Electric Power Generation
Some of the materials in this document have been
used with permission from the KidWind Project.
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Why Isn’t Electricity Listed In This Table?
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Electricity Is An Energy Carrier
Black Rock Solar Array at
Pyramid Lake Museum
Lump of
Coal
Spring Valley
Wind Farm in
Nevada
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Common Energy Carriers
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Electric Power Generation Plant
Frank A. Tracy Generating Station
Natural Gas-Fueled Power Plant 17 Miles East of Reno.
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How Does Electricity
Get To Your Home?
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Step 1- Power Plant and Generator
Mohave Generating Station,
Coal-Fueled Power Plant in
Laughlin, Nevada
Generator
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Thermal (Steam) Turbine
Power Plant
1. Heat is made when 3. The steam makes turbine blades 5. Before reusing, the
fossil fuels are burned. and shaft spin.
water must cool. It is
pumped to the top of a
4. The generator converts
2. Heat turns
cooling tower, broken
mechanical energy into
water into steam.
into drops. Up to 2% of
electrical energy using
magnetic fields around a metal water evaporates.
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conductor.
Transforming Energy –
Thermal Power Plant
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Step 2 – Step-Up Transformer
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Step 3 – High Voltage
Transmission Lines
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Step 5 – Step-Down Substation
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Step 6 – Distribution Lines
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Step 7: Service Drop
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Step 8 – Service Panel
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Step 9 – Home Wiring,
Outlets and Switches
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Electricity Is An Energy Carrier
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Does All of Your Electricity Come
from Your Local Power Plant?
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Other sources of steam for
thermal power plants
Nuclear
Geothermal
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Solar Thermal Collector
These high-temperature collectors
concentrate sunlight using mirrors or
lenses and are used for electric power
production with steam turbine power
plants.
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Hydro and Wind Turbines
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Solar Power
Numana Fish Hatchery array
built by Black Rock Solar
TMCC solar array built
by Black Rock Solar
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Electricity Consumption By Economic Sector 2010
U.S. Energy Information Administration / Annual Energy Review 2009
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Tradeoffs:
Environmental Impact of
Non-Renewable Energy
Sources
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Hydropower
Lake Mead has provided water for
Hoover Dam since 1935. Does this
look like a renewable or nonrenewable energy source?
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Coal Mining
Surface mining for coal –
look familiar?
Coal companies also mine coal from mountains through a
process called mountaintop removal mining where the top
of a mountain is removed to extract the coal. Waste is
disposed in nearby valleys and streams.
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Coal Burning
Great Smog of 1952 in London killed
4,075 people. Most victims died from
respiratory or cardiovascular problems.
China’s air pollution has cut life expectancy
by an average of 5.5 years in the north of
the country and caused higher rates of lung
cancer, heart attacks and strokes.
Reno, with an
unhealthy layer of
smog.
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Natural Gas and Hydraulic
Fracturing or “Fracking”
A homeowner in Granville Summit,
Pennsylvania, holds up a glass of tap
water containing high levels of
methane, a concern for those who live
near fracking sites.
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Natural gas fire in San Francisco, CA
in 2010. Killed 4 people, injured
dozens of others, and leveled 37
homes.
This natural gas rig burning out of
control in the Gulf of Mexico caught
on fire July 23rd 2013.
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Tar Sands
The price of oil sands –
devastated landscapes in
Canada.
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Nuclear Power
Following a major earthquake, a 50 ft.
tsunami disabled the power supply and
cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors
in Japan, causing a nuclear accident on
March 11, 2011. All three cores largely
melted in the first three days. Nuclear
reactors were leaking into the ocean after
this disaster.
This is what happens
to nuclear waste.
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