THE POWER PLANT PRODUCES CURRENT.
THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF POWER PLANT: THERMOELECTRIC, HYDROELECTRIC, GEOTHERMAL, SOLAR, NUCLEAR.
IN ANY CASE THE ELECTRICITY IS GENERATED BY A GENERATOR (ALTERNATORE) MOVED BY A TURBINE,
WHO IS RUNNING THE TURBINE? IT ' S HOT WATER (STEAM- VAPORE) THAT IS PRODUCED BY A BOILER OR IT IS WATER COMING DOWN FAST FROM A RIVER.
SO:
1) POWER PLANT:
HOT WATER
TURBINE (TURBINA) -> GENERATOR (ALTERNATORE)-> TRANSFORMER
FAST WATER
2) TRANSMISSION LINE (300 000 V)
3) TRANSFORMER
4) HOMES (220 V)
THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF POWER PLANT: THERMOELECTRIC, HYDROELECTRIC, GEOTHERMAL, SOLAR, NUCLEAR.
IN ANY CASE THE ELECTRICITY IS GENERATED BY A GENERATOR (ALTERNATORE) MOVED BY A TURBINE,
WHO IS RUNNING THE TURBINE? IT ' S HOT WATER (STEAM- VAPORE) THAT IS PRODUCED BY A BOILER OR IT IS WATER COMING DOWN FAST FROM A RIVER.
SO:
1) POWER PLANT:
HOT WATER
TURBINE (TURBINA) -> GENERATOR (ALTERNATORE)-> TRANSFORMER
FAST WATER
2) TRANSMISSION LINE (300 000 V)
3) TRANSFORMER
4) HOMES (220 V)
- Fuel: The energy that finds its way into your TV, computer, or toaster starts off as fuel loaded into a power plant. Some power plants run on coal, while others use oil, natural gas, or methane gas from decomposing rubbish.
- Furnace: The fuel is burned in a giant furnace to release heat energy.
- Boiler: In the boiler, heat from the furnace flows around pipes full of cold water. The heat boils the water and turns it into steam.
- Turbine: The steam flows at high-pressure around a wheel that's a bit like a windmill made of tightly packed metal blades. The blades start turning as the steam flows past. Known as a steam turbine, this device is designed to convert the steam's energy into kinetic energy (the energy of something moving). For the turbine to work efficiently, heat must enter it at a really high temperature and pressure and leave at as low a temperature and pressure as possible.
- Cooling tower: The giant, jug-shaped cooling towers you see at old power plants make the turbine more efficient. Boiling hot water from the steam turbine is cooled in a heat exchanger called a condenser. Then it's sprayed into the giant cooling towers and pumped back for reuse. Most of the water condenses on the walls of the towers and drips back down again. Only a small amount of the water used escapes as steam from the towers themselves, but huge amounts of heat and energy are lost.
- Generator: The turbine is linked by an axle to a generator, so the generator spins around with the turbine blades. As it spins, the generator uses the kinetic energy from the turbine to make electricity.
- Electricity cables: The electricity travels out of the generator to a transformer nearby.
- Step-up transformer: Electricity loses some of its energy as it travels down wire cables, but high-voltage electricity loses less energy than low-voltage electricity. So the electricity generated in the plant is stepped-up (boosted) to a very high voltage as it leaves the power plant.
- Pylons: Hugh metal towers carry electricity at extremely high voltages, along overhead cables, to wherever it is needed.
- Step-down transformer: Once the electricity reaches its destination, another transformer converts the electricity back to a lower voltage safe for homes to use.
- Homes: Electricity flows into homes through underground cables.
- Appliances: Electricity flows all round your home to outlets on the wall. When you plug in a television or other appliance, it could be making a very indirect connection to a piece of coal hundreds of miles away!
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