1. WHAT IS ENERGY?…..!!!!!!!  Energy brought me all the way from the Antarctic to Britain. It means I can swim fast and catch my fish. It gets you out of bed in the morning. Energy means that birds can fly, tigers can roar, wind can blow, sun can shine, cars can go fast, factories can make things, light bulbs can glow and your computer can work. Without energy, there would be nothing: no life, no movement, no light, no penguins … nothing.

3. Where do we get energy from?  Almost all energy, so far as we are concerned, comes from the Sun. The Sun warms our planet and makes plants grow.

5.  Plants are clever things because they can use the Sun’s energy not only to make them grow, but also to make energy stores.  Most plants make seeds, some of which grow into new plants. And animals like you humans eat them - you know, wheat seeds make into bread; maize into cornflakes and so on. This means you get your energy from eating plants, or by eating other animals like cows which have fed off plants.

7. Where do fuels to make energy like electricity come from?  energy to power machines like cars, planes and power stations so you don’t have to work so much and so you can stay warm without fat, fur or feathers that other animals have. You get this energy mostly by digging it out of the ground, releasing ancient energy stores - fossil fuels - made by billions of tiny plants and stored by animals which lived millions of years ago. You know what these fuels are, I’m sure: coal, oil and gas. All of them come from underground, inside the Earth's crust.

9.  You can use any of these to make electricity in power stations by boiling water in tanks (boilers) to make high- pressure steam. Steam then drives big machines called turbines which, in turn, drive other machines called generators. Result? Electricity which comes to you along wires.

10. What’s the problem?

16.  Radioactivity gets made inside nuclear power plants as the fuel - uranium metal - splits into other elements which give off radiation.  So far, no one has worked out a way to safely dispose of the waste this makes, so at present it's all stored — huge quantities of it. And if the power plant goes wrong, terrible disasters can happen.  On April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at a place called Chernobyl (Ukraine, eastern Europe) blew up. It was one of the worst industrial accidents ever. At least 2,500 people have died and thousands more, mostly young kids, got cancer. Many more people will die because of the radiation and a big area of what used to be good farm land is now so radioactive that no one can go there

18. Renewable energy  Sun power (solar power) can make electricity by using things called photovoltaic cells (often just called PV - easier to say) which fit on the roofs or walls of your houses or apartment blocks. Some special cars can run on PV electricity and there’s even a race across Australia in which the cars run only on solar power

20.  Hydroelectric power makes electricity by using the energy from falling water. The water comes from big dams across rivers, and flows down great tubes to drive electricity generators. Most of the world’s biggest rivers are already used for this

21.  Sun power can heat water in solar panels (like radiators but instead of giving out heat, they grab it from the Sun). This is then stored in a big tank so you can have hot showers and so on. Solar collectors can pick up the sun's heat even on cloudy days

22.  Solar power can also directly heat houses in cold countries - when they’re properly designed to make best use of it. So far, not many are

23. WIND POWER  Wind power can drive a turbine with a propeller (like some airplanes have) and make electricity. Wind power is getting really important in some countries like Denmark

26. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ENERGY & HOW IT SHOULD BE USED?