Note that simple payback does not take into account compounded savings, discount rates, or inflation rates - all of which tend to be more important when calculating payback over many years or decades. The fuel is used to create steam, which then turns turbines connected to generators to produce the electricity. The electricity is fed out onto transmission wires and distributed to homes and businesses to satisfy the actual demand for electricity from the utility's customers. Burning fossil fuels results in the emission of pollutants. Some pollutants are kept from being immediately released into the atmosphere by cleaning technology in power plant smokestacks, but not all pollutants are able to be captured.
Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, which means it is a gas that captures and absorbs heat.
If there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is naturally occurring, the atmosphere may grow warmer. Even a slightly higher average global temperature could change weather patterns, agricultural production, and sea levels. How much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere from an electric power plant depends largely on two factors, the conversion efficiency of the plant and the specific type of fossil fuel used. The conversion efficiency relates to the percentage of energy in the fuel that is actually converted to electricity. Many plants have conversion efficiencies as low as 30 percent, which means that 30 percent of the energy in the fuel is converted to electricity, and the other 70 percent is lost.