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Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery (transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its storage, using for example, the pumped-storage method.
Consumable electricity is not freely available in nature, so it must be "produced", transforming other forms of energy to electricity. Production is carried out in , also called "power plants". Electricity is most often generated at a power plant by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by fueled by combustion or nuclear fission, but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. Other energy sources include solar photovoltaics and geothermal power. There are exotic and speculative methods to recover energy, such as proposed fusion reactor designs which aim to directly extract energy from intense magnetic fields generated by fast-moving charged particles generated by the fusion reaction (see magnetohydrodynamics).
Coal phase-out and eventually gas-fired power stations, or, if practical, capturing their greenhouse gas emissions, is an important part of the energy transformation required to limit climate change. Vastly more solar power and wind power is forecast to be required, with electricity demand increasing strongly with further electrification of Electric vehicle, homes and industry. However, in 2023, it was reported that the global electricity supply was approaching peak CO2 emissions thanks to the growth of solar and wind power.
Commercial electricity production started with the coupling of the dynamo to the hydraulic turbine. The mechanical production of electric power began the Second Industrial Revolution and made possible several inventions using electricity, with the major contributors being Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla. Previously the only way to produce electricity was by chemical reactions or using battery cells, and the only practical use of electricity was for the telegraph.
Electricity generation at central power stations started in 1882, when a steam engine driving a dynamo at Pearl Street Station produced a DC current that powered public lighting on Pearl Street, New York. The new technology was quickly adopted by many cities around the world, which adapted their gas-fueled street lights to electric power. Soon after electric lights would be used in public buildings, in businesses, and to power public transport, such as trams and trains.
The first power plants used water power or coal. Today a variety of energy sources are used, such as coal, nuclear power, natural gas, hydroelectricity, Wind power, and Petroleum, as well as solar energy, tidal power, and Geothermal power sources.
In the 1880s the popularity of electricity grew massively with the introduction of the Incandescent light bulb. Although there are 22 recognised inventors of the light bulb prior to Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison, Edison and Swan's invention became by far the most successful and popular of all. During the early years of the 19th century, massive jumps in Electromagnetism were made. And by the later 19th century the advancement of electrical technology and engineering led to electricity being part of everyday life. With the introduction of many electrical inventions and their implementation into everyday life, the demand for electricity within homes grew dramatically. With this increase in demand, the potential for profit was seen by many entrepreneurs who began investing into electrical systems to eventually create the first electricity public utilities. This process in history is often described as electrification.
The earliest distribution of electricity came from companies operating independently of one another. A consumer would purchase electricity from a producer, and the producer would distribute it through their own power grid. As technology improved so did the productivity and efficiency of its generation. Inventions such as the steam turbine had a massive impact on the efficiency of electrical generation but also the economics of generation as well. This conversion of heat energy into mechanical work was similar to that of , however at a significantly larger scale and far more productively. The improvements of these large-scale generation plants were critical to the process of centralised generation as they would become vital to the entire power system that we now use today.
Throughout the middle of the 20th century many utilities began merging their distribution networks due to economic and efficiency benefits. Along with the invention of long-distance power transmission, the coordination of power plants began to form. This system was then secured by regional system operators to ensure stability and reliability. The electrification of homes began in Northern Europe and in the Northern America in the 1920s in large cities and urban areas. It was not until the 1930s that rural areas saw the large-scale establishment of electrification.
All power grids have varying loads on them. The daily minimum is the base load, often supplied by plants which run continuously. Nuclear, coal, oil, gas and some hydro plants can supply base load. If well construction costs for natural gas are below $10 per MWh, generating electricity from natural gas is cheaper than generating power by burning coal.
Nuclear power plants can produce a huge amount of power from a single unit. However, nuclear disasters have raised concerns over the safety of nuclear power, and the capital cost of nuclear plants is very high. Hydroelectric power plants are located in areas where the potential energy from falling water can be harnessed for moving turbines and the generation of power. It may not be an economically viable single source of production where the ability to store the flow of water is limited and the load varies too much during the annual production cycle.
The combustion of supplies most of the energy to these engines, with a significant fraction from nuclear fission and some from . The modern steam turbine, invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, currently generates about 80% of the electric power in the world using a variety of heat sources. Turbine types include:
Although turbines are most common in commercial power generation, smaller generators can be powered by gasoline or . These may used for backup generation or as a prime source of power within isolated villages.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), low-carbon electricity generation needs to account for 85% of global electrical output by 2040 in order to ward off the worst effects of climate change. Like other organizations including the Energy Impact Center (EIC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the IEA has called for the expansion of nuclear and renewable energy to meet that objective. Some, like EIC founder Bret Kugelmass, believe that nuclear power is the primary method for decarbonizing electricity generation because it can also power direct air capture that removes existing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Nuclear power plants can also create district heating and desalination projects, limiting carbon emissions and the need for expanded electrical output.
A fundamental issue regarding centralised generation and the current electrical generation methods in use today is the significant negative environmental effects that many of the generation processes have. Processes such as coal and gas not only release carbon dioxide as they combust, but their extraction from the ground also impacts the environment. Open pit coal mines use large areas of land to extract coal and limit the potential for productive land use after the excavation. Natural gas extraction releases large amounts of methane into the atmosphere when extracted from the ground, which greatly increases global greenhouse gases. Although nuclear power plants do not release carbon dioxide through electricity generation, there are risks associated with nuclear waste and safety concerns associated with the use of nuclear sources.
Per unit of electricity generated coal and gas-fired power life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are almost always at least ten times that of other generation methods.
Centralised generation is fundamentally the opposite of distributed generation. Distributed generation is the small-scale generation of electricity to smaller groups of consumers. This can also include independently producing electricity by either solar or wind power. In recent years distributed generation as has seen a spark in popularity due to its propensity to use renewable energy generation methods such as rooftop solar.
Natural gas power plants are more efficient than coal power generation, they however contribute to climate change, but not as highly as coal generation. Not only do they produce carbon dioxide from the ignition of natural gas, the extraction of gas when mined releases a significant amount of methane into the atmosphere.
Normal emissions due to nuclear power plants are primarily waste heat and radioactive spent fuel. In a reactor accident, significant amounts of radioisotopes can be released to the environment, posing a long term hazard to life. This hazard has been a continuing concern of environmentalists. Accidents such as the Three Mile Island accident, Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima nuclear disaster illustrate this problem.
Iceland has the highest installed capacity per capita in the world, at about 8,990 watts. All developed countries have an average per-capita electricity capacity above the global average per-capita electricity capacity, with the United Kingdom having the lowest average per-capita electricity capacity of all other developed countries.
| 1,120 |
| 1,740 |
| 3,940 |
| 2,420 |
| 397 |
| 2,940 |
| 2,030 |
| 3,220 |
| 1,030 |
| 4,460 |
| 3,130 |
| 2,280 |
| 2,230 |
| 2,580 |
| 1,640 |
| 1,240 |
| 792 |
| 3,680 |
| 2,380 |
| 977 |
| 721 |
| 1,100 |
| 1,690 |
| 901 |
| 1,440 |
| 582 |
| 2,440 |
| 3,010 |
| 5,100 |
| 1,130 |
| 192 |
| 7,530 |
| 4,010 |
| 1,110 |
| 1,930 |
| 1,210 |
| 1,600 |
| 2,960 |
| 2,890 |
| 590 |
| 2,400 |
| 2,520 |
| 3,980 |
| 3,710 |
| 2,420 |
| 2,320 |
| 8,990 |
|
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