What are power plants?

What are power plants?

Power plants are buildings where electricity is generated by means of various types of fuel. What plants are there?

In power plants generated electricity we use in everyday life. The way this is done in recent years to change. The standard way of generating energy, takes place with the aid of a steam turbine. Fuel heating water, and the released steam is with great pressure pressed through a turbine. The turbine is thus put in motion that could generate an electricity generator. Electricity is then moved under high voltage power lines through. This is done to reduce energy loss as much as possible. Most power plants using fossil fuels (gas, coal, oil) works belong to this category. But nuclear power plants and biomass plants operate according to this principle.
power plants

Energy Loss

One of the disadvantages of conventional power plants is that the loss of energy, because the heated water (waste heat) is not used further. There are alternative power plants that are using this residual heat: thermal power plants. The residual heat is often used in district heating (also known as district heating.) Through hot water pipes are houses with the aid of the residual heat so that heated central-heating boilers are no longer needed. In the Netherlands, applies this method of heating in many neighborhoods far.

Alternative power plants

In addition to the conventional power plant, there are a number of alternative forms of power generation that are applied more and more often. Hydroelectric power using the power of running or falling water to generate power. The flow of the water converts in this case the turbine in motion. In a tidal power plant, the difference between high and low tide is used to generate electricity. In Oosterscheldedam make five turbines from 2015 using the tides. With geothermal power plants, we use geothermal energy to produce electricity. In countries with volcanoes, for example Iceland, this form of energy is very popular because geothermal energy is close to the surface. Yet deep geothermal also emerging in the Netherlands. The use of geothermal energy is mainly used as a renewable energy solution in horticulture. Wind and solar energy are typically generated without central. With solar panels which are mounted on the roofs of houses, the electricity generated can be used immediately. Yet there are power plants that use solar energy. For example, this can be done by means of a field of mirrors that are directed to a point in a tower. This makes it possible to generate a temperature of more than 1000 ° C. The heat can then simply run a steam turbine.