In article ,
Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
John Wright writes:
Java Jive wrote:

Last time I looked, nuclear, gas, and coal were only around 30%
efficient at turning steam into electricity.

That must have been a long time ago. Gas stations tend to run at about
65% efficiency AFAIK.

The best new ones nowadays can be 60%.
The "dash for gas" stations installed in the UK when we
had dirt cheap gas were cheap gas stations, low efficiency
by today's standards at mostly around 40%, and that's the
bulk of what we have today.

How do they achieve that?

I thought there is a limit on steam conversion due to latent heat
issues. Somewhere around 44%. A few losses in the alternator as well.
Magneto thermo dynamics were being investigated 45 years ago but I never
heard of any success.

Using waste heat for space heating only works if you have generating
plant in the middle of towns and you don't have warm summers:-)


the 'waste' heat at Portobello - Edinburgh 1930s - was used to warm the
outdoor swimming pool.

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