How Electricity Is Produced

Electrical energy was one of man’s greatest discoveries. It has helped build new civilizations. The large amount of electricity produced has its source in fossil fuels, nuclear fission, water, and wind. This article will explore the different methods of electricity production.

Electricity is churned out by enormous turbines. These turbines need a support to be moved. There are various ways of moving these turbines:

By burning fossil fuels: Electricity is produced when the blades of a turbine are moved by enormous amounts of vapour. This vapour is generated by heating a lot of water in huge furnaces. The water is heated by burning fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas. This method releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide in the air, thus severely polluting our atmosphere. It is important to turn to alternate methods of electricity production for long-term benefits.

By water: You must have heard how dams are constructed to produce electricity. A popular method to produce electricity, a water dams serves two purposes: restricting water bodies and producing electricity. Water dams use the river water to move turbines, helping them produce electricity. Electricity generated this way helps control air pollution; however, this method of electricity production adversely affects the ecosystem in the water bodies.

Hydro Power - How it works

About 60% of electricity in New Zealand is generated from hydro sources, a relatively high figure, although countries such as Peru, Brazil and Norway produce more than 85% of their electricity using hydro schemes. Internationally, about 20% of all electricity is generated by hydropower - the world’s most widely used source of renewable energy.

Water accounts for 90 percent of the world’s electricity generated through renewable resources.

Hydroelectric power stations capture the energy of falling water to generate electricity. Two factors are used to assess the generating capacity of a waterway. The first is the quantity of running water, or ‘flow rate’, measured in cubic metres per second. The second is the difference in vertical metres between the intake pipe and the turbine outlet, or ‘head’.

Formula:

Theoretical power available (kW) = 9.81 x Qc x H x Overall Efficiency
Where Qc = flow in metres3 per second
H = net head

When considering other factors, such as the efficiency of machinery, pipeline friction and the need to keep residual water in the stream, the practical output is less than the theoretical output.

Hydropower works by converting the movement of falling water into electricity. Many forms of hydro power exist and have been used by humans throughout history, some examples of this are watermills powering machinery such as sawmills and farmers irrigating land using gravity.

Most often water is stored in dams or reservoirs. This water flows through an intake and into a large pipe called a penstock. The penstock then feeds water into a turbine which powers a generator.

The turbine is powered by water flowing through the wicket gate. This gate can be controlled to determine the rate of flow through the turbine and therefore the amount of power generated. The turbine is attached by a shaft to an electric generator

Transmission lines then take that electricity where it is needed at the time.

Some common terms:

kWh Kilowatt hour. This is used to measure electric power use. A kWh is commonly referred to as a “unit” of electricity. A typical one bar electric heater running for one hour will consume one kilowatt of electrical energy.
GWh: Gigawatt hour – one million kWhs or units.
Head: Difference in vertical metres between the intake pipe and the turbine outlet
Penstock: A high-pressure pipe extending from the first upstream water surface to the turbine.
Wicket gates: Angularly adjustable streamlined elements that control the flow of water to a turbine.
Turbine: A machine that converts the energy of falling water to mechanical energy.
Generator: A machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy


By wind: Electricity is produced when wind energy is converted to electrical energy. Wind mills or wind turbines are used to churn up enormous amounts of wind energy which is then converted into electrical energy.

The latest in wind energy advancement tells us that wind energy is helping create portable cell phone chargers.

By nuclear fission: Yes, nuclear fission does not only make atom bombs, but also helps produce electricity. Nuclear fission causes a chain reaction where the element Uranium is bombarded by neutrons causing it to split. Every time a Uranium nucleus is split, more neutrons are released, causing more splits in the already split Uranium nuclei. The resultant chain reaction generates a lot of heat which is used to heat water the vapour of which eventually moves turbines to create electricity.

The process of nuclear energy is based on a clash between various elements within the central core. When there uranium, thorium and plutonium are a neutron is an impact between the two, which releases energy creating two neutrons, which then impact with two atomic nuclei to be returned to multiply and so on. This process generates a lot of energy as heat. What we are looking at the plants is to make this process in a controlled manner, so that different procedures apply, using a material to dilute the fusible material and slow neutrons, using a material commonly called moderator. With these two processes can control what happens in the process, but for that to be effective, nuclear energy must be removed, for what you use a liquid coolant, which also serve to cool the reactor.

In the case of central Fukushima used coolant is ordinary water. This passes through the reactor, cools and generates steam. The steam passes through a series of turbines that are connected to a generator and that is where the electricity is generated then we can use, the process is repeated continuously.

By bio-waste: With technological advancements, electricity is also being produced by bio-waste. Bio-gas is a typical way of generating electricity in rural areas in countries like India. In fact, a new technology evolved in the state of Bihar in India that uses human waste to generate electricity.

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