Power plant

A power plant is an industrial facility that generates electricity from primary energy. Most power plants use one or more generators that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy  in order to supply power to the electrical grid for society's electrical needs. The exception is solar power plants, which use photovoltaic cells (instead of a turbine) to generate this electricity.

The type of primary fuel or primary energy flow that provides a power plant its primary energy varies. The most common fuels are coal, natural gas, and uranium (nuclear power). A substantially used primary energy flow for electricity generation is hydroelectricity (water). Other flows that are used to generate electricity include wind, solar, geothermal and tidal.

Different countries get their electricity from different types of power plants. For example, in Canada, most electricity generation comes from hydroelectric power plants which accounts for about 60% of the total electricity generated in Canada.^[5] Please see the data visualization below to explore how countries around the world get their electricity.