TYPES OF POWER GENERATION

A power generation plant is a facility designed to produce electric energy from another form of energy, such as:

• Heat (thermal) energy generated from:
  • fossil fuels;
    • coal
    • petroleum
    • natural gas
  • solar thermal energy
  • geothermal energy
  • nuclear energy
• Potential energy from falling water in a hydroelectric facility
• Wind energy
• Solar electric from solar (photovoltaic) cells
• Chemical energy from:
  • fuel cells
  • batteries

There are many different types of electric power generating plants. The major types generating electric power today are shown below.

Figure 1. Power Generation Plant to transmission line

Figure 2. Fossil fuel power plant

Figure 3. Hydroelectric power plant

Figure 4. Solar thermal power plant

Figure 5. Nuclear power plant

Figure 6. Geothermal power plant

Figure 7. Wind power towers

Installed capacity by source in India as on 31 May 2019

Electricity Generation

Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utilities in the electric power industry, it is the first stage in the delivery of electricity to end users, the other stages being transmission, distribution, energy storage and recovery, using the pumped-storage method.

A characteristic of electricity is that it is not primary energy freely present in nature in remarkable amounts and it must be produced. Production is carried out in power stations (also called "power plants"). Electricity is most often generated at a power plant by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by combustion or nuclear fission but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. Other energy sources include solar photovoltaics and geothermal power.