Here are the key points from this section:

• Internal Combustion Prime Mover burns fuel within the engine itself (like a diesel engine or gas turbine).
• External Combustion Prime Mover burns the fuel in a separate chamber (like a boiler and steam engine).
• Power is produced by the expansion of hot combustion gases against one of the working surfaces of the engine, such as the face of a piston, a turbine blade or a nozzle.
• Non-Combustion prime movers convert existing mechanical energy directly into electricity.
• An Engine is an internal combustion prime mover (so the fuel is burned inside the engine) that creates a backwards and forwards motion (reciprocating). It is cheap, low tech, and easily available.
• A Turbine converts the kinetic energy of a moving fluid into mechanical power by the reaction of the fluid with a series of buckets, paddles, or blades arrayed about the circumference of a wheel or cylinder. They are expensive, high-tech machines that deliver a high power-to-weight ratio.
• A Gas Turbine is basically two sets of fan blades attached to a single shaft. In between the two sets of blades, a fuel is burned. The expanding gases that result from the combustion push on the blades, causing them to spin.
• A Steam Turbine is a collection of circular fan blades (just like a domestic fan) all attached to one rotor, inside a cylindrical casing. Steam is fed into one end, and as it expands, it pushes against the blades, causing them (and the rotor to which they are attached) to spin.
• A Boiler is a piece of equipment that converts a liquid into a vapour – most commonly, water into steam.
• A Water Turbine converts fast moving water into mechanical energy. Much like other turbines, it is basically a fan blade attached to a shaft. Water pushes on the blades, making the turbine spin.
• A Wind Turbine converts the energy in moving air into usable energy. It is basically just a sophisticated version of a windmill. It’s a series of fan blades, arrayed around a shaft that turns a generator.

Let's tak a look at the Fuel that we use in our powerhouses.