title: The Energy Construct: Achieving a Clean, Domestic, and Economical Energy Future
author: Ben Cipiti
description: Ben Cipiti received his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio University and PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently works at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with research interests in energy economics, fusion energy, nuclear waste reduction, and nuclear material safeguards.
zlib_text: © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
  
  Efstathios E. (Stathis) MichaelidesAlternative Energy SourcesGreen Energy and
  Technology10.1007/978-3-642-20951-2_1
  
  # 1\. Energy Demand and Supply
  
  Efstathios E. (Stathis) Michaelides1
  
  (1)
  
  Department of Engineering, TCU, Fort Worth, TX, USA
  
  Efstathios E. (Stathis) Michaelides
  
  Email: [e.michaelides@tcu.edu](mailto:e.michaelides@tcu.edu)
  
  Abstract
  
  The use of energy defines the beginning of human civilization: when the
  prehistoric human mastered the use of fire for domestic comfort and cooking,
  human civilization began and evolved to reach the age of the locomotive, the
  nuclear power plant, the automobile, the airplane, the personal computer and
  the wireless internet. Throughout the centuries, the human society has evolved
  by increasingly using energy to the point where the consumption of energy is
  necessary for the functioning of the contemporary society, the prosperity of
  the nations and the survival of our civilization. Energy is produced