In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motion-based power or fuel-based power into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas turbines, water turbines, internal combustion engines, wind turbines and even hand cranks. The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was invented in 1831 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all the power for electrical grids.
U.S. NRC image of a modern steam turbine generator (STG).
Early Ganz Generator in Zwevegem, West Flanders, Belgium
The Faraday disk was the first electric generator. The horseshoe-shaped magnet (A) created a magnetic field through the disk (D). When the disk was turned, this induced an electric current radially outward from the center toward the rim. The current flowed out through the sliding spring contact m, through the external circuit, and back into the center of the disk through the axle.
Hippolyte Pixii's dynamo. The commutator is located on the shaft below the spinning magnet.
A gas turbine, gas turbine engine, or also known by its old name internal combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part and are, in the direction of flow:a rotating gas compressor
a combustor
a compressor-driving turbine.
typical axial-flow gas turbine turbojet, the J85, sectioned for display. Flow is left to right, multistage compressor on left, combustion chambers center, two-stage turbine on right
An LM6000 in an electrical power plant application
Gateway Generating Station, a combined-cycle gas-fired power station in California, uses two GE 7F.04 combustion turbines to burn natural gas.