Monday, January 16, 2012

Methods of generating electricity (not what you think)?

Now when i ask this i'm not talking about energy sources, (ie coal, solar cells, nuclear energy) i'm talking about methods of converting these sources to actual power. For instance coal is burned and used to heat water which evaporates into steam which rises up and turns turbines which produce electricity by creating a magnetic field. This same basic process is used in most fossil fuel plants as well as nuclear ones (with uranium replacing the fossil fuel). The other method i know of is the use of chemicals (ions) to sort of push electrons around (like how a battery works). Solar cells work in a similar fashion (exposing silicon to sunlight displaces electrons). So as far as i know there are really only two ways of creating electricity, rotating turbines or forcing electron to move through a chemical reaction or taking advantage of some physical property (such as with solar cells). So just curious what are some other ways of producing electricity.

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