Your electric utility company's power plant generates electricity from three types of energy resources: Fossil fuels, such as natural gas, and coal, Nuclear power Renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, and hydropower Power plant output is measured in megawatts, and a megawatt (M.W.) is one million watts. Electrical output, the amount of electricity generated, varies depending on the size of a power plant. The average coal-fired plant generates about 750MW of electricity. Power plants use energy sources to generate electricity. Turbine generators produce electricity at the power plant using fuels from one of the three classes above, steam, water, or fossil fuels. Wind turbines and solar photovoltaics can also produce electricity. Respectively, they use kinetic energy and chemical energy to generate electricity. To make the turbine blades spin and rotate, a turbine generator works by pushing fluid, whether water, steam, air, or combustion gases (the exhaust from combustion). Next, the turbine's rotor shaft, connected to a generator, converts the rotor's kinetic energy (also known as mechanical energy) to electrical energy.