
Ltd. ('Northwind') to produce fuel ethanol using their proprietary starch and cellulose technology. The final agreement is undergoing final review by Mantra and Northwind's legal counsel. The joint venture will be carried out through Mantra's wholly-owned subsidiary, 
