How is most of the energy used today generated?

Question

How is most of the energy used today generated?

Answer 1

Coal, oil, and natural gas.  Coal is the oldest, but it pollutes a lot, although these days our plants are a lot cleaner and better.  Oil is sometimes burned just like coal.  Natural gas plants were built a lot 20 years ago, because natural gas became cheaper and easier to use, because of a network of pipes that were built and used.  The name of the company that did the most with this was Enron, and now that Enron is gone, the demand for natural gas plants is not as high.  Nuclear power has been used for decades, but no new plants have been built in at least 30 years, and there's little hope that any more will be built.  Solar and Wind power have been used, more on the West Coast of the US than in the East, for some odd reasons - search for "Cape Wind project" for more details.  Hydroelectric (dams) are still used, but no new dams will be built, for the same reasons as nuclear plants (people are too concerned with the environment to OK any more of them).  There are other solutions, like burning trash to make power ( http://www.energyanswers.com/development... or geothermal, but they are rare.

Answer 2

There are different ways to generate energy such as chemical ways such as coal burning and nuclear fission as well as mechanical ways such as harnessing water, wind and solar, etc. I am not sure that any one way generates MOST of the energy in the world today - more over a combination of the different ways depending on what works best for the area.