Electricity is most used form of energy we use nowadays. It is used to lights up our home, cook our food, power our computers, televevison, entertaining centers and other electronic devices. Electricity is made in different ways. Some of these ways are from coal, nuclear reaction and natural gas.

• ELECTRICITY FROM COAL:

Electricity is made from burning coal. First the coal is ground into powder and put into a boiler where it is burnt at high temperature, this process convert chemical energy into heat energy. The process produce which is then converted into steam. This steam causes the turbine shaft to rotate at high speed. A generator made of carefully wire coils is mounted at one of these turbine to produce electricity.  After passing through the turbine, the steam is condensed and returned to the boiler to be heated once again thus repeating the process. Some of the water is lost during the process.  Here a video explaining the process:

 

• ELECTRICITY FRO NATURAL GAS

The process of producing of electricity from natural gas is the same as using the coal, the only difference is that to create steam we use natural gas instead of coal. Here is a video explaining the process:

 

• ELECTRICITY FROM NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The electricity in this case is not made from burning an element but instead, it is made by using  a process called fission on an uranium fuel which contains solid ceramic pellets. The steam in this case is obtained by a physical process. Fission consist of splitting an atom of uranium. Here are videos explaining Fission and nuclear reactors:

 

 

Nuclear reaction:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter02.html

http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/coal-generation

http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-of-coal/coal-electricity/

http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/generation-gas

http://www.world-nuclear.org/Nuclear-Basics/How-does-a-nuclear-reactor-make-electricity-/

http://www.nei.org/Knowledge-Center/How-Nuclear-Reactors-Work