Energy is a constant in just about every person’s life across the United States and the entire world, whether they’re driving on their way to work for the morning commute, watching their favorite TV show or baking a dish in the oven.

Focusing on Oregon’s power infrastructure, the political landscape of energy, the future role of energy and power sources in the Beaver State and more, Southern Oregon PBS’s Keegan Van Hook and longtime collaborator and videographer Tripp White explore numerous sides of energy and how it relates to Oregon in a new documentary.

The documentary, “Energy Horizons — Exploring Oregon’s Energy Future” directed by Van Hook, is a six-episode series looking at energy sources, climate change and the future of power and its infrastructure in Oregon.

“I’ve always been fascinated by technology; I’m a fan of technology,” Van Hook said. “Energy is really important, and we’re going to have to figure it out because we can’t survive without energy, even if that energy is just what we find hunting and gathering.”

The conception of “Energy Horizons” started with a smaller scale story through Van Hook’s regular TV series, “Us As We Are,” as well as through grant funding to look into energy, climate change and other topics as they relate to Southern Oregon.

“We produce a regular series, ‘Us As We Are,’ that is a more hyperlocal thing — primarily Southern Oregon — and in that show we had talked to a representative from Stracker Solar, a local company that does dual access tracking solar rays,” Van Hook said.

One conversation led Van Hook to additional conversations with leaders and representatives in Oregon’s energy industries and state and local governments, with the journalist and his producers deciding to expand the story out.

“It’s very difficult to talk about the energy topic at a scale any smaller than a state, because it tends to be organized at that scale,” he said, noting multi-state power grids and energy infrastructure extending across state lines.

“It evolved naturally, step by step, and grew in scope. … There’s more than 42 people in this project who were interviewed, and the whole thing is constructed primarily off their statements,” he added.

The documentary took Van Hook across the state, driving up and down the Interstate 5 corridor and to Eastern Oregon to film, interview and learn more about the state’s energy system, its impact, different sources of power and what Oregon’s energy system could look like in the near or distant future.

“It was a sort of change of pace to focus completely on one topic — energy — and become obsessed with it. It’s changed my brain, it’s changed the way that I think. I can’t look at the world the same way,” Van Hook said.

“When you’re outside walking around the city or driving on I-5, I see the power lines now, I see all of the energy generators; once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”

Of the 42 interviewees, representatives and power experts featured in “Energy Horizons” include U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Alan Zelenka of the Oregon Department of Energy, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now’s Alan Journet, Southern Oregon University Sustainability Director Rebecca Walker and others.

Each of the six episodes cover different aspects of Oregon’s energy system, such as offshore wind, energy storage and transmission and the future of energy.

In chronological order, the episodes are “Transition — Resource Depletion and Pollution,” “Solar Revolution — Rooftops and Farm Fields,” “Offshore Wind — Potential and Controversy,” “Frontier Tech — Wave, Geothermal & Hydrogen,” “How Energy Moves — Storage & Transmission” and “The Long Game — Energy & The Future.”

“Energy Horizons” premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, on SOPBS, with new episodes airing at 8 p.m. each following Thursday.

For more information and to view the documentary’s preview trailer, visit pbs.org/show/energy-horizons.

While Van Hook intends to take a break after “Energy Horizons” airs, the journalist will return to filming “Us As We Are” in the not-too-distant future.

“I look forward to getting back to doing ‘Us As We Are.’ That one is kind of my baby because I started that independently and really evolved it on my own,” he said. “(It’s) fun because it goes with my personality and my tenancy to want to jump from one thing to another a lot.”

With his passion for energy and technology, Van Hook intends to cover energy more in the future.

“It seems to me it would be a waste to not do something about energy, or at least infrastructure, at a later time, because I find it fascinating,” he said. “Nothing is super specifically planned in that regard yet … It depends on the (documentary’s) success I suppose.”

A pre-screening of “Energy Horizons” will be offered at Southern Oregon University at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 9, and again at 1 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Ashland library.

To register for the SOU pre-screening, to be held in the in the Meese Auditorium of the Art Building on the Southern Oregon University campus, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, see https://bit.ly/4eqYCjP.

To register for the pre-screening at the Ashland library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, see jcls.libcal.com or call 541-774-6980.