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Energy Tech

In 1954, engineers at the Obninsk plant southwest of Moscow connected a 5-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor to the Soviet grid and became the first station anywhere to sell nuclear electricity to paying customers, nearly three years before the West managed the same feat at Calder Hall.

On 27 June 1954, a 5-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor near Moscow became the first anywhere to sell nuclear electricity commercially — beating Britain's Calder Hall by nearly three years and starting a lineage that runs directly to today's VVER-1200 reactors being built in seven countries.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 18, 2026

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Solar Science

The Parker Solar Probe now passes within 6.1 million kilometres of the Sun's surface at roughly 692,000 kilometres per hour, fast enough to cross the continental United States in about 20 seconds, protected only by a 11.4-centimetre carbon composite shield that keeps its instruments at room temperature while the front face glows at 1,377 degrees Celsius

NASA's Parker Solar Probe now flies through the Sun's outer atmosphere at 692,000 km/h, protected by an 11.4-centimetre carbon shield that glows at 1,377°C while the instruments behind it sit at room temperature.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 19, 2026
Oil and Gas

A pumped-hydro station in Wales moves 7.2 million cubic metres of water up a mountain at night and releases it through six turbines in the morning, delivering roughly 1,728 megawatts to the grid within 12 seconds of the operator pressing the start button

Buried inside a Welsh mountain, the Dinorwig pumped storage station uses six reversible turbines and a reservoir near the summit of Elidir Fawr to swing more than a gigawatt of electricity onto the British grid in seconds — the fastest-responding power plant in the country, and a template for the pumped hydro revival now underway from Gwynedd to New South Wales.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 16, 2026
Oil and Gas

In 1901, workers at Spindletop in Texas struck oil at roughly 340 metres and could not cap the well for nine days as it spewed an estimated 100,000 barrels a day, more than every other producing well in the United States combined, and helped launch the age of cheap petroleum

On January 10, 1901, the Lucas well at Spindletop erupted with an estimated 100,000 barrels a day — more than every other producing well in the United States combined — and collapsed the price of crude by 87 percent, ending the whale-oil economy in a matter of months.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 14, 2026
Oil and Gas

Nikola Tesla demonstrated alternating current at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair by lighting 200,000 incandescent bulbs from a single Westinghouse generator, undercutting Edison's DC bid by roughly half and effectively deciding which current would carry electricity into every home on the planet for the next 130 years.

On May 1, 1893, Westinghouse and Tesla lit 200,000 bulbs across the Chicago World's Fair with a single AC generating plant, winning the bid against Edison's DC by roughly half the price and settling the standard that still powers every wall socket in the world.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 9, 2026
Space Travel

In 1962, NASA's Mariner 1 probe to Venus veered off course and had to be destroyed 293 seconds after launch, and the postmortem traced the failure to a single missing overbar in the guidance code — one hyphen-sized mark that cost roughly $18 million in 1962 dollars.

On July 22, 1962, NASA's Mariner 1 Venus probe was destroyed 293 seconds after liftoff when a missing overbar in the guidance code caused an Atlas rocket to steer itself off course. The mark that would have prevented the failure was the width of a hyphen — and its absence cost roughly $18.5 million in 1962 dollars.

By Energy Daily Editorial Team · Aug 6, 2026

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The power of Earth and beyond.

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