Energy — page 7 of 33

Energy terms

601. Combined cycle Two or more generation processes in series or in parallel, configured to optimize the energy output of the system.
602. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) (CHP) Also called cogeneration, CHP is the use of the waste heat generated by an engine or power station to produce useful heat, typically for heating of a…
603. Combined-cycle generators See Combined-cycle Power Plant.
604. Combined-cycle power plant A power plant that uses two thermodynamic cycles to achieve higher overall system efficiency; e.g.
605. Combustion The process of burning; the oxidation of a material by applying heat, which unites oxygen with a material or fuel.
606. Combustion Air Air that provides the necessary oxygen for complete, clean combustion and maximum heating value.
607. Combustion Chamber Any wholly or partially enclosed space in which combustion takes place.
608. Combustion efficiency The actual heat produced by combustion divided by the total heat potential of the fuel consumed.
609. Combustion Gases The gaseous byproducts of the combustion of a fuel.
610. Combustion Power Plant A power plant that generates power by combusting a fuel.
611. Combustion turbine A turbine that generates power from the combustion of a fuel.
612. Comfort Zone A frequently used room or area that is maintained at a more comfortable level than the rest of the house; also known as a "warm room."
613. Commercial Building A building with more than 50 percent of its floor space used for commercial activities, which include stores, offices, schools, churches, libraries…
614. Commercial forest land Forested land which is capable of producing new growth at a minimum rate of 20 cubic feet per acre per year, excluding lands withdrawn from timber…
615. Commercial Sector Consists of businesses that are not engaged in transportation or manufacturing or other types of industrial activities.
616. Commissioning The process by which a power plant, apparatus, or building is approved for operation based on observed or measured operation that meets design…
617. Community A political entity that has the authority to adopt and enforce floodplain ordinances for the area under its jurisdiction.
618. compact An agreement between states apportioning the water of a river basin to each of the signatory states.
619. Compact Building Design Refers to the act of constructing buildings vertically rather than horizontally, and configuring them on a block or neighborhood scale that makes…
620. Compact Fluorescent A smaller version of standard fluorescent lamps which can directly replace standard incandescent lights.
621. Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) (CLFR) A type of concentrated solar power (CSP) technology similar to a parabolic trough design, where the sun's heat energy is reflected onto a receiver…
622. Compensation A type of mitigation in which the impacts to a species or habitat are offset by protecting, restoring, or creating suitable habitat elsewhere.
623. Compensatory mitigation (For purposes of the Clean Water Act Section 404 and Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10 regulatory programs), compensatory mitigation is the restoration…
624. Complete Mix Digester A type of anaerobic digester that has a mechanical mixing system and where temperature and volume are controlled to maximize the anaerobic digestion…
625. Composite noise level A single noise level summed on an energy basis from many noise sources (e.g., Stirling engine, electric generator, cooling fan, and air compressor for a…
626. Composting The process of degrading organic material (biomass) by microorganisms in aerobic conditions.
627. Composting Toilet A self-contained toilet that use the process of aerobic decomposition (composting) to break down feces into humus and odorless gases.
628. Compound Paraboloid Collector A form of solar concentrating collector that does not track the sun.
629. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (CERCLA) An Act providing the regulatory framework for the remediation of past contamination from hazardous waste.
630. Comprehensive Plan Regional, state, or local documents that describe community visions for future growth.
631. Compressed Air Storage The storage of compressed air in a container for use to operate a prime mover for electricity generation.
632. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) (CNG) Natural gas (methane) that has been compressed to a higher pressure gaseous state by a compressor; used in CNG vehicles.
633. Compression Chiller A cooling device that uses mechanical energy to produce chilled water.
634. Compressor A device used to compress air for mechanical or electrical power production, and in air conditioners, heat pumps, and refrigerators to pressurize the…
635. Concentrating (Solar) Collector A solar collector that uses reflective surfaces to concentrate sunlight onto a small area, where it is absorbed and converted to heat or, in the case of…
636. Concentrating PV (CPV) (CPV) See Photovoltaic (PV) module; Photovoltaic (PV) facility
637. Concentrating solar power (CSP) (CSP) See Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies
638. Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies (CSP) Any of a family of solar energy technologies that reflect and concentrate the sun's energy to produce heat that is subsequently used to produce steam to…
639. Concentration Amount of a chemical in a particular volume or weight of air, water, soil, or other medium.
640. Concentrator A photovoltaic module, which includes optical components such as lenses (Fresnel lens) to direct and concentrate sunlight onto a solar cell.
641. Condensate The liquid resulting when water vapor contacts a cool surface; also the liquid resulting when a vaporized working fluid (such as a refrigerant) is cooled…
642. Condensation The process by which water in air changes from a vapor to a liquid due to a change in temperature or pressure; occurs when water vapor reaches its dew…
643. Condenser The device in an air conditioner or heat pump in which the refrigerant condenses from a gas to a liquid when it is depressurized or cooled.
644. Condenser Coil The device in an air conditioner or heat pump through which the refrigerant is circulated and releases heat to the surroundings when a fan blows outside…
645. Condensing Furnace A type of heating appliance that extracts so much of the available heat content from a combusted fuel that the moisture in the combustion gases condenses…
646. Condensing power Power generated through a final steam turbine stage where the steam is exhausted into a condenser and cooled to a liquid to be recycled back into a boiler.
647. Condensing turbine A turbine used for electrical power generation from a minimum amount of steam. To increase plant efficiency, these units can have multiple uncontrolled…
648. Condensing Unit The component of a central air conditioner that is designed to remove heat absorbed by the refrigerant and transfer it outside the conditioned space.
649. Condensing, controlled extraction turbines A controlled turbine that bleeds off (condenses) part of the main stream flow at one (single extraction) or two (double extraction) points.
650. Conditional use permit A permit, with conditions, allowing an approved use on a site outside the appropriate zoning class.
651. Conditional Use Permit (CUP) (CUP) In California, this is a permit that is required to be obtained from the county government authority in which a solar energy facility is to be located.
652. Conditioned Space The interior space of a building that is heated or cooled.
653. Conduction The transfer of heat through a material by the transfer of kinetic energy from particle to particle; the flow of heat between two materials of different…
654. Conduction Band An energy band in a semiconductor in which electrons can move freely in a solid, producing a net transport of charge.
655. Conductivity (Thermal) This is a positive constant, k, that is a property of a substance and is used in the calculation of heat transfer rates for materials.
656. Conductor The material through which electricity is transmitted, such as an electrical wire, or transmission or distribution line.
657. Conduit A tubular material used to encase and protect one or more electrical conductors.
658. Cone of Depression A depression in the water table that develops around a pumped well.
659. Confined aquifer See Aquifer-confined
660. Congestion A characteristic of the transmission system produced by a constraint on the optimum economic operation of the power system, such that the marginal price…
661. Congestion costs Charges assessed and redistributed due to electricity network constraints.
662. Conglomerate A conglomerate is a corporation whose multiple business units operate in different, often unrelated, areas.
663. Congressional (Energy) Committees : House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment — This committee has legislative jurisdiction and general and special oversight and investigative…
664. Conifer A plant commonly having needlelike, persistent leaves and a woody cone for a fruit.
665. Connected Load The sum of the ratings of the electricity consuming apparatus connected to a generating system.
666. Connection Charge An amount paid by a customer for being connected to an electricity supplier's transmission and distribution system.
667. Conservation See: gene (resources) conservation, conserved sequence
668. Conservation Areas Environmentally sensitive and valuable lands protected from any activity that would significantly alter their ecological integrity, balance, or character…
669. Conservation Cost Adjustment A means of billing electric power consumers to pay for the costs of demand side management/energy conservation measures and programs.
670. Conservation Easements Conservation easements are voluntary, legally binding agreements for landowners that limit parcels of land or pieces of property to certain uses.
671. Constant Dollars The value or purchasing power of a dollar in a specified year carried forward or backward.
672. Constant-Speed Wind Turbines Wind turbines that operate at a constant rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) and are optimized for energy capture at a given rotor diameter at a particular…
673. Consumption Charge The part of a power provider's charge based on actual energy consumed by the customer; the product of the kilowatt-hour rate and the total kilowatt-hours…
674. Consumptive use (1) Any use of water that permanently removes water from the natural stream system.
675. Contact Resistance The resistance between metallic contacts and the semiconductor.
676. Context Sensitive Design (CSD) (CSD) A collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic…
677. continuous fermentation A process in which cells or micro-organisms are maintained in culture in the exponential growth phase by the continuous addition of fresh medium that is…
678. Contrast The difference between the brightness of an object compared to that of its immediate background.
679. Contrast level A description of the relative amount of visual contrast resulting from a change in the visible landscape.
680. Control area An electric power system or combination of electric power systems to which a common automatic control scheme is applied in order to: Match, at all times…
681. Control plot A plot in which no vegetation will be cut and natural succession will occur. A control plot serves as a baseline to compare other treatments (Early, Mid…
682. Convection The movement of matter due to changes in temperature and density. Warm material rises because it is less dense (lighter) and cool material sinks because…
683. Conventional forest products Any commercial roundwood product (boards, dimension lumber, pulp and paper products) except fuelwood.
684. Conventional Fuel The fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas.
685. Conventional Heat Pump This type of heat pump is known as an air-to air system.
686. Conventional Power Power generation from sources such as petroleum, natural gas, or coal. In some cases, large-scale hydropower and nuclear power generation are considered…
687. Conversion Efficiency The amount of energy produced as a percentage of the amount of energy consumed.
688. Converter A device for transforming the quality and quantity of electrical energy; also an inverter.
689. Conveyor A mechanical apparatus for carrying bulk material from place to place; for example, an endless moving belt or a chain of receptacles.
690. Cooling Capacity The quantity of heat that a cooling appliance is capable of removing from a room in one hour.
691. Cooling Degree Day A value used to estimate interior air cooling requirements (load) calculated as the number of degrees per day (over a specified period) that the daily…
692. Cooling degree days (CDD) (CDD) A measure of cooling energy demand determined by how far a location's temperature averaged above 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
693. Cooling Load That amount of cooling energy to be supplied (or heat and humidity removed) based on the sensible and latent loads.
694. Cooling Pond A body of water used to cool the water that is circulated in an electric power plant.
695. Cooling Tower A structure used to cool power plant water; water is pumped to the top of the tubular tower and sprayed out into the center, and is cooled by evaporation…
696. Coppice regeneration The ability of certain hardwood species to regenerate by producing multiple new shoots from a stump left after harvest.
697. Coproducts The potentially useful byproducts of ethanol fermentation process.
698. Cord A stack of wood consisting of 128 cubic feet. A cord has standard dimensions of 4´ x 4´ x 8´ including air space and bark. One cord contains about 1.
699. Cord (of Wood) A stack of wood 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet.
700. Corn stover Residue materials from harvesting corn consisting of the cob, leaves and stalk.