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Conventional and Sustainable Electrical Energy Supply


Overview Characteristics and Comparisons

 

Primary Electrical Energy Sources

Energy is available from many sources however most of the energy used to satisfy the world's ever increasing demand for electricity is still derived from fossil fuels. The dependency on fossil fuels brings with it two problems.

  • Finite supplies of fossil fuels will eventually run out.
  • Burning fossil fuels gives rise to greenhouse gases which cause global warming with its associated problems of climate change.

The section on Energy Resources shows the many alternative energy sources which can be used to generate electricity together with their associated energy content and indicates the actual usage of these resources. This page summarises the different ways in which the resources can be used to generate electricity.

 

Turning Energy Resources into Usable Electric Power

Most electricity is generated using rotating machines to drive a generator but there are many other possibilities. Information on the associated rotary generators can be found on the Generators page.

The diagrams below show 29 basic ways of generating electrical energy but there are numerous variants on each of these methods. The key indicates the technologies involved.

 

Technology Key

 

Click on the diagrams below for descriptions of the power generation possibilities, processes and performance.

 

Conventional Steam Turbine Plants

 

Electricity generation from fossil fuel. Basic Steam Turbine System

See also Energy from Coal?

 

Electricity from Biomass

 

Nuclear Power

See also Nuclear Energy Theory

 

Nuclear Power (Single Thermodynamic Cycle)

 

Nuclear Power (Two Thermodynamic Cycles)

Harvesting Natural Energy Flows

 

Hydro Electric Power Generation

 

See also Wind Power Potential

 

Wind power (Large  systems)

 

 

 

Wind power - Domestic systems

See also Solar Power Potential

 

Solar Thermal Energy (Large Scale)

 

Solar Thermal Energy with Stirling Engine

 

 

Photovoltaic Electric Power Generation

Geothermal Electricity Generation

 

Geothermal Electric Power Generation

 

Emergency and Remote Power Plants

 

Gas turbine electric power generation

 

Electric Power from Internal Comustion Engine

 

The Stirling Engine

 

The Stirling Engine for Electric Power Generataion

 

Direct Heat to Electricity Conversion - Thermoelectric Generators (TEG)

 

Thermo Electric Generator

 

 

AMTEC Thermoelectric Generator

 

Electrochemical Energy

Electrochemical Energy Technology

 

 

Primary batteries

 

 

 

Nuclear batteries

 

Hydrogen Fuelled Electricity Generation

 

Fuel cells

 

 

Hydrogen Powered ICE

 

Hybrid Systems

 

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Electricity Generation

 

 

Fuel Cell CHP

 

 

Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

 

 

Marine Hybrid Power System

 

 

Electricity Co-generation

 

 

 

Remote Area Power Systems (RAPS)

 

Energy Futures

 

Nuclear Fusion (Tokamak)

 

 

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Electricity Generation

 

 

Electricity Supply

Various estimates of the world annual electricity generation have been made. Some numbers for 2004 are shown here

  • 15,406 TWh (CIA World Factbook )                            1 TeraWattHour (TWh) = 109 KiloWattHours (kWh) or "Units"
  • 16,600 TWh (US Energy Information Administration EIA)
  • 17,400 TWh (OECD)

These estimates only show the consumption or generation of electrical energy. They do not show how much energy was consumed in generating the electricity or where it came from, nor do they show the energy consumed which is not converted to electricity such as that used for transportation or heating. These pages hopefully will provide some of the answers.

 

Eighty two percent of the world's electricity is generated using steam turbine systems. In simple terms, a boiler is used to raise steam which drives a steam turbine, also known as the prime mover, and the steam turbine in turn drives an electrical generator. Steam to drive these turbines is raised by burning fossil fuels (66%) or by nuclear power (16%). The balance of electric power is generated by hydro systems (17%) with solar, wind and biomass making up less than 2% of the total.

Source - US Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2003)

 

The steam turbine generating plants used to supply the grid's base load are viable only as large scale installations requiring special precautions because of their large physical size and the high voltages and currents involved.

Smaller scale systems use a variety of alternative generation schemes which can also be tailored for domestic use. Paradoxically, small scale electricity generating plant can be more complex than the high power plant supplying the base load to the national grid. This is explored in more detail in the section on small scale installations.

 

Except for hydro and nuclear power, generating plants are mostly located near to where the energy is needed in order to minimise distribution losses.

 

See also Energy Efficiency and Electricity Demand

 

See also Generators and Energy Storage

 

 

 

 

 

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