As we learned in Chapter 2, electricity flows through wires to light our lamps, run TVs, computers and all other electrical appliances. In this chapter, we'll learn how electricity is generated in a power plant. In the next few chapters, we'll learn about the various resources that are used to make the heat to produce electricity.
Most power plants are big boilers that burn a fuel to make heat.
That heat energy is used to boil water to make steam. The steam is fed under high pressure to a turbine. The turbine spins and its shaft is connected to a turbogenerator that changes the mechanical spinning energy into electricity. Lets look at a cross section of a power plant. In most boilers, wood, coal, oil or natural gas is burned to make heat.