[SkyDancer]

Somewhere the second law of thermodynamics is tickling my brainbox ... it's been a while though .... once energy is converted from one source to another like coal to produce heat to boil water to run a steam engine that produces electricity, that energy from coal can't be recaptured. Same with hydroelectric ... once the energy from water over a dam produces electricity the energy in the water is gone. It would take extra energy to pump it back to the top of the dam to run again but then that takes energy that can't be recovered. Stuff like this makes my head swim ....

So then, what produces the oil in the earth? It seems something out of nothing is producing energy (energy what's trapped in the oil) - so something had to have given up energy to produce it which gave up energy... hmmmm

[Almondjoy]

Again you are right but the part about hydroelectric is that the sun’s energy causes it to rain which comes down on the mountains and then back down the rivers and over the dams... you get the point.

Rain is Mother Earths Natural solar panels. It converts solar energy into other things that can become of use. For the purpose of this discussion.. Hydroelectric power.