– Why is every power generation basically just turbines?

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Ugga is confused. Ugga needs help. Why basically only turbines?

* Nuclear power. Turbines.
* Water power (waterfall, dams and so on). Turbines.
* Wind power. Turbine (This one i accept).
* Wave power. Turbines.
* Coal power. Turbines.

The only one i can think of that doesnt use turbines is solar power. Have we not in our 250+ years of harnessing energy come up with a way of getting said power without using turbines except for solar power? Or is it just that, its our most effective way?

How do we extract energy from our fusion trial chambers? Is it just the heat being funneled to a watertank with a turbine?

RTGs in satellites uses thermocouple. Im guessing solar works in a similar way?

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33 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Converting energy between different forms rarely is as simple as being able to covert it directly from its natural state to how we want it without intermediate steps. One of the few large-scale ways we’ve discovered to transform any type of energy into electrical energy is using kinetic energy to move magnets around wires, which generates electricity. From there, we need to figure out how to get the energy we have into kinetic energy. For coal as an example, burning it converts its chemical potential energy into light and heat. The light isn’t to useful for us, but basic physics tells us hot things expand and rise, and that’s kinetic energy. Then, we just need to figure out how best to use the motion of something being heated to move those magnets, and in most cases the best solution we’ve come up with is using steam to spin a turbine. Most other forms of energy production boil down the same wat, whether the energy is already kinetic (like naturally moving water), or needs to be converted to heat first (like nuclear decay).

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