The simplest way to explain the concept of turbines is to relate it to hair dryers. A hair dryer sucks air through a side or end vent, applies heat energy to the air which is drawn from electricity, and fans it out of the opposite end. A turbine works in exactly the opposite fashion. Imagine pressurized air flowing through the side or end vent and across the fan. The air spins the fan, rotating the fan motor which puts electricity back into the system instead of taking it out, and slightly cooler air at lower pressure comes out of the business end of the hair dryer. This is essentially how an electrical generating turbine works, although the design of a generating turbine is far more sophisticated than the design of a typical hair dryer.

Turbines in generating facilities are usually turned by water or steam, not warm air. Nuclear energy plants actually produce their energy using turbines driven by the steam which is produced from the heat of a nuclear reaction. Coal-fired turbines can produce energy from steam created from the burning of coal or from the direct combustion of the gases and oils in the coal. Hydroelectric turbines produce energy by the force of water falling at high pressure over the blades of the turbine.

See also: