Power station

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A power station (also referred to as a generating station, power plant, or powerhouse) is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power.

Power plant is also used to refer to the engine in ships, aircraft and other large vehicles. Some prefer to use the term energy center because it more accurately describes what the plants do, which is the conversion of other forms of energy, like chemical energy, gravitational potential energy or heat energy into electrical energy. However, power plant is the most common term in the U.S., while elsewhere power station and power plant are both widely used, power station prevailing in many Commonwealth countries and especially in the United Kingdom.

At the center of nearly all power stations is a generator, a rotating machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy by creating relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor. The energy source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. It depends chiefly on which fuels are easily available and on the types of technology that the power company has access to.

For more information about Power station, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with power plants

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Workers at the Statkraft Osmotic power plant prototype in Tofte

Harnessing the power of salt, Norway tries osmotic power

Technology / Energy

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 4

After wind, sun, currents and tides, a company is preparing to make clean electricity by harnessing another natural phenomenon, the energy-unleashing encounter of freshwater and seawater.


Lehigh receives grant to reduce cost of carbon capture at coal-fired power plants

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Lehigh University's Energy Research Center (ERC) has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop methods of recovering and reusing the heat that would be generated by the carbon-dioxide (CO2) compressio ...


Just use less: Energy savings to be big part of nation’s energy future

Just use less: Energy savings to be big part of nation’s energy future

Technology / Energy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Energy adviser and former Honeywell executive Maxine Savitz says there are enormous energy savings available through increased efficiency, as much as 30 percent by 2030.


Scientists seek safe carbon dioxide storage for 'greener' power generation (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to fund research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering on technologies that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the capture ...


EPA to limit mercury emissions from power plants

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 3

The Environmental Protection Agency will put controls on the emissions of hazardous pollutants such as mercury from coal-fired power plants for the first time by November 2011, according to an agreement announced Friday to ...


Nuclear energy becomes pivotal in climate debate

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 25, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (5) | comments 13

(AP) -- Nuclear energy, once vilified by environmentalists and facing a dim future, has become a pivotal bargaining chip as Senate Democrats hunt for Republican votes to pass climate legislation.


Hong Kong air pollution has equalled a record high registered in 2000

Hong Kong air pollution equals record high

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Hong Kong air pollution has equalled a record high registered in 2000, triggering a warning for people with heart or respiratory illnesses, according to the Environmental Protection Department.


More efficient solar power with space technology

More efficient solar power with space technology

Technology / Energy

created Oct 16, 2009 | popularity 2 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new system from an Italian company uses weather satellite data to estimate the potential of solar cell power plants and monitor their performance. The approach helps to give a faster return ...


Chemistry Team Seeks to Use Artificial Photosynthesis and Nanotubes to Generate Hydrogen Fuel with Sunlight

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Oct 14, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of four chemists at the University of Rochester have begun work on a new kind of system to derive usable hydrogen fuel from water using only sunlight.


EPA moves to regulate smokestack greenhouse gases (AP)

EPA moves to regulate smokestack greenhouse gases

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (8) | comments 7

(AP) -- Proposed regulations would require power plants, factories and refineries to reduce greenhouse gases by installing the best available technology and improving energy efficiency whenever a facility ...


Why leave it to nature? Chemistry professor wants to understand, simplify, photosynthesis

Why leave it to nature? Chemistry professor wants to understand, simplify, photosynthesis

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (12) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies -- photosynthesis ...


Toshiba to complete construction of carbon capture pilot plant

Toshiba to complete construction of carbon capture pilot plant

Technology / Engineering

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 2 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has completed construction of a pilot plant to support development and validation of its carbon capture technology. Final commissioning testing prior to plant operation ...


New sources of biofuel to take pressure off traditional crops

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

"Salt-loving algae could be the key to the successful development of biofuels as well as being an efficient means of recycling atmospheric carbon dioxide", Professor John Cushman of the University of Nevada told the Society ...


A technician of German automaker Volkswagen's adjusts a mini gas-fired power plant

Home power plants project unveiled in Germany

Technology / Energy

created Sep 09, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (21) | comments 23

An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people's basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year.


Forests of Artificial Trees Could Slow Global Warming

Forests of Artificial Trees Could Slow Global Warming

Technology / Engineering

created Aug 28, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (21) | comments 33

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study on how technology could help to regulate climate change has studied hundreds of ideas, and selected three considered practical and able to be implemented quickly. The report's ...