Focus on Texas: Energy

With very little effort, you can enjoy the various ways readers pictured energy

By Ashley Clary-Carpenter September 2014

Jackson EC’s Charles Aschenbeck captures nature’s energy: lightning crashing over downtown Schulenburg.

‘While most everyone else was watching the release of the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle hatchlings at sunrise, this child was energized by the waves rolling into the beach,’ says Debbie Martz, Nueces EC.

Jackson EC’s Charles Aschenbeck captures nature’s energy: lightning crashing over downtown Schulenburg.

David Costello, Pedernales EC, found old and modern methods of harnessing the wind south of Sweetwater.

CoServ Electric’s Robert Schumann shows us a massive transmission line backlit by a warm sunrise on a cold February morning.

Cousins Tommy Orsak, Evan Packard and Aiden Dowdle exude boundless energy on a summer day. Thomas Orsak of Guadalupe Valley EC, their grandfather, sent in the photo.

Web Extra: Before the storm: Raedean Bolton, CoServ Electric, captured this ominous image in January 2014 in Gainesville.

Web Extra: Magic Valley EC’s Nancy Courser used a slow shutter speed and panned the camera to get this shot of energetic granddaughter Corrina Victoria Courser riding her bike.

Web Extra: Robert Schumann, CoServ Electric, says trains keep America moving. This one charges through far north Carrollton in April 2014.

Web Extra: Old oil derricks line the Sabine River. Thanks to Jessica Stahn, Upshur-Rural EC, for sending this.

Energy is understood as the ability of a physical system to do work on other physical systems. It can be converted in form, but it cannot be created, and it cannot be destroyed. It can be stored, and it can be released. As the gamut of your interpretations sped across cyberspace into our office here in Austin, this energy contest gained momentum.