Energy required to operate mechanical components of an energy system, or a source of energy or energy supply system to back-up another.

A combustible gas created by anaerobic decomposition of organic material, composed primarily of methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.

An interior wall made of water filled containers for absorbing and storing solar energy.

A thermodynamic cycle using constant pressure, heat addition and rejection, representing the idealized behavior of the working fluid in a gas turbine type heat engine.

The annual solar savings of a solar building is the energy savings attributable to a solar feature relative to the energy requirements of a non-solar building.

The process of removing a power plant, apparatus, equipment, building, or facility from operation.

A device that converts the mechanical energy of rotation into electricity based on electromagnetic induction. An electric voltage (electromotive force) is induced in a conducting loop (or coil) when there is a change in the number of magnetic field lines ...

The space-conditioning load of a building.

A material that retards the movement of water vapor through a building element (walls, ceilings) and prevents insulation and structural wood from becoming damp and metals from corroding. Often applied to insulation batts or separately in the form of treat ...

The amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of a given mass of a substance by one degree Celsius. The heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius is 4186 Joules.

The conversion of biomass into a gas, by biogasification (see above) or thermal gasification, in which hydrogen is produced from high-temperature gasifying and low-temperature pyrolysis of biomass.

The cost of producing electricity up to the point of the powerplant busbar.

A fan mounted on an attic wall used to exhaust warm attic air to the outside.

The presence of contaminants in the air in concentrations that prevent the normal dispersive ability of the air, and that interfere with biological processes and human economics.

Water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt.

A hard, dense type of coal, that is hard to break, clean to handle, difficult to ignite, and that burns with an intense flame and with the virtual absence of smoke because it contains a high percentage of fixed carbon and a low percentage of volatile matt ...

The positive pole or electrode of an electrolytic cell, vacuum tube, etc. (see also sacrificial anode).

This is the voltage-ampere requirement of a device designed to convert electric energy to a non-electrical form.

That fraction of annual energy demand supplied by a solar system.

A category of electric power producer established under the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) of 1978, that includes small-power producers (SPP) who use renewable sources of energy such as biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity, solar (thermal a ...