Power plants

By: Carla Botello

How does a power plant

work?
Power plants work when power or energy is generated
from a given source inside a power plant. But, the type of
energy converted depends on what kind of power plant is
being considered. The power plants usually rotate a copper
or any metal wire through a magnetic field. Then an
electric charge is created to cause electricity.The power
station is a machine that gets energy from its fossil fuels.

Turbines
In order to spin or rotate the many loops of wire
through the magnetic field, power plant generators use
turbines. Turbines work the opposite way to fans.
Turbines turn or spin as a result of moving air, water, or
steam that moves over the blades. But fans, rotate the
blades to create moving air.

Making steam
Many of the power plants use steam to power
generators. Water is heated by burning fossil fuels
or through nuclear reaction, and when the water is
boiling, steam is produced. Then the steam move the
turbines to force them to rotate and create electrical
energy.

Nuclear power plants

This power plants use nuclear fission to
convert water into steam..The steam created
can drive the turbine generators to create
electricity. The heat used to stimulate the
nuclear power plants is called fission.
Fission is created when uranium atoms split
into two or more. But the thing is that the
nuclear reactor uses no combustion. But
there are two types of nuclear reactors in
the United States. They consist of a
pressurized water reactor and a boiling
water reactor.

Pressurized Water Reactor

Boiling Water Reactor

This reactor keeps water under pressure so that it

is able to heat up without it being boiled. The
now heated water goes through tubes in steam
generators allowing the water to turn into steam.

This reactor has water heated by fission and this time it is

actually able to boil to become steam. This is able to turn the
turbine generator to create energy. On both generator, the steam is
able to turn back into water and be able to use again.

Thermal power plants

This type of power plants use fuels such as
petroleum, coal, or biomass which are used to
heat water up and create steam. Then the
steam turns a turbine to turn the wire inside
the generator. This is how it works, when fuel
is brought into the power plant then put into a
boiler. When it is burned, it produces gases
and ash. When this is done, the steam moves a
big turbine causing it to spin rapidly. This
creates electricity when it is connected through
wires to a generator. The steam next passes
through cooling tubes which when steam passes
by, it collects it and turns it back to water. Then
it follows the boiling process, and to keep the
water purificated, they use plants.

Wind power plants

This type of power plants, use wind to spin the
blades of the device. By doing this they spin the
wire inside the generator creating an electric
current. How this is done is that located on the
top of each turbine, there is a box called missile.
This has three propellers. Then this has a
ammeter which helps measure the wind speed
and its direction. The turbines create mechanical
energy inside the rotor. This is connecting to the
main shaft that turns inside the generator. The
magnetic rotor spins inside wire to cause the
electrons inside to create electrical energy by
floating. Then it is able to travel through large
cable to the tower and then to the ground cables.

Solar power plant

This kind of power plant uses thousands
of mirrors to make use of the sun. Then it
is focused on to a boiler that is in the air,
then the boiler is able to heat up water to
power a turbine. It take the heat from the
sun which heats up the gas which will
push the piston down to turn the
crankshaft to turn the generator. When
the solar energy is concentrated onto the
boiler, it can create steam to move the
generator and create electricity.

Hydroelectric power plant

This type of power plants use kinetic
energy of the flowing water to help rotate
the turbine blades. Then this energy is
converted into electrical energy. Humans
build dams to be able to hold the water.
Located on the bottom of the damp, there
is a gate. Water is able to flow through a
penstock to help the turbine to move.
When this is done, it rotates the shaft
that is connected to the generator to make
energy. But the main disadvantage lies in
the fact that the location depends on the
factors that us humans, can not control.

My power plant
The power plant I would make would be the solar thermal trough power
plant. I would locate it in the Laguna Salada in Mexicali. This is because
the Laguna Salada always has sun, so it can always keep the solar panels
working.

How it works
To construct this power plant, I would need the next construction materials: thousands of slightly
curved mirrors, or heliostats. Also heat storage, to be able to store the heat from the sun. Also a
cooling system with a tank. Generator, a turbine, a reheater, superheater, vaporizer, economizer,
HTF pump, feed water pump, condenser, and a grid. The heliostats are going to be located all
together forming a vary of rows of mirrors. When the solar energy is collected, it is transferred
through a tunnel to pass through a hot tank and a cool tank. Then it moves back through the
tunnels and goes through a superheater, vaporizer, and an economizer. some is transferred back
through HTF pump, other is used for the turbie, and from the turbine it goes to the reheater or a
condenser which leads to a cooling tower. From the cooling tower, it gets transferred back through
a feedwater pump. From the turbine, then is transferred to the generator which then give electrical
energy to the grid the create electricity. I would also use molten salt so that energy is still
produced even though the sun isn't out.

Calculations
11,135 W to power a regular
household. To power 2,000 houses.
1 MW=1,000,000 W
11,135 times 2,000= 22,270,000 W
22.27 MW
This is the amount, 22.27 MW,
that would take for to power 2,000
households.

Summary
My power plant, by only using solar power, if going to have a great
effect on the environment and the world. This is because, that by using
a solar power plant instead of a power plant using fossil fuels or
burning up stuff, you use the things that mother nature has given to
us. The field losses of constructing such a thing would be lower than
10%. Solar thermal trough power plants can reach an annual
efficiency of about 15%. And unlike fossil fuel power generating
facilities, solar power facilities have a very low air pollution
emissions. Also the construction of this solar power plants can cause
both direct and indirect employment.