It is known from the school physics course that nothing in the world disappears into the void and does not appear from nowhere. So it is with the heat in the batteries, hot water or electricity - they have sources. These are minerals that serve as raw materials for the energy industry: uranium ore, coal, gas, oil and oil products, renewable sources - water, sunlight, wind.

The infographic below shows how these energy sources are used in Ukraine.

Nuclear fuel is sent to nuclear power plants, where it gives up its energy to produce electricity.

Another major source of energy for generating electricity is coal. Together, nuclear power plants and coal-fired power plants generate the vast majority of electricity in the country, renewable sources and gas almost do not take part in the process.

In addition to generating electricity, coal is also used to generate heat.

It heats the water supplied to the batteries and taps. But only a small part of coal is used to generate heat - 1.9 million tons of oil equivalent out of 27.3. is a special unit of measure used to compare useful action different types fuel.

A significant part of the coal, in addition to the production of electricity, is used directly for industrial needs, for example, in metallurgy.

Gas is also used to produce heat.

8.5 million tons of oil equivalent. But the main purpose of gas in Ukraine is to heat food on your stove (if you have a gas one).

Renewable sources in Ukraine are used, but not enough

This promising direction for investment, but they cannot be completely relied upon, because to control the weather, and therefore the strength of the wind or the amount sunny days people still can't.

And you know, you can’t say that a small share of renewable sources is bad. Each country has its own characteristics in the production of electricity and heat. The structure of consumption can be changed, reducing the share of fossil sources and increasing the share of renewable sources, but there is no ideal model, because each country is limited by its reserves of raw materials, material resources and climatic features.

Losses in the Ukrainian energy sector are simply huge

Notice the thick gray box on the infographic that represents the conversion loss. In the production of electricity, losses amount to 74% of the original raw materials, heat - 27%. There is nothing to be done about losses as such, this is a feature of the industry, but in Europe, losses in the production of electricity are about 30%, not 74%.

Where exactly does the light come from in my apartment?

Click on infographic to open full size

Electricity is delivered through a chain of wires from a large number manufacturers, and more than half are nuclear power plants. By the way, if you thought that some space technologies are used at nuclear power plants, as a result of which they receive electricity, then we will disappoint you, the principle of their operation is very primitive. The energy that is released due to the fission of atoms in the reactor heats the water, the resulting steam enters the turbines that rotate the electric generators.

The advantages of nuclear power plants are that they need little fuel and are environmentally cleaner than thermal power plants.

And since we mentioned nuclear power plants, you need to know that the heat that is released during their operation is also used to heat water for your batteries and taps.

The main consumer of electricity is industry. Especially a lot of it is necessary for metallurgical enterprises.

Does industry use as much gas as electricity?

In the gas industry, the situation is the opposite - most of the gas is spent on the needs of the population: for our gas stoves and for heating water that will heat houses or flow from taps.

Click on infographic to view full size


And how much coal do we buy from other countries?

Ukraine imports a third of the coal used. And three-quarters is converted into other types of fuel and energy, such as coke or electricity.

Click on infographic to view full size

Understand Ukrainian energy and don't let populists fool you again. Using clear infographics and concise texts, the guide explains the state of the industry, who is who in the energy markets, where raw materials come from and how they turn into light and heat, what reforms are taking place in the industry.

Look at the cover of the guide. We like it as much as the infographics inside.

"And God said, 'Let there be light!' and there was light." Everyone knows these words from the Bible and everyone understands: life without it is impossible. But what is light in its nature? What does it consist of and what properties does it have? What is visible and invisible light? We will talk about these and some other issues in the article.

About the role of light

Most information is usually perceived by a person through the eyes. All the variety of colors and forms that are characteristic of the material world is revealed to him. And he can perceive through vision only that which reflects a certain, so-called visible light. Light sources can be natural, such as the sun, or artificial, created by electricity. Thanks to such lighting, it became possible to work, relax - in a word, lead a full-fledged lifestyle at any time of the day.

Naturally, such an important aspect of life occupied the minds of many people who lived in different eras. Let's consider what light is from different angles of view, that is, from the standpoint of various theories that pundits adhere to today.

Light: definition (physics)

Aristotle, who asked this question, considered light to be a certain action that propagated in the environment. Another opinion was held by the philosopher from ancient rome, Lucretius Kar. He was sure that everything that exists in the world consists of the smallest particles - atoms. And light also has this structure.

In the seventeenth century, these views formed the basis of two theories:

  • corpuscular;
  • wave.

Today it is known that all bodies emit infrared light. Light sources, emitting infrared rays, have a longer wavelength, but are weaker than red ones.

Heat is infrared radiation emitted by moving molecules. The higher their speed, the greater the radiation, and such an object becomes warmer.

Ultraviolet

As soon as they opened infrared radiation, Wilhelm Ritter, a German physicist, began to study opposite side spectrum. The wavelength here is shorter than purple. He noticed how the silver chloride turned black behind the violet. And it happened faster than the wavelength of visible light. It turned out that such radiation occurs when the electrons on the outer atomic shells change. Glass is capable of absorbing ultraviolet, so quartz lenses were used in the studies.

The radiation is absorbed by human and animal skin, as well as by upper plant tissues. Small doses of ultraviolet radiation can have a beneficial effect on well-being, strengthening the immune system and creating vitamin D. But large doses can cause skin burns and damage the eyes, and too much can even have a carcinogenic effect.

Application of ultraviolet

Conclusion

If we take into account the negligibly small spectrum of visible light, it becomes clear that the optical range has also been studied very poorly by man. One of the reasons for this approach is the increased interest of people in what is visible to the eye.

But because of this, understanding remains at a low level. The whole cosmos is permeated electromagnetic radiation. More often people not only do not see them, but also do not feel them. But if the energy of these spectra increases, they can cause ailments and even become deadly.

When studying the invisible spectrum, some, as they are called, mystical phenomena become clear. For example, fireballs. It happens that they, as if from nowhere, appear and suddenly disappear. In fact, the transition from the invisible range to the visible range and vice versa is simply carried out.

If you use different cameras when taking photographs of the sky during a thunderstorm, then sometimes it turns out to capture the transition of plasmoids, their appearance in lightning and the changes that occur in the lightning itself.

Around us is a world completely unknown to us, which has a look different from what we are used to seeing. The well-known statement “Until I see it with my own eyes, I won’t believe it” has long lost its relevance. radio, television, cellular and the like have long been proven that if we do not see something, it does not mean at all that it does not exist.

We went further and further down the adit. Soon I again noticed a soft glow coming from nowhere. The impression was such that the air itself glowed, illuminating the space with a light that cannot be found above. Maybe Leo can explain this phenomenon?

LIGHT

The body of the vimana must be strong and durable. Made from lightweight material, it is big bird. A mercury propeller with an iron heater from below is installed inside. By means of a force latent in the mercury which sets off a propulsive vortex, the person sitting inside is able to cover long distances in the sky. The course of the vimana is such that it can rise and fall vertically, move obliquely forward and backward. With its help, mortals can fly in the air, and celestials can descend to the ground.

The Ramayana, another great epic of India, also speaks of vimanas flying on high altitudes with the help of mercury and "moving wind". They could cover vast distances - both in the air and underground - freely maneuvering up and down and back and forth. These wonderful devices served only maharajas and gods.

According to legend, Arjuna was not a god, but a mortal, and therefore ascended to heaven with the help of an apparatus that flew up under the clouds with a thunderous noise. During his flight, Arjuna saw other aircraft: crashing, hanging motionless in the air, floating freely, etc. The Mahabharata also reports on the terrible weapons of the ancient Indian gods, which, in the light of today's knowledge, are very similar to atomic weapons.

For example, it is mentioned that Bhima flew on his eyman "with a noise like thunder, with the help of a huge beam, as dazzlingly bright as the Sun." In addition, the great warrior Arjuna used vimana to ascend to heaven to Indra.

Vimanas - this is what the Mahabharata calls amazing aircraft ancient india. This epic tells of a long war between the Pandava and Kaurava families (I think this war was started by the gods in order to solve the problem of the then overpopulation in the world with its help).

CHARIOT OF THE GODS

The vitreous tunnels weren't meant for walking, Leo said as they walked. - They served to transport people and goods from the surface to underground cities with the help of ancient flying machines called vimanas. We don't know how old these communications are. They already existed when the first settlers came down here. Even our traditions do not say anything about who created them and when.

Following him, we passed from the vitreous tunnel to an adit roughly cut in the granite thickness that crossed it. Leo explained that it was created much later and leads us straight to our destination.



Perhaps these powerful people are worried that someone can prevent them from dominating the world, and use "mercenaries" from the depths in order to intimidate (or even completely remove them from their path) those who are too close to the truth. These were my thoughts after talking with Leo.

Apparently, on our planet there was and still exists a certain secret society, which includes very powerful people. They mask their centuries-old contacts with the underworld with hoaxes and lies about flying saucers and those who pilot them.

Obviously, these creatures are also related to flying saucers. At least according to the descriptions, the pilots of some types of UFOs and the so-called "men in black" are strikingly similar to the race to which our guide belonged.

Only later, from myths and legends, did I learn about beings like Leo. The Indians call them tricksters - "deceivers." According to legend, tricksters live in the voids of the Earth. Coming out to the surface from there, they pester people, involving them in their harmful and often deadly amusements. Therefore, some places associated with them have long been considered forbidden. Such places should not be visited.

The most striking information about vimanas is given in the Samarangana Sutradhara. There are the most precise instructions on the technology of building these devices:

The Haqafa (Babylonian Codex) states quite unambiguously: “The honor of driving a flying chariot is great. The ability to fly is the oldest of our heritage. It is a gift from those above. We received it from them to save many lives.”

The information given in the Chaldean manuscript of the Siphral is striking. It contains over a hundred pages. technical description aircraft. There are such terms as graphite rod, copper winding, crystal indicator, vibrating spheres, angle stability, etc.

I've always been fascinated by the thought of seeing these incredible machines darting up and down the prehistoric tunnels that connect the world above and below. Now these tunnels are all but abandoned and misused by random wanderers on foot. However, Leo said that to this day, some people claim that they saw the vimanas, in the blink of an eye, rushed past them through the tunnel. Just as UFO eyewitnesses are not trusted up there, the testimonies of those who have seen vimanas are also mostly not trusted. But it would not surprise me at all if it turns out that in the bowels of our planet there are still those who know how the technologies of our distant ancestors work.

"No one knows," came the reply. “Some say it is part of the legacy of the Elders, their knowledge, mostly lost over millions of years. Others argue that this is the astral light, a product of the magic of the Elders. But whether it is magic or science - in my opinion, there is no difference.

Prelude to Plato's Philosophical Myth

And in the area not far away
From the place of sleep, appeared to my eyes
Fire burning under the hemisphere of darkness.
("The Divine Comedy", Hell, IV, 67-69)

In one of the episodes of the 4th song "Inferno" Dante describes a castle surrounded by seven walls and being, as it were, a reduced model of Mount Purgatory. He mentions a source of light, a fire, which from afar made it possible to see a hill or an elevated place in Hell, where the virtuous souls of great, mostly ancient, poets and philosophers, as well as ancient heroes who lived "before Christian teaching" and died unbaptized, reside. Among the philosophers surrounding Aristotle on one of the slopes of this melancholy-infernal copy of Mount Purgatory, Dante mentions Socrates and Plato among the first persons, and only then Diogenes, Thales, Anaxagoras, Zeno, Empedocles, Heraclitus. It is unlikely that Dante, who freely quoted Aristotle on a par with the Bible, could read Plato's dialogues, which were translated into Latin and European languages ​​no earlier than the 15th century. He was most likely familiar with these names from the writings of other authors. However, one can notice a certain similarity between the “fire burning under the hemisphere of darkness” described by Dante and the fire described by Plato in the 7th book of the “State”. Inside the cave from the philosophical myth of Plato, “people are turned with their backs to the light emanating from the fire that burns far above” (Gos., VII, 514b). Now, Plato's further development of the story about people sitting in a cave and looking motionlessly at the shadows of things carried behind them is not so important for us, but the image of fire itself is important, which, inside the enclosed space of the cave, seems to replace the sun. Another interesting text in which this image appears is the novel by the French science fiction writer J. Verne “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Let me remind you briefly that having descended through the mouth of an extinct crater several tens of leagues underground, travelers find themselves in a huge cave, flooded with light, inside which the sea is located. There is no doubt that the French science fiction writer was familiar with the "Aeneid" and made a conscious reference to it: several times the characters of the novel quote Virgil for various reasons: "believe me, it's not difficult to go down to Averne ...". After the darkness of the dungeon, the giant cave that opened up to Professor Lidenbrock and his companions, flooded with light with the sea splashing in it, when compared with the Aeneid, turns out to be a very strange paleobotanical and paleozoological analogue of Elysius:

Here the ether is high above the fields, and the crimson light
The sun shines its own, and the stars light up their own.

(En., VI, 640-642)

Although the luminaries in the novel by J. Verne do not appear explicitly, describing the cave, the author says that it was illuminated quite in a strange way: "This diffused light, the origin of which I cannot explain, illuminated all objects evenly, there was no specific focus capable of casting a shadow." From the brightness of the cold rays, which created a sad melancholy mood, the author draws a conclusion about their electrical origin. He also recalls that “according to the theory of one English captain, the Earth is like a huge hollow ball, inside which gas, under its own pressure, supports Eternal flame, while the other two luminaries, Pluto and Proserpina, revolve according to the designation of their orbit.

It must be said that the symbolism of the cave is very widespread in the mythopoetic tradition. different peoples. The image of the cave is still significant in the popular sense shared by non-specialists, for example, as an image of a place endowed with chthonic features, from which about 40 thousand years ago came European culture. The caves of Laskaux in France are the most striking example, showing how closely the idea of ​​​​antiquity and mystery is associated with the caves. A lot of mythological motifs are concentrated around the symbol of the cave. I will give some data from the encyclopedia "Myths of the Peoples of the World" (Art. V. Toporov is called "The Cave"): a cave is a sacred refuge, a shelter - in the Greek tradition in connection with Pan, Endymion, satyrs, nymphs; Zeus the child; in Vedic mythology - in connection with Pani, Vala, hiding stolen cattle in a cave; it is also the motif of the sun setting in the cave and the sun rising from the cave. In Avestan Mithraism, according to the testimony of the Neoplatonist Porfiry, the cave created by Zoroaster to worship Mithra was a model of the universe, "and the things inside it ... were symbols of cosmic elements and zones." Often a cave depicted as deep depression, forms an entrance to the lower world, acting as a kind of antigora or mountain underworld. A separate circle of motifs is made up of mythological stories about a monster or an animal living in a cave. There are also widespread ideas about the cave as a place where there are winds, rains, clouds, which are considered either as destructive elements or as carriers and causative agents of fertility. The cave is associated with the bosom of the earth as its vagina, childbearing place and grave at the same time. The cave can, as in the philosophical myth told by Plato, act as conditions in which only inauthentic, unreliable, distorted and distorting knowledge and incomplete existence are possible. Sometimes the theme of hiding in a cave and leaving it is associated with a personified image of light and fire - Sandrillon (Cinderella) or its analogue.

Returning to the theme of fire, the source of light in a cave, it must be said that a fire or hearth in a cave is sometimes likened to an egg (yolk in a shell) or the sun (fire in a heavenly shell, cf. Church Slavonic “cave” from “stove”, Russian. “ cave”, “pechora”, “furnace”, etc.) The last remark clearly points to the ritual-initiatic (for example, “stove action”) connotations of cave symbolism. The French researcher of traditional forms R. Guenon devoted several articles to the analysis of the symbolism of the cave and its initiatory meaning in the book "Symbols of Sacred Science". Here I would limit myself to a few aspects of the symbolism of the cave, illuminated by R. Guenon. First of all, the symbol of the cave is one of the symbols of "axial symbolism", and is in relation to the reverse analogy to the symbol of the mountain. If the mountain, as a rule, symbolizes some upper point of the world, associated with the symbol of the center of the world (Ind. Mount Meru, Heb. Sinai, Greek Olympus, etc.), then the same sacred status of the center is associated with the cave, as reduced and an inverted mountain - like another mountain within a mountain. Further, R. Guénon points to the connection between the symbol of the cave and the symbolism of the heart. This is something hidden, hidden from the outside world, and also having a connection with the symbolism of the center. We can say that the cave is like the heart of the mountain. The next remark concerns the relation of the inner space of the cave to outside world. If the mountain is as open to the world as possible and rises above it, then the cave is a shelter, at the same time having a sacred status. Therefore, what happens inside the cave is immeasurably more important than what happens outside it. From here, paradoxically, R. Guénon concludes that the light inside the cave, which is usually described as dim and weak compared to daylight, does not just distort things, but gives them a true picture in contrast to ordinary daylight. The already mentioned connection of the image of fire with an egg - a symbol that goes back to the "world egg" of the Orphics and Hindus - also speaks of the significance of the cave as an element of "axial symbolism". Based on the traditional, including for the ancient world, representation of a person as a microcosm, the structure and composition of which is in accordance with the structure and composition of the macrocosm, we can say that the light inside the cave is the internal sun of the microcosm, and on the other hand, a reflection of the macrocosmic sun , in the meaning of the objective intelligentsia or world mind. Thus, the inner sun of the microcosm, when it is not covered by clouds, fogs and vapors, is the source of intellectual intuition, which, according to R. Guenon, links the individual order with the order of objective knowledge. Another important remark concerns the connection between the symbol of the cave and the symbol of the labyrinth. The image of the labyrinth was on the gates to the cave of the Sibyl Cuma, described in the VI book of the Aeneid. Without going into details, we can say that the labyrinth literally or symbolically precedes the entrance to the cave (Aeneas, looking at the image of the labyrinth, as if going through it with his mind) and serves as a kind of test that should reveal the “qualification” of the applicant for the passage of the initiatory ritual, which takes place in a cave. On the other hand, passing through the labyrinth could be part of cleansing rituals, which, in turn, were necessary to prepare the neophyte for the perception of new knowledge that was not obvious to the daily "profane" world.

In contrast to the symbol of the mountain, the symbol of the cave introduces a doubling of the world into "internal" and "external". If the inner space in the cave symbolism, according to the interpretation of R. Guenon, bears the status of sacred, genuine, authentic, and the outer space means “profane” and inauthentic, then in the philosophical myth of Plato, it is the knowledge that people who are inside the cave. One can only guess whether Plato wants to use his metaphor to liken human life to a preliminary stage of an initiatory ritual, since only people who have already passed certain preparatory stages, including the passage of the labyrinth preceding the entrance to the cave, can be in the cave. Considering that the metaphorical assimilation of segments human life certain parts of the ritual already take place in the Upanishads, and it was most likely known in ancient greece, such an interpretation seems quite acceptable. Thus, in the Platonic interpretation of the philosophical myth, we are dealing with a generalization of traditional symbolism, which most likely had a direct bearing on ritual practice, but by the time of Plato had already lost this connection. Plato places the world of opinion as inauthentic knowledge inside the initiatory cave, while, according to R. Guénon, the world of opinion in this case is precisely the external daily world of everyday life. From this point of view, the return to the cave described by Plato, which a person makes after being led out into open space, where he sees the real light and sees things as they are, seems to make no sense. The final stage of initiation, according to R. Guenon, is the exit from the cave through an opening, usually located on its upper vault. Plato introduces a drama that was not originally inherent in ritual symbolism, but this drama of the position of a person, in the semi-darkness of a cave, remembering what the world looks like outside it, where the light of true being reigns, allows him to connect the symbol of the cave with the theory of anamnesis. Plato's idea of ​​dividing being into true and not true is a special topic. But in the given context, one can recall the saying belonging to Paracelsus: "There are no two heavens, internal and external - it is one sky divided in two." This statement by Paracelsus seems to be consonant with Heidegger's critique of the Platonic interpretation of his philosophical myth.

Another reportage about industrial beauty and great people working at such facilities. Today we will talk about the Siberian city of Omsk.

I am often asked how I became an industrial photographer. Yes, everything is simple: for twenty-eight years I lived in Moscow with a gorgeous view of the giant thermal power plant with its elongated chimneys, the highest in the city. If I watched a forest or a pond from the window, I would probably write about nature, birds and toads. But fate decreed otherwise.

1. On last week I filmed at CHPP-3 in Omsk, the largest gas-fired thermal power plant in the region, which is also the oldest thermal power plant in the region. It has been in operation since 1954. The good old style of constructivism is well read in the architecture of the administrative building and the shop of the combined cycle plant.



2. Today, the CHPP produces energy for large industrial petrochemical enterprises, such as the Omsk Oil Refinery, Omsk Kauchuk, as well as for residential areas of the Soviet and partially Central districts of Omsk. View of the main building through the soaring cooling towers. High humidity, strong wind and -27ºС. All the way I like)

3. Until 1990, the station was coal-fired and smoked for the entire district, today the main fuel for the station is natural gas. Fuel oil is used as a reserve fuel.

4. General form the first stage of the turbine shop. Seven turbine generators are installed here. I do not often manage to get on such objects in the dark. But in vain - in the absence of powerful side illumination from panoramic windows, the workshop looks completely different than during the day.

5. During the day it is also beautiful, but in a different way.

6. Handsome waste heat boiler in the boiler room of the combined cycle plant shop. The power of engineering.

7. Conductors of gas turbines in 6 kV.

8. For maintenance and repair of equipment, two yellow overhead cranes are used in the turbine shop.

9. Hook crane for 75 tons. Another crane with a lifting capacity of 100/30 tons was installed as part of the implementation of the T-120 project - the commissioning of a new steam turbine at 120 MW.

10. Almost three years ago, CHPP-3 launched the first steam-gas plant in Siberia with a capacity of 90 MW. And recently, an even more powerful, modern steam turbine of 120 MW was put into operation.

11. As part of the modernization project of Omsk CHP-3 " Power Machines» manufactured and delivered to Omsk power engineers a steam turbine complete with a turbogenerator and auxiliary equipment. The new turbine was installed in place of its 50 MW predecessor. The production of the rest of the necessary equipment was also carried out Russian companies, only three units out of 1000 items are imported. What - I do not know)

12. Indicators, or rather, oil pressure gauges, show the oil pressure in the lubrication system of the turbine unit.

13. Technically, the project turned out to be difficult, since the station has transverse connections, and during the installation of new equipment, it was necessary to carry out tie-ins into existing pipelines. The new turbogenerator weighs 482 tons and is 15 meters high. The number of personnel at the site during the construction and installation works reached 400 people per shift. As a result of the equipment upgrade, the capacity of the tenth power unit of Omskaya CHPP-3 increased from 50 MW to 120 MW.

14. In addition to the installation of the steam turbine itself and the generator, two cooling towers were reconstructed and a new power transformer was installed.

15. In winter, in severe frost, beautiful icing accumulates on the tops of cooling towers.

16. The next day, after the shooting, the official launch of the new steam turbine took place. The solemn event was attended by all the managers and engineers of the station, construction contractors, as well as the head of the administration of the Omsk region.

17. Directors and managers are very good, but without ordinary employees it is impossible to imagine the work of such a complex organism. Heat and light uninterruptedly come to homes and businesses precisely thanks to such people as, for example, the electrician on duty at the electrical shop Maxim Zaitsev (a power engineer in the second generation), who is on duty at the main control panel of the station every shift.

18. Boiler control keys on the panel of the central thermal control panel.

20. Control panel TG-9 in the turbine shop. All parameters of the turbine unit operation are displayed here.

21. The driver Sergei Alekseev is monitoring the instrument readings.

23. Closed switchgear. Here, the operating personnel makes switching by electrical circuits.

26. On the block control panel of the shop of the combined cycle plant. I can't imagine how much you need to study and practice in order to understand all this)

27. Software and hardware complex of the turbogenerator at TsTShchU-1. What and for what is responsible, I did not understand.

29. Our modern life it is impossible to imagine without light, a smartphone, a computer, a microwave oven and an oven, trolleybuses, subways, electric trains, and so on. We do not even think that we use all these achievements thanks to the hard and persistent work of power engineers. Without such people, not a single branch of production will be able to fully function. The profession of energy is considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world.

Many thanks to all these people for their work!

30. Let there be light and warmth)