i know that steam powers the turbine. And depending on the type of plant, i know how the steam is made. But once the turbine is spinning and generating electricity, i get lost. I know it all has something to do with electrons and metal coils and magnetic fields, but can you help me understand it all?
Electrical power plants powered by geothermal energy are common in areas of high crustal heat flow, such as in Iceland, New Zealand, and the western US, including Beowawe, Nevada, and The Geysers, California. The basic principle is to drill a hole deep enough to tap into a water reservoir which is hotter than 100°C, ie, higher than the boiling point. The water is hotter than the boiling point due to the confining pressure, and the water is piped into a turbine where it is allowed to flash (boil) to drive the turbne. The steam is collected, condensed, and re-injected into the reservoir to keep the cycle going. The turbine spins a generator, which converts mechanical energy from the spinning turbine into electrical energy through electromagnetic conduction as the desired output. It doesn't matter that the generator is connected to a geothermal steam turbine, a water wheel, a jet engine, a diesel engine, or a hamster wheel. A generator does not actually ‘create’ electrical energy. Instead, it uses the mechanical energy from the spinning turbine to force the movement of electric charges present in the wire of its windings through an external electric circuit. This flow of electric charges constitutes the output electric current supplied by the generator. This mechanism can be compared to a water pump, which causes the flow of water but does not actually ‘create’ the water flowing through it. A generator works on the principle of electromagnetic induction discovered by Michael Faraday in 1831-32. He discovered that the flow of electric charges could be induced by moving an electrical conductor, such as a wire that contains electric charges, in a magnetic field. This movement creates a voltage difference between the two ends of the wire or electrical conductor, which in turn causes the electrons to flow, thus generating the desired electric current. Hope that helps!
This website shows the entire process animatedly so it's kind of hard to explain. I, myself am a visual person so this should help. It even shows how the generator in the picture works. www1.eere.energy /geothermal/g Since generators are usually powered by turbines, which in turn are powered by energy sources for example geothermal energy, then what you are looking for is not a specific type of generator, but a regular generator which can be found in any type of power plant. Generators and motors are very closely related and many motors that contain permanent magnets can also act as generators. If you move a permanent magnet past a coil of wire that is part of an electric circuit, you will cause current to flow through that coil and circuit. That's because a changing magnetic field, such as that near a moving magnet, is always accompanied in nature by an electric field. While magnetic fields push on magnetic poles, electric fields push on electric charges. With a coil of wire near the moving magnet, the moving magnet's electric field pushes charges through the coil and eventually through the entire circuit. howthingswork.virginia.edu/electr
