Most power plants use coal, natural gas, oil or a nuclear reactor to create steam.
The steam runs through a huge and very carefully designed multi-stage turbine to spin an output shaft that drives the plant's generator. Hydroelectric dams use water turbines in the same way to generate power. Wind turbines , also known as wind mills, use the wind as their motive force. A wind turbine looks nothing like a steam turbine or a water turbine because wind is slow moving and very light, but again, the principle is the same. A gas turbine is an extension of the same concept.