Energy is transported at various stage of its life cycle.

Forms of energy and their processing vary widely, but most of them follow these basic steps to get from their origins to you - the consumer. 

• Fuel and Harvest. A fuel source must be prospected, located, and then developed (like wind farms) or extracted (like strip mining coal). 
  
• Processing. Fuel must be transported to a processing facility. This can be quite a long trip - such as coal traveling to the Midwest by rail from Virginia or Wyoming - or a shorter trip, such as corn headed to the ethanol factory via semi-truck. Or it can be no trip at all, as with methane capture facilities located at feedlots, or with turbines spinning in the wind. 
  
• Distribution. Once processed into a usable form, the fuel travels to consumers –gasoline moving by tanker from refineries to gas stations, electricity moving through powerlines from power plant to substations to consumers, etc. 
  
• Use. Consumers transport energy in their daily lives, too – often in the form of batteries that power cell phones, iPods, PDAs, laptops, etc. They also drive to places (like gas stations) in order to purchase energy. 
  
• Disposal. After a fuel is produced, there are often by-products to clean up and transport somewhere else – the storage of nuclear waste, for example, or the disposal of batteries.