Energy Through Time: A Timeline of Energy, 1712–2026

1. Coal & steam 1712–1776

2. 1712

   

   The first practical steam engine

   Thomas Newcomen installed his atmospheric engine at a coal mine near Dudley Castle in England to pump water out of the pit, so miners could dig deeper. Coal was now driving the machines that mined coal: the first energy feedback loop of the industrial age.

3. 1776

   

   Watt turns steam into general-purpose power

   James Watt's engine, patented in 1769 and sold with Matthew Boulton from 1776, used a separate condenser that cut fuel consumption dramatically. Factories no longer had to sit beside rivers; they needed coal, and Britain had plenty of it.

4. Oil & electricity 1859–1938

5. 1859

   

   Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania

   On 27 August 1859 Edwin Drake struck oil at 69.5 feet (21 metres) near Titusville, Pennsylvania, in the first well drilled specifically to find oil. Kerosene for lamps created the first oil boom. Gasoline was a waste product.

6. 1882

   

   Edison lights Lower Manhattan

   On 4 September 1882 Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station began supplying direct current to 85 customers and about 400 lamps in Lower Manhattan. London's Holborn Viaduct had run a similar plant since January. The electricity business had begun.

7. 1891

   

   Power travels 175 kilometres

   For the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt, engineers transmitted three-phase alternating current 175 km from a hydro plant at Lauffen am Neckar, at roughly 75 percent efficiency. Long-distance transmission, and with it the modern grid, was now possible.

8. 1908

   

   The Middle East's first oil

   On 26 May 1908 a well at Masjed Soleyman in Persia struck oil, the first major commercial discovery in the Middle East. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later BP, was founded the following year and the region's energy century began.

9. 1938

   

   Dammam No. 7 proves Saudi oil

   In March 1938, after years of dry holes, Dammam No. 7, the 'Prosperity Well', flowed in commercial quantities and proved Saudi Arabia's oil. Kuwait's giant Burgan field was discovered the same year. The Gulf's oil age was under way.

10. Atom & OPEC 1954–1973

11. 1954

    

    The atom joins the grid

    On 27 June 1954 the Obninsk plant near Moscow became the first nuclear reactor to feed electricity into a public grid, a modest 5 megawatts. Britain's Calder Hall in 1956 and Shippingport in the United States in 1957 followed at commercial scale.

12. 1960

    

    OPEC is founded in Baghdad

    On 14 September 1960 Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela founded the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Baghdad, to defend their revenues against price cuts imposed by the major oil companies. Producing countries began to take control of prices, and of their own resources.

13. 1973

    

    The first oil shock

    In October 1973 Arab producers cut output and embargoed the United States and other countries during the Arab–Israeli war. Oil prices roughly quadrupled within months and queues formed at filling stations. In 1974 consumer countries created the International Energy Agency to coordinate emergency stocks.

14. Shocks 1979–1997

15. 1979

    

    Second shock, and Three Mile Island

    The Iranian Revolution cut Iran's exports and pushed oil prices to new highs: the second oil shock. On 28 March 1979 a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania halted new nuclear orders in the United States for three decades.

16. 1986

    

    Chernobyl, and a price collapse

    On 26 April 1986 reactor 4 at Chernobyl exploded, the worst nuclear accident in history, and its fallout reshaped nuclear policy across Europe. The same year Saudi Arabia gave up its role as swing producer and the oil price fell to around $10 a barrel.

17. 1997

    

    Kyoto puts a limit on carbon

    On 11 December 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, committing industrialised countries to binding emission cuts for the first time. It entered into force in 2005. Energy policy and climate policy were now the same conversation.

18. Shale & transition 2008–2023

19. 2008

    

    The shale revolution

    Combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling unlocked shale gas in Texas' Barnett play and then tight oil in the Bakken and the Permian. US crude output, in decline for decades, almost doubled between 2008 and 2015 (EIA) and the United States became the world's largest producer of oil and gas.

20. 2011

    

    Fukushima changes the nuclear map

    On 11 March 2011 an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling at Fukushima Daiichi and three reactors melted down. Japan shut its entire fleet for inspection, Germany decided to phase out nuclear power by 2022, and demand for LNG surged.

21. 2015

    

    The Paris Agreement

    On 12 December 2015, 196 parties adopted the Paris Agreement at COP21, pledging to hold warming well below 2°C and to pursue 1.5°C. Net-zero targets, and the energy transition as a business plan, date from here.

22. 2020

    

    Oil goes negative

    On 20 April 2020, with the pandemic collapsing demand and storage at Cushing, Oklahoma nearly full, the expiring WTI futures contract settled at minus $37.63 a barrel, the first negative oil price in history.

23. 2022

    

    Europe's gas crisis

    Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the loss of pipeline gas sent Europe's TTF benchmark above €300 per megawatt-hour in August. Europe rushed floating LNG terminals into service, Germany's first at Wilhelmshaven in December, and energy security returned to the top of the agenda.

24. 2023

    

    Record solar, and a promise in Dubai

    The world added more solar capacity in 2023 than in any previous year, with renewable additions up by roughly half (IEA), and renewables generated more than 30 percent of global electricity for the first time (Ember). At COP28 in Dubai nearly 200 countries agreed to 'transition away from fossil fuels'.

25. Today 2026

26. 2026

    

    Today: electrons, atoms and chokepoints

    Data centres and electrification are pushing power demand up, nuclear is back on government agendas, and chokepoints from Hormuz to the Red Sea keep energy security in the headlines. The story continues every day on The Daily Energy.

Sources: IEA, EIA, OPEC, IAEA, UNFCCC, Ember, company and government archives. Dates and figures are as published by those institutions.