how exactly is electricity created and why are there so many ways to do it (ie hydro, coal, nuclear,etc)
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I can’t explain everything, but I can simplify one part of your question: basically, all of those work the same way: the water in hydro and the steam in coal and nuclear plants create movement, this movement is changed into electricity.
In a hydro plant, this works like a giant waterwheel that was used to power things like mills and hammers… The water flows down and sets a turbine (or a giant waterwheel) in motion.
Both coal and nuclear power are giant boilers, these create steam and the steam — again — sets a turbine in motion (the white “smoke” that comes out of those big towers (cooling towers) in nuclear plants is steam).
The same goes for a wind turbine, the wind powers a turbine, geothermal energy… As far as I know, solar is the only exception.
Basically, the world is mostly steam-powered. And they say steampunk is unrealistic.
I don’t understand turbines well enough to simplify those, however. They always explained them to us like the dynamo on a bike, that powers the light: the wheel creates movement, this movement somehow creates electricity through a copper coil — I’d appreciate some enlightenment on that as well.
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