ABSTRACT
In this chapter, methods of generating electricity using coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, hydro power, pumped storage, wind, tidal power, biomass and solar energy are explained. Coal, oil and gas are called ‘fossil fuels’ because they
have been formed from the organic remains of prehistoric plants and animals. Historically, the transition from one energy system to another, as from wood to coal or coal to oil, has proven an enormously complicated process, requiring decades to complete. In similar fashion, it will be many years before renewable forms of energy –wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and others still in development-replace fossil fuels as theworld’s leading energy providers. This chapter explains some ways of generating electricity for the present and for the future.
A coal power station turns the chemical energy in coal into electrical energy that businesses. In Figure 21.1, the coal
