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A summary of different kind of energy sources, their advantages and disadvantages
with particular respect to environmental issues







In this page you will find some information about the most common ways to produce electric power. The environmental aspects are especially emphasised. After having read this page you will have some more information about different ways of electric power generation and you will be able to make a comparison among them.

Coal

Coal provides a large portion of the world's energy requirements, accounting for 40% of worldwide electricity generation. In conventional power plants, pulverized coal is fed into a boiler, where it is burned to produce heat. The heat is used to vapourize water, creating steam. The steam is passed through a turbine attached to an electric generator. Coal fired power plants of this configuration often generate over 1,000 MW (1MW = 1 million watts) of electricity. Like any fossil fuel fired thermal power plant, only about 35% of the potential energy in the coal is converted into electricity. The remaining energy is released into the environment in the form of heat. Waste heat from a power plant can be captured and used to provide process heat for industries or space heating for any type of buildings. Arrangements such as this are referred to as 'co-generation' or 'combined heat and power' and can achieve efficiencies of 80-90%. Another alternative is integrated coal-gasification combined cycle' power plants which convert coal into a gaseous mixture before combustion in a gas turbine. Efficiencies of up to 45% can be achieved with this type of system.

One of the disadvantages of burning coal is that the combustion results in exhaust gases containing carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrous oxides (NOx) and particulates. CO2 and CO are greenhouse gases associated with...