How Does Electricity Work?

Written By Teacher: Teresa Pettitt-Kenney

Hi there! My name is Teresa and I just finished my Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and am excited to pursue environmental education in the future! I am extremely passionate about climate change, equitable climate action, and how education can work to address these issues. 

Electricity is such an integral part of our everyday lives, but understanding where it comes from and how it works isn’t easy. Explore this topic as if you’re investigating a mystery with your students, and try to discover more about the electric grid. Investigate big-picture energy usage through visual resources, like interactive maps such as this Hourly Electric Grid Monitor or engaging videos, like How Much Electricity Does It Take to Power the World? You can also make the discussion fun and engaging with this Electric Grid and Climate Change lesson that includes an electrical load-balancing game, podcasts, and interactive exploration activities.  

Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.

We use electricity every day—to turn on the lights, to charge our phones, and to keep our food cold. But most of us don’t make our own electricity. Instead, we get it from the electric grid, an interconnected network of power lines and other infrastructure that allows us to move electricity from power plants to our homes, businesses, and factories. Though it’s often generally referred to as “the electric grid,” countries can have more than one: for example, the U.S. has three quite separate electric grids that span the country.

The electric grid—and how electricity is generated—plays a crucial role in slowing and stopping climate change. Currently, almost two-thirds of our electricity around the world is generated by burning fossil fuels, a process that releases large amounts of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases and is among the primary causes of climate change. At the same time, the grid is vulnerable to extreme weather events, like hurricanes and heat waves, that are becoming more common or more intense as our planet warms.

To slow down—and to protect ourselves from—climate change, energy experts say our grid must become cleaner and more adaptable.