核電與火力發電的不同? - 社會議題

Methods for transforming other power into electrical powerRotating turbines attached to electrical generators produce most commercially available electricity. Turbines may be driven by using steam, water, wind or other fluids as an intermediate energy carrier. The most common usage is by steam in fossil fuel power plants or nuclear power plants, and by water in hydroelectric dams. Alternately, turbines can be driven directly by the combustion of natural gas. Combined cycle gas turbine plants offer efficiencies of up to 60%. They generate power by burning natural gas in a gas turbine and use residual heat to generate additional electricity from steam. Wind turbines generate electricity by using the wind. Solar chimneys use wind that is artificially produced inside the chimney by heating it with sunlight. Solar parabolic troughs and solar power towers concentrate sunlight to heat a heat transfer fluid that is used to produce steam to turn a turbine. Small electricity generators are often powered by reciprocating engines burning diesel, biogas or natural gas. 自從十八世紀發明了發電的原理之後，科學家們便努力尋找推動導線旋
圖片參考：http://vm.nthu.edu.tw/science/shows/nuclear/nue/im...
火力發電（thermal power），利用燃燒化石燃料產生蒸氣來推動發電機。化石燃料主要有石油、天然氣（natural gas）和煤（coal）。儲藏量有限，用完了無法再生。化石燃料使用方便，所以火力發電是常見的方法。近年因為環境污染問題及燃料能源有限等因素，火力發電佔總發電量有下降的趨勢。火力發電需要大量的燃料及冷卻水，故廠址多以瀕臨海濱或港灣內，靠近大量儲油庫或生產煤、天然氣的地區，水源充沛的地方為主。火力發電廠的污染燃燒化石燃料，會產生大量煙塵和廢氣（部分有毒），造成空氣污染。二氧化硫等氣體會和空氣中的水分產生化學作用，其後隨著雨水下降，形成酸雨，損害植物、水體及露天的人類文化遺產。二氧化碳會在大氣中累積，加強溫室效應，令到全球氣溫上升，再產生連鎖性的恐果，例如氾濫、島國消失等。相對而言，天然氣的有害物質較少。 在其轉換成液態處理過程中，硫、氮、水分等不純物質，已被盡數去除，所以燃燒時只產生少量的氮氧化物及二氧化碳。故此，天然氣可以緩解能源緊缺，減少環境污染。香港「中華電力」有計劃使用天然氣，而中國則計劃「西氣東輸」。