Fuel oil in the United States is classified into six classes, according to its boiling temperature, composition and purpose. The boiling point, ranging from 175 to 600 °C, and carbon chain length, 20 to 70 atoms, of the fuel increases with number. Viscosity also increases with fuel oil number and the heaviest oil has to be heated to get it to flow. Price usually decreases as the fuel number increases.
No. 1 fuel oil, No. 2 fuel oil (heating oil), and No. 3 fuel oil are referred to as distillate fuel oils, diesel fuel oils, light fuel oils, gasoil or just distillate. For example, No. 2 fuel oil, No. 2 distillate and No. 2 diesel fuel oil are almost the same thing. Diesel is different in that it also has a cetane number limit which describes the ignition quality of the fuel. Distillate fuel oils are distilled from crude oil.
List of large wind farms
This is a list of large wind farms, with a generating capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) or more, which are currently operating, under construction, or proposed. Wind power capacity has expanded quickly to 336 GW in June 2014, and wind energy production was about 4% of total worldwide electricity usage, and growing fast.
Wind power is widely used in Europe, and more recently in the United States and Asia. Wind power accounts for approximately 19% of electricity generation in Denmark, 11% in Spain and Portugal, and 9% in the Republic of Ireland.
Many of the largest onshore wind farms are in the USA. As of January 2014, the Alta Wind Energy Center is the largest onshore wind farm in the world at 1,020 MW.
Many of the largest offshore wind farms are in Europe. As of January 2014, the London Array is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 630 MW.
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is a large wind farm with 735.5 megawatt (MW) capacity. It consists of 291 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines and 130 Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines spread over nearly 47,000 acres (190 km²) of land in Taylor and Nolan County, Texas.
The first phase of the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center consisted of 213 MW and was completed in late 2005; phase two consisted of 223.5 MW and was completed in the second quarter of 2006; phase three which consisted of 299 MW, was completed by the end of 2006.
List of solar thermal power stations
This is a list of solar thermal power stations. These include the 354 megawatt (MW) Solar Energy Generating Systems power plant in the USA, Solnova solar power station (Spain, 150 MW), Andasol solar power station (Spain, 100 MW), Nevada Solar One (USA, 64 MW), PS20 solar power tower (Spain, 20 MW), and the PS10 solar power tower (Spain, 11 MW). Many other plants are under construction or planned, mainly in Spain and the USA. In developing countries, three World Bank projects for integrated solar thermal/combined-cycle gas-turbine power plants in Egypt, Mexico, and Morocco have been approved.
Andasol Solar Power Station
Andasol Solar Power Station is a large solar thermal power plant, near Guadix in Andalusia, in the province of Granada, one of the sunniest regions in Spain. The plant will cost 310 million euros and is currently under construction.
Andasol will have a generating capacity of 50 megawatts and liquid salt heat storage will allow for electricity to be generated for seven hours after the sun has gone down. Annual electricity production will be 179 gigawatt hours which will cover the electricity demands of 50,000 households or 200,000 people.
Andasol should be completed in mid-2008 and a second plant, Andasol 2, is planned.
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade was the selling of African slaves by Europeans that happened in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were shipped from West Africa and brought over to the New World on a slave ship. The slaves were transported on a ship on which slaves lived in bad conditions. The journey by ship was known as the Middle Passage.
Some slaves were captured in battles or through raids and kidnapping. Some were sold into slavery as punishment or to pay a debt, usually by other Africans. Then they were shackled together and marched to the coast on journeys lasting weeks or months. When they arrived they were imprisoned in forts where they were purchased by Europeans. Most historians today think that between 12 million and 13 million Africans arrived in the New World.
The Dahomian army was involved and traded slaves for weapons to protect themselves. King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s:
The slave-trade is sometimes called the "Maafa" by African and African-American scholars. It means catastrophe in the Swahili language. Some slave ships worked a three-part economic cycle often called the triangular trade. It tied the economies of several regions and continents together. The main triangular trading countries were England, The Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal. Other ships just worked the slave trade.
Christopher Columbus first came to the Americas in 1492 while seeking the West Indies. This led to an economic reason for the transatlantic slave trade. Slaves were first imported in large numbers for mining and later to grow sugarcane in plantations. Slavery is much more ancient than the transatlantic trade. Slaves were used in many ancient societies.
In the 18th century, a small opposition developed against the slave trade in Britain, America, and some parts of Europe. In Britain and America, opposition to the trade was led by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and establishment Evangelicals such as William Wilberforce. People who protested against the trade were opposed by the owners of land in the Americas. After 1772, slaves became free upon entering the British isles. Abolitionism became stronger in the 19th century.
Denmark was the first European country to ban the slave trade, in 1792, which took effect in 1803. On 22 February 1807, the work of William Wilberforce was rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16 against, the motion for the Slave Trade Act to abolish the Atlantic slave trade was carried in the House of Commons. The United States abolished it later that year. The Royal Navy set up a Blockade of Africa to stop the trade, and treaties with other nations allowed the blockade ships to stop their slave trade. However, smuggling of slaves was very common and hundreds of thousands of black people were enslaved illegally. New York City was a center for this illegal slave trade, and judges in New York avoided punishing slave traders through the 19th century. Many slaves continued to be sent to Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba as well as much of South America.
African slave trade
The African slave trade was a trade in slaves and, like most of the world, has carried on for thousands of years in Africa. The first main route passed through the Sahara. After the Age of Exploration, African slaves became part of the Atlantic slave trade, from which comes the modern, Western type of slavery. Despite being against the law, slavery continues in all parts of the world, including Africa. In Mauritania, slavery was not made illegal until August 2007.
Pocking Solar Park in Germany
The Pocking Solar Park is a 10-megawatt (MWp) solar photovoltaic plant which is among the largest in the world. Construction of the power plant started in August 2005 and was completed in March 2006. On the former military training area in the Lower-Bavarian town of Pocking, sheep are now grazing under and around the 57,912 photovoltaic modules.
Fractional distillation