1- Nuclear Power Plants:

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical in all conventional thermal power stations the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to an electric generator which produces electricity. As of 23 April 2014, the IAEA report there are 435 nuclear power reactors in operation operating in 31 countries. Nuclear power plants are usually considered to be base load stations, since fuel is a small part of the cost of production. More details

2. Hydroelectric Power Plants:

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy, accounting for 16 percent of global electricity generation – 3,427 terawatt-hours of electricity production in 2010, and is expected to increase about 3.1% each year for the next 25 years. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 32 percent of global hydropower in 2010. China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 721 terawatt-hours of production in 2010, representing around 17 percent of domestic electricity use. More details

3. Diesel Power Plants:

Diesel Power Plant is an electrical installation equipped with one or several electric current generators driven by diesel engines. Diesel power plants are divided into two main classes: stationary and mobile. Stationary diesel power plants use four-stroke diesel engines, with power ratings of 110, 220, 330, 440, and 735 kilowatts (kW). Stationary diesel power plants are classed as average in their power rating if the rating does not exceed 750 kW; large diesel power plants can have a power rating of 2,200 kW or more. The advantages of a diesel power plant are favorable economy of operation, stable operating characteristics, and an easy and quick start-up. The main disadvantage is the comparatively short interval between major overhauls. More details

4. Gas Power Plants:

The use of gas turbines for generating electricity dates back to 1939. Today, gas turbines are one of the most widely-used power generating technologies. Gas turbines are a type of internal combustion (IC) engine in which burning of an air-fuel mixture produces hot gases that spin a turbine to produce power. It is the production of hot gas during fuel combustion, not the fuel itself that the gives gas turbines the name. Gas turbines can utilize a variety of fuels, including natural gas, fuel oils, and synthetic fuels. Combustion occurs continuously in gas turbines, as opposed to reciprocating IC engines, in which combustion occurs intermittently. More details

5. Coal Fired Power Plants:

In coal-fired power stations, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is first crushed into small pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the boilers. The coal is pulverized into a very fine powder. The pulverizers may be ball mills, rotating drum grinders, or other types of grinders. More details

6. Solar Power Plants:

Solar power plant is based on the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics converts light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. The largest photovoltaic power plant in the world is the 250 MW Agua Caliente Solar Project in Arizona. Concentrated solar power plants first appeared in the 1980s. Now, the 354 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) CSP installation is the largest solar power plant in the world; it is located in the Mojave Desert, California. Other large CSP plants include the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW, 250 MW when finished) and the Andasol solar power station (150 MW), both in Spain. More details

7. Wind Power Plants:

A wind power plant or wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm can also be located offshore. Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in Germany, China and the United States. For example, the largest wind farm in the world, Gansu Wind Farm in China has a capacity of over 6,000 MW of power in 2012 with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California, United States is the largest onshore wind farm outside of China, with a capacity of 1,020 MW. As of April 2013, the 630 MW London Array in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world, followed by the 504 MW Greater Gabbard wind farm in the UK. More details

8. Geothermal Power Plants:

Geothermal power plants use steam produced from reservoirs of hot water found a few miles or more below the Earth's surface to produce electricity. The steam rotates a turbine that activates a generator, which produces electricity. There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle. More details

9. Tidal Power Plants:

Tidal power Plants convert the energy of tides into electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power. Among sources of renewable energy, tidal power has traditionally suffered from relatively high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus constricting its total availability. However, many recent technological developments and improvements, both in design (e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and turbine technology (e.g. new axial turbines, cross flow turbines), indicate that the total availability of tidal power may be much higher than previously assumed, and that economic and environmental costs may be brought down to competitive levels. More details

10. Wave Power Plants:

Wave power plants convert the energy of ocean surface waves into electricity. A machine able to exploit wave power is generally known as a wave energy converter (WEC). Wave power is distinct from the diurnal flux of tidal power and the steady gyre of ocean currents. Wave-power generation is not currently a widely employed commercial technology, although there have been attempts to use it since at least 1890. In 2008, the first experimental wave farm was opened in Portugal, at the Aguçadoura Wave Park. The major competitor of wave power is offshore wind power, with more visual impact. More details

11. Fusion Power Plants:

Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur. The combination of these figures that results in a power-producing system is known as the Lawson criterion. More details

12. Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator:

A Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) is an electrical generator that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect. This generator has no moving parts. RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes, and unmanned remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the former Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle. RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmaintained situations that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries, or generators. More details

13. Floating Nuclear Power Plants:

Floating nuclear power stations are vessels designed by Rosatom. They are self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants. The stations are to be mass-produced at shipbuilding facilities and then towed to the destination ports of the cities and towns experiencing deficit of power due to industrialization. The work on such projects dates back to MH-1A in the United States, which was built in the 1960s into the hull of a World War II Liberty Ship; however, the Rosatom project is the first floating nuclear power plant intended for mass production. The initial plan was to manufacture at least seven of the vessels by 2015. More details