A utility owned by stockholders or other investors; sometimes referred to as a private utility, in contrast to a public utility that is owned by a government agency or cooperative.

The physical process by which a liquid or solid is transformed into the gaseous state. For this process a mechanical device uses the outside air's heat to evaporate water that is held by pads inside the cooler. The heat is drawn out of the air through thi ...

A power plant that produces electricity by the force of water falling through a hydro turbine that spins a generator.

The unoccupied, and usually unfinished and unconditioned space between the floor, foundation walls, and the slab or ground of a building.

A building heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning system that distributes conditioned air to individual zones or rooms.

This type of heat pump is known as an air-to air system.

One millionth of a meter (10-6 m).

Materials with high thermal energy storage capacity contained in or part of a building's walls, floors, or freestanding elements.

A method of depositing thin semiconductor photovoltaic) films. With this method, physical processes, such as thermal evaporation or bombardment of ions, are used to deposit elemental semiconductor material on a substrate.

The ratio of actual power being used in a circuit, expressed in watts or kilowatts, to the power that is apparently being drawn from a power source, expressed in volt-amperes or kilovolt-amperes.

A power plant that uses two thermodynamic cycles to achieve higher overall system efficiency; e.g.: the heat from a gas-fired combustion turbine is used to generate steam for heating or to operate a steam turbine to generate additional electricity.

The highest wind speed at which a wind turbine stops producing power.

A curve that displays load values on the horizontal axis in descending order of magnitude against the percent of time (on the vertical axis) that the load values are exceeded.

Infrared or radiant heat.

A nationally recognized energy rating program that gives builders, mortgage lenders, secondary lending markets, homeowners, sellers, and buyers a precise evaluation of energy losing deficiency's in homes. Builders can use this system to gauge the energy q ...

A device or material with a high resistance to electricity flow.

A group of solar photovoltaic modules connected together.

The amount of money required to secure a specified cash flow at a future date at a specified return.

A colorless, odorless, tasteless gas composed of one molecule of Carbon and four of hydrogen, which is highly flammable. It is the main constituent of "natural gas" that is formed naturally by methanogenic, anaerobic bacteria or can be manufactured, and w ...

The demand of a consumer of electricity at the time of a power supplier's peak system demand.