Gas turbine

A gas turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a flow of combustion gas. It has an upstream compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between. (Gas turbine may also refer to just the turbine element.)

Gas turbines for electrical power production

Powerplant gas turbines range in size from truck-mounted mobile plants to enormous, complex systems.

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They can be particularly efficient—up to 60 percent—when waste heat from the gas turbine is recovered by a conventional steam turbine in a combined cycle configuration.

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Simple cycle gas turbines in the power industry require smaller capital investment than combined cycle gas, coal or nuclear plants and can be designed to generate small or large amounts of power. Also, the actual construction process can take as little as several weeks to a few months, compared to years for baseload plants. Their other main advantage is the ability to be turned on and off within minutes, supplying power during peak demand. Large simple cycle gas turbines may produce several hundred megawatts of power and approach 40 percent thermal efficiency.

Related Topics:
Coal - Nuclear - Thermal efficiency

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