Generating electricity

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Generating electricity

Electricity is made by generators.

But the generators don’t exactly generate electricity, they have to use something in order to get it, it doesn’t come from nowhere.

Generators simply change one form of natural into another form of energy called electricity, a form of energy, which is very helpful to us.

We generate electricity because although there is a lot of energy in moving water, or in wind, we cannot use that form of energy to power a light bulb or run a computer hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.

Generators, which come in many sizes, work on a principle that was discovered by Michael Faraday, in 1831. Faraday discovered that electricity could be produced in a coil of copper wire by moving it near a magnet.

How a generator works 
Modern generators have magnets and wires that spin very close to one another. One set of magnets spin inside a set of stationary magnets. The fast moving magnets and wires make an electromotive force, or the process of exciting electrons to jump from atom to atom.

Electron jumping is electricity.

Generators use a source of natural energy - hydro power plants use the motion of water or steam - to move the big fan-like blades in a turbine. The turbine spins the generator.

Thermal Generating Plants

Thermal plants use the energy of heat to make electricity. Water is heated in a boiler until it becomes high-temperature steam. This steam is then channelled through a turbine, which has many fan-blades attached to a shaft. As the steam moves over the blades, it causes the shaft to spin. This spinning shaft is connected to the rotor of a generator, and the generator produces electricity.

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The diagram below shows this process

Fossil-fuelled plants

Fossil fuels are what are left of plant and animal life that existed millions of years ago. For millions of years, they have been exposed to high temperatures underground, these remains have been transformed into forms of carbon: coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels can be stored in large quantities. After 100 years of research and development, fossil-fuelled plants are generally reliable, and problems that do occur are usually confined to a local area. Many electric utilities have operated fossil-fuel plants for decades, and these plants (now fully paid for) ...

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