INTRODUCTION
From the 1800s till today, the power industry has gone through many revolutions and
developments. Right from the time when the steam engine was developed till today, the
power industry has grown leaps and bounds and has adapted itself to the different social,
political and economic conditions. However, power production has always faced stiff
environmental and social challenges at different points of time and it has always managed to
overcome those challenges and has continued to grow strongly. In this report we shall see a
brief description of the different types of power production, the factors affecting it, the
challenges faced by it and the possible future scope of development for each of those sources.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF POWER PRODUCTION
There are different resources through which power can be extracted successfully. These are
basically classified as renewable and non- renewable resources. Some of the examples are:
i.
Non-Renewable resources:
The various methods of power production from non-renewable resources are:
a)
Coal Power Production
b) Natural Gas Power Production
c)
Nuclear Power Production
ii.
Renewable resources:
The various methods of power production from non-renewable resources are:
a)
Wind Power Production
b) Solar Power Production
c)
Hydro Power Production
d) Geothermal Power Production
e)
Biofuel Power Production
i.
Power
production from Non- Renewable resources:
The power that is generated from those sources which are limited in availability and which
can get exhausted over a period of time upon continuous use is known non-renewable
resources or conventional resources. These include firewood, fossil fuels and other minerals.
Generally, the non-renewable energy resources have the following features:
They have high energy density, i.e., a small amount of fuel can produce a considerable
amount of energy
They are reliable sources of power supply and are generally used for operating all the base
loads of the system
The non-renewable resources take millions of years to form and they can’t be replenished
again
ii.
Power production from Renewable resources:
The power that is generated from those sources which are unlimited in supply and which
won’t get exhausted over time even with continuous use is known as renewable resources or
non-conventional resources. These include solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy,
geothermal energy, etc. Some of the features of these resources are:
1
They have low energy density, i.e., these energy resources are not concentrated as compared
to the conventional energy resources
These are unreliable sources of energy which is intermittent in nature. However, the usage of
storage elements like batteries can improve the usability value of these sources
These types of resources don’t have any impact on the environment as a whole. Hence, they
can be used without any safety concerns for the society although there are some small
concerns over some of these sources
