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California Energy Commission
Industry: Energy
Number of terms: 9078
Number of blossaries: 0
Company Profile:
California’s primary energy policy and planning agency
Natural gas that can be developed for commercial use, and which is found mixed with oil in naturally occurring underground formations.
Industry:Energy
Steam drawn from deep within the earth.
Industry:Energy
One thousand megawatts (1,000 MW) or, one million kilowatts (1,000,000 kW) or one billion watts (1,000,000,000 watts) of electricity. One gigawatt is enough to supply the electric demand of about one million average California homes.
Industry:Energy
The delivery of electricity to the retail customer's home or business through low voltage distribution lines.
Industry:Energy
The angular distance between true south and the point on the horizon directly below the sun. Typically used as an input for opaque surfaces and windows in computer programs for calculating the energy performance of buildings.
Industry:Energy
Gradual changing of global climates due to buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels has reached levels greater than what can be absorbed by green plants and the seas.
Industry:Energy
The stripping off of one utility function from the others by selling (spinning-off) or in some other way changing the ownership of the assets related to that function. Most commonly associated with spinning-off generation assets so they are no longer owned by the shareholders that own the transmission and distribution assets. (See also "Disaggregation.")
Industry:Energy
In the petroleum industry, a barrel is 42 U.S. gallons. One barrel of oil has an energy content of 6 million British thermal units. It takes one barrel of oil to make enough gasoline to drive an average car from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back (at 18 miles per gallon over the 700-mile round trip).
Industry:Energy
The presence of trace atmospheric gases make the earth warmer than would direct sunlight alone. These gases (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), tropospheric ozone (O3), and water vapor (H2O)) allow visible light and ultraviolet light (short-wave radiation) to pass through the atmosphere and heat the earth's surface. This heat is re-radiated from the earth in form of infrared energy (long-wave radiation). The greenhouse gases absorb part of that energy before it escapes into space. This process of trapping the long-wave radiation is known as the greenhouse effect. Scientists estimate that without the greenhouse effect, the earth's surface would be roughly 54 degrees Fahrenheit colder than it is today too cold to support life as we know it. See GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE.
Industry:Energy
The amount of ionizing radiation energy absorbed per unit mass of irradiated material at a specific location, such as a part of a human body.
Industry:Energy