Generating Electricity (Oxford AQA IGCSE Physics)

Generating Electricity

• Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are used to produce energy on-demand when energy is needed

• This is done by: 

  • Burning the fuel to heat water

  • The water boils creating steam

  • Rising steam is forced around the system and this turns a turbine

  • The turbine turns coils in a magnetic field in the generator

  • This generates electricity in the form of an alternating current using the generator effect

• The electricity is transferred to the National Grid

• The steam within the turbine will cool and condense and then be pumped back into the boiler to repeat the process

A coal powered thermal power station

• Other power stations use different methods of rotating a turbine to generate electricity

  • A wind turbine uses wind to rotate its large turbine, which then turns a coil in a generator

  • A hydroelectric dam uses the passage of water through the dam to rotate its turbine and cause the coil to spin in the generator

  • A geothermal power station uses steam from water pumped underground (which is heated by hot rocks in the Earth's interior) to rotate a turbine

A hydroelectric dam power station

A geothermal power station