Hello. 
In this module of Energy 101 we're 
going to talk about the energy 
conversion. 
We've talked about the ways that society 
uses energy and the, and where we get 
that energy from. 
We'll talk about why, why society and 
where society uses it. 
We'll talk about where the natural forms 
of that energy comes from, 
because we can't create energy out of 
nothing. 
And now, we're going to talk about energy 
conversion that converts the energy from 
the natural forms that we find it, like 
coal, and natural gas, and nuclear, and 
oil, and wind, and solar, and hydro, and 
all biomass, and all the natural forms 
that we find this energy in. 
But it doesn't do us any good unless we 
can convert it from the form that we find 
it in its natural state to a form the 
society wants it. 
So that's where we're, where we're headed 
on this module. 
let's break that conversion process down 
a little bit further. 
on the left here, we have the, 
again, the natural forms of energy, 
that we find them in the natural state. 
And we have the society uses that we, the 
he, the, have them, that we want to make 
like more comfortable. 
Heat and work and chemical energy, 
cooling energy for, and electricity. 
But now let's talk about the energy 
conversion process to convert those. 
The devices, the infrastructure, the 
equipment that's necessary to convert 
energy from one form to the other are 
fossil fuel power plants like coal power, 
power plants, natural gas power plants, 
nuclear power plants. 
Nuclear is not fossil, 
but moving down to nuclear. 
the auto engine converts gasoline that 
comes directly from oil. 
And the diesel engine for, takes diesel 
fuel that comes directly from oil on 
essentially a one to one energy basis, 
and drives a car for transportation which 
is in the work form. 
Natural gas furnace heats our homes, air 
conditioning keeps our homes cool. 
Pumps pump the water from the wells into 
our bathrooms and our kitchens, so, and 
take showers, so we don't have to haul it 
by, with buckets. 
the refrigeration system preserves our 
food so we don't have to shop everyday 
for fresh food. 
And then the light bulb converts 
electricity to light which the 
electricity of course has to be, is, of 
course produced from from the power 
plants. 
So these are the conversion processes and 
the equipment. 
One thing that I'll note here. 
That we can't just change getting energy 
from oil, gas or coal for instance to 
produce heat or electicity that we want 
in society without changing the equipment 
that's necessary to make the conversion. 
And that, that infrastructure is a huge 
investment, it's a huge economic 
investment. 
So that's one of the problems with going 
to renewables from the, from coal, for 
instance, or nuclear, is because we have 
to, to replace the infrastructure that 
we're currently using to convert coal or 
natural gas to, the forms of energy we 
wanted, to a totally new, conversion 
process requires all new equipment and 
these, these this is like trillions of 
dollars in order to do that on a national 
basis. 
just one note that we need to be aware of 
there but these, that conversion process 
is what we're going to focus on now. 
the, the conversion process has some 
natural laws that govern what can be done 
and what we can't do. And this isn't a 
science course, and I'm not a scientist, 
and the philosopher to talk about, why 
the laws are the way they are. They're 
natural laws that, the way, the the Earth 
is made up. 
gravity pulls down, not up. 
We don't debate why it doesn't pull up 
why it pushes down. 
same way with the natural laws of energy 
conversion. 
And those natural laws are divided into 2 
primary laws. 
The first law of energy conversion most, 
many times called the first law of 
thermodynamics and the second law which 
we'll get to in just a minute. 
So in this module we just want to 
introduce these concepts but the first 
law of thermodynamics or the way nature 
makes us operate is that energy is 
conserved. 
As we've already commented we can't 
create nor destroy energy. 
Total energy cannot be created or 
destroyed, and so we can't produce it 
from nothing. 
And yet, too many times our intuition 
tells us, well why can't we get energy 
from all of the molecules bouncing around 
in the atmosphere for instance. 
But it just doesn't allow us to do the 
that even. 
but the first law of thermodynamics is, 
we can only, we cannot produce energy, we 
can only convert it from one form to the 
other. 
that's a major issue, so when we talk 
about breakthroughs in energy technology. 
It's merely a breakthrough to convert 
energy from a new form that we can find 
it, like solar energy or wind energy, 
into a form that we want it. 
we haven't discovered a new form of 
energy. 
That wind energy and solar energy was 
always there. We merely developed the 
technology and the infrastructure to 
convert it. 
trying to give you a little bit of 
intuition on this. 
The analogy that our intuition, probably 
a little more consistent on is total mass 
cannot be created or destroyed. 
You can't just annihilate energy, mass, 
nor can you create mass. 
We can have a chemical reaction and 
change one changed mass from one type of 
form to another. 
But the total mass, stays the same. 
You can take two components and react 
them, but the resulting mass is going to 
be the sum of the two that you started 
out with. 
So that's the first law to thumb 
dynamics, which makes a little bit of 
intuitive sense, if we think about it 
from that's similar to the mass of 
conservation. 
The second law of thermodynamics is even 
less intuitive than the first might be. 
And, it really says all forms of energy 
do not have equal value. 
whereas a kilogram or a pound of mass is 
equal to another kilogram or pound of 
mass, they may not have equal value. 
Well, the 2nd law of thermodynamics, or 
the 2nd law of energy conversion has a 
similar statement about energy. 
There, forms of energy have, some have 
higher value than another form and that's 
just the way nature has built the 
universe. 
And we can't get around it. 
We've known this for 150 years And 
there's no, no new discovery. 
First law of thermodynamics is 150 years 
old. 
The second law is about the same. 
And so we have to operate with those laws 
of physics. 
but as an example, work energy or 
electrical energy has a higher value than 
Than warm air or hot air energy. 
You may have an equal amount of energy in 
each, but they aren't of equal value. 
Again, taking an analogy from mass, is 
that even though a pound of gold is equal 
in mass to a pound of silver They are not 
of equal value from lot many 
perspectives. 
And you can't just change 100% of 
kilogram of silver and one kilogram of 
gold.That just doesn't work that way. 
So, those are the two basic laws that 
control our energy conversion from the 
natural form that we want it, that we 
find it to these forms that society wants 
it, and we'll delve into those a little 
deeper in the next two modules. 
Thank you.