All living things need energy from food and/or water to survive. But, unlike most living things we humans want energy in lots of other ways too.
When humans first roamed the earth we kept warm using animal skins, and sheltered in caves or houses built with plants or mud. Later, and not so long ago we lit our houses with candles, cooked our food on open fires and travelled by horse and cart or by foot. Nowadays we use electric light bulbs, electric or gas ovens for cooking and petrol/diesel powered cars to get around. These new devices and inventions require a lot of energy and so need plenty of fuel to make that energy.
Most of the energy that we need is in the form of electricity, gas or petrol/diesel. Let’s take a look at these energy supplies to learn more about what they are and how they work...