How Do Coal-Fired Plants Work?

1. Firebox
Before the coal is burned, it is pulverized to the fineness of talcum powder. It is then mixed with hot
air and blown into the firebox of the boiler. Burning in suspension, the coal-air mixture provides the
most complete combustion and maximum heat possible.
2. Precipitator
Highly purified water, pumped through pipes inside the boiler, is turned into steam by the heat.
3. Boiler
At temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and under pressures up to 3,500 pounds per
square inch, the steam is piped to the turbine.
4. Turbine
The enormous pressure of the steam pushing against a series of turbine blades turns the turbine
shaft. The turbine shaft is connected to the shaft of the generator, where magnets spin within wire
coils to produce electricity.
5. Condenser
After doing its work in the turbine, the steam is drawn into a condenser, a large chamber in the
basement of the power plant. The condenser is an important part of a steam-electric unit, whether
nuclear or coal-fired. This device condenses the steam leaving the turbines back into water so that
it can be used over and over again in the plant. This essential cooling process requires large
quantities of water; thus, most steam-electric stations are located on lakes or rivers.
6. Condenser Cooling Water
Millions of gallons of cool lake water are pumped through a network of tubes that runs through the
condenser. The water in the tubes cools the steam and converts it back into water. After the steam
is condensed, it is pumped to the boiler again to repeat the cycle.

http://www.dukepower.com/community/learningcenter/generating/coal/coalplants.asp
 The Power Plant—How nuclear plants work
When you flip on your TV or log on to your computer, pop a pizza in the microwave or light
up the living room, it's a good bet that some of your electricity comes from a nuclear power plant.
Throughout the United States, there are more than 100 nuclear power plants providing approximately 20
percent of the electricity used in our homes and businesses.

How do they work? While the process is highly technical, all of us can easily understand the basics.

First, Think Of A Tea Kettle

When you hear it whistle, you know that heat from the stove has turned some of its water into steam to
blow the whistle. If you were to put a toy pinwheel in front of the blast of steam, the energy in the steam
would spin its blades.

Now, picture a great deal of steam inside a power plant "blowing" the propeller-like blades of a giant
turbine, which spins the shaft of a huge generator. Inside the generator, coils of wire and magnetic fields
interact—and electricity is created.

All steam-electric power plants produce electricity in just this way—whether they are powered by coal,
natural gas, oil or nuclear energy.

Turning Water Into Steam Without A Tea Kettle

In a fossil-fueled plant, you burn coal, natural gas or oil to heat water in a boiler, turning it into steam to
turn the turbine.

In a nuclear plant, you don't burn anything at all. Instead, you split atoms of uranium—which creates the
heat that turns the water into steam. Splitting atoms is called fission.

http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=3&catid=454
 Hydroelectric power plants capture the energy of falling
water to generate electricity.

A turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water

into mechanical energy. Then a generator converts the
mechanical energy from the turbine into electrical
energy.
Hydroplants range in size from "micro-hydros" that
power only a few homes to huge schemes like the
Snowy River System that provide electricity for millions
of people.

Most conventional hydroelectric plants include four major

components (see
graphic below):

Dam

Raises the water level of the river to create falling water.

Also controls the flow of water. The reservoir that is

formed is, in effect,
stored energy.
Turbine

The force of falling water pushing against the turbine's

blades causes the turbine to spin. A water turbine is
much like a windmill, except the energy is provided by
falling water instead of wind. The turbine converts the
kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy.

Generator

Connected to the turbine by shafts and possibly gears

so
when the turbine spins it causes the generator to spin
also. Converts the
mechanical energy from the turbine into electric
energy. Generators in
hydropower plants work just like the generators in
other types of power
plants.

http://earthsci.org/energy/hydro/hydro.html
How it works

The Sun heats our

atmosphere unevenly, so
some patches become
warmer than others.

These warm patches of air

rise, other air blows in to
replace them - and we feel a
wind blowing.

We can use the energy in the

wind by building a tall tower,
with a large propellor on the
top.
The wind blows the propellor round, which turns a
generator to produce electricity.

We tend to build many of these towers together, to make

a "wind farm" and produce more electricity.

The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the
propellors, the more electricity we can make.

It's only worth building wind farms in places that have

strong, steady winds, although boats and caravans
increasingly have small wind generators to help keep
their batteries charged.

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/wind.htm
 how tidal power works
Tidal power, a completely predictable
renewable resource, uses the changes
in the seas tide, due to the gravitation
of the earth and moon, to create
energy (Tidal).

In creating and utilizing tidal power, a

barrier or barrage is placed in the
water causing the water behind the
barrage to rest at a higher position
than the water in front of it. The energy
formed by the difference in the water
position is known as potential energy,
or resting energy. It is changed into
kinetic or moving energy by way of
turbines, man made machines with
blades, which are located in the
barrage (Turbine).

Image courtesy of Popular Mechanics

The blades of the turbine rotate the water/energy which then has enough force to
move a generator and thus produce electricity (Heighton).

Image courtesy of The Australian Renewable Energy Website

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/k/l/klt181/EGEE/tidal.htm
How Geothermal Energy Is Captured
Geothermal springs for power plants. The most common current way of
capturing the energy from geothermal sources is to tap into naturally occurring
"hydrothermal convection" systems. When heated water is forced to the surface, it is
a relatively simple matter to capture that steam and use it to drive electric
generators. Geothermal power plants drill their own holes into the rock to more
effectively capture the steam.
There are three designs for geothermal power plants, all of which pull hot water and
steam from the ground, use it, and then return it as warm water to prolong the life
of the heat source. In the simplest design, the steam goes directly through the
turbine, then into a condenser where the low-temperature steam is condensed into
water. In a second approach, the steam and hot water are separated as they come
out of the well; the steam is used to drive the turbine while the water is sent directly
back underground.
In the third approach, called a binary system, the hot water and steam mixture is
passed through a heat exchanger, where it heats a second liquid (like isobutane) in a
closed loop. The isobutane boils at lower temperatures than water, so as steam it is
used to drive the turbine. The three systems are shown in the graphics here.

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy/page.cfm?pageID=81