IN everyday life We often come across such a concept as “electricity”. What is electricity, have people always known about it?

Imagine ours without electricity modern life almost impossible. Tell me, how can you do without lighting and heat, without an electric motor and a telephone, without a computer and a TV? Electricity has penetrated so deeply into our lives that we sometimes don’t even think about what kind of wizard it is that helps us in our work.

This wizard is electricity. What is the essence of electricity? The essence of electricity comes down to the fact that a stream of charged particles moves along a conductor (a conductor is a substance capable of conducting electric current) in a closed circuit from a current source to a consumer. While moving, the flow of particles performs certain work.

This phenomenon is called " electric current" Strength electric current can be measured. The unit of current measurement, Ampere, got its name in honor of the French scientist who was the first to study the properties of current. The name of the physicist is Andre Ampere.

The discovery of electric current and other innovations associated with it can be attributed to the period: the end of the nineteenth - the beginning of the twentieth century. But people observed the first electrical phenomena back in the fifth century BC. They noticed that a piece of amber rubbed with fur or wool attracts light bodies, such as dust particles. The ancient Greeks even learned to use this phenomenon to remove dust from expensive clothes. They also noticed that if you comb dry hair with an amber comb, it stands up, pushing away from each other.

Let's return once again to the definition of electric current. Current is the directed movement of charged particles. If we are dealing with metal, then the charged particles are electrons. The word "amber" in Greek is electron.

Thus, we understand that the well-known concept of “electricity” has ancient roots.

Electricity is our friend. It helps us in everything. In the morning we turn on the light electric kettle. We heat the food in the microwave. We use the elevator. We're riding on a tram, talking cell phone. We work in industrial enterprises, in banks and hospitals, in the fields and in workshops, we study at school, where it is warm and light. And electricity “works” everywhere.

Like many things in our lives, electricity has not only a positive, but also a negative side. Electric current, like an invisible wizard, cannot be seen or smelled. The presence or absence of current can only be determined using instruments measuring equipment. The first case of fatal electric shock was described in 1862. The tragedy occurred when a person came into unintentional contact with live parts. Subsequently, many cases of electric shock occurred.

Electricity! Attention, electricity!

This story about electricity is for children. But, in itself, electricity is far from a childish concept. Therefore, in this story I would like to address mothers and fathers, grandparents.

Dear adults! When talking about electricity to children, do not forget to emphasize that current is invisible, and therefore especially insidious. What should adults and children not do? Do not touch with your hands or come close to wires and electrical systems. Do not stop to rest near power lines or substations, do not light fires, or launch flying toys. A wire lying on the ground can be deadly. Electrical sockets, if in the house small child, is an object of special control.

The main requirement for adults is not only to follow safety rules themselves, but also to constantly inform children about how insidious electric current can be.

Conclusion

Physicists “gave access” to electricity to humanity. For the sake of the future, scientists went through hardships, spent fortunes in order to make great discoveries and give the results of their work to people.

Let's be careful about the work of physicists, about electricity, and remember about the danger that it potentially carries.

You can watch a fable about electricity

The Skaya thermal power plant has a capacity of 1.8 million kW, and the Lugansk thermal power plant, also thermal, has a capacity of 1.5 million. kW Energy is transmitted via ultra-long-distance power lines with the highest voltage in the world - 500 thousand V AC and 800 thousand V DC.

Avalanche of energy

Our country's energy needs are enormous. But energy workers want to know exactly how electricity consumption will grow in order to draw up plans for the construction of power plants. Knowing how much electricity goes into producing, for example, one car, experts can calculate the energy needs of all automobile factories in the country. And watching you cut at breakfast fresh bread, energy workers will tell you an interesting fact. It turns out that to produce a kilogram of bread - from cultivating wheat in the field to the bakery counter - it costs 1 kWh electricity.

Thus, going from one type of product to another, taking into account the annual growth of production, the needs of households, schools, theaters, etc., energy workers arrive at the total amount of energy needs.

The Party Program states: to increase electricity production by 1980 to 2700-3000 billion. kWh These are 340 GOELRO plans! To produce such a mass of electricity, it is necessary to build about 640 large power plants all types. Their total capacity should be approximately five times greater than the capacity of all the country's power plants in 1965.

Industry and transport will consume almost two-thirds of all this energy. After all, only chemical industry will require about 300 billion in 1980. kWh

Demands will increase very sharply, up to several hundred billion kilowatt-hours. agriculture. On collective and state farms, electric machines perform many jobs. They grind and steam feed, milk cows, and cool milk; electricity supplies water to fields in dry areas; Mineral fertilizers cannot be produced without large expenditures of electricity.

Urban and household, cultural institutions will also require a lot of energy. Soon every family will need at least 500 kWh per year. And Moscow University already needs as much energy as

provided by the Volkhov hydroelectric station. During interesting programs on Central Television, all turned on televisions consume the power of the entire Dnieper hydroelectric station.

Energy must be cheap

But if electrical energy will be expensive, then we will not be able to apply it as widely as we want. Therefore, you need to know exactly what the price of electricity consists of in order to reduce costs.

At a thermal power plant, up to 65% of all costs go to fuel. The best Soviet thermal power plants Today they consume 400-500 g of fuel to produce 1 kWh. And by 1980, this consumption, as a result of the introduction of heavy-duty and more economical turbines and generators, will be reduced to almost 300 G.

Cost 1 kWh also includes the cost of wages for power plant workers. But there are fewer and fewer people at power stations: their work is taken over by automatic machines.

Now further. A lot of money was spent on the construction of the station itself, even before it produced the first current. They are gradually, in installments of 3-5 years, added to the price of the generated energy - after all, construction costs must be covered. In addition, amounts are deducted over 30 years to cover the wear and tear of the building and equipment. These additions are called depreciation deductions.

In the cost of one kilowatt-hour produced at a hydroelectric power station, the share of depreciation reaches 90%. The payback period here is 3-7 years, and the depreciation period is from 50 to 100 years. Waterworks are very expensive structures. But the current costs of generating electricity here are insignificant: there is no need for fuel at all, and hydroelectric power plants are already operating automatically. We are currently building mostly thermal stations, because they are faster and cheaper to build. But let’s not forget about hydroelectric power plants.

If by 1980, when we will produce up to 3000 billion. kWh per year, the cost of energy has decreased compared to today by only 1%, we would have saved funds within a year to build schools for 450 thousand people.

But in 1980, new power plants will produce very cheap electricity. 1 kWh will cost three times cheaper than now - on average no more than a quarter of a penny.

Reducing the cost of energy will lead to a sharp reduction in the cost of all products in the country.

The country's power plants are joining hands

When turning on an electric motor or television, many people do not even suspect that the energy they obey was born very far away, perhaps hundreds of kilometers from the place of consumption. Indeed, power engineers are no longer embarrassed by long distances. Power transmission lines stretch across the country for thousands of kilometers, and they have no rivals either in the speed of energy transmission (300 thousand km/sec!), or in “carrying capacity” (billions of kilowatt-hours!), or in the ability to bring energy close to consumers . It is also important that there are almost no people visible on the thousand-kilometer electric routes.

But in different times year, in different watches Each day requires different amounts of energy. In summer, when the days are long, less electricity is spent on lighting than in winter. And in agriculture, for example, for irrigation and other work, the maximum amount of energy is required in the summer. During the daytime and evening hours, when all businesses are open and the lights are on, more energy is needed than at night.

If you build power plants taking into account maximum demand (power engineers say - taking into account “peaks”), then some of the turbines will have to be stopped during “quiet” hours. This means that extra funds will be spent on the construction and maintenance of these additional turbines. Isn't it better to add energy during peak hours from another station, from an area where, say, night has already fallen at that time?

That’s what they do: they connect power plants with power lines into unified system. And they transfer energy from where there is an excess of it at that moment to where there is a lack of it. By uniting all the stations in the country, we will create a Unified Energy System (UES). Only the UES is capable of smoothing out all the “peaks” and at the same time taking away all excess electricity; only it can provide cheap energy to all industries national economy, culture and life.

The UES also significantly improves the operation of the power plants themselves: construction and operating costs are reduced, both the total load and those jumps in the load schedule - “peaks”, which are so costly for disconnected power plants, are reduced.

Covering a sixth of the world's land mass with powerful power lines used to seem like a fantasy. But now we

Volkhovskaya HPP named after. V. I. Lenin (1926). Power - 56 thousand. kW.

Dneproges im. V. I. Lenin (1932). Power - 650 thousand. kW

Volzhskaya HPP named after.XXIICongress of the CPSU (1960). Power - 2350 thousand. kW

Electric station- a set of installations, equipment and apparatus used directly for the production of electrical energy, as well as the structures and buildings necessary for this, located in a certain territory.

There are many types of power plants. The differences are technical features and execution, as well as in the form of the energy source used. But despite all the differences, most power plants use the rotational energy of the generator shaft for their operation.

Stations different types united into a Unified Energy System, which makes it possible to rationally use their capacities and supply all consumers.

Main equipment of power plants

The main equipment of power plants includes:

• generators;
• turbines;
• boilers;
• transformers;
• distribution devices;
• engines;
• switches;
• disconnectors;
• power lines;
• automation and relay protection equipment

Power systems

Power systems- a set of energy resources of all types, methods and means of their production, transformation, distribution and use, ensuring the supply of consumers with all types of energy.

What is included in the energy system

Energy systems include:

• electrical power system;
• oil and gas supply system;
• coal industry system;
• nuclear power;
• non-traditional energy.

Typically, all these systems are combined on a national scale into a single energy system, and on the scale of several regions into unified energy systems. The integration of individual energy supply systems into a single system is also called the intersectoral fuel and energy complex; it is primarily due to interchangeability various types energy and energy resources

Often, an energy system in a narrower sense is understood as a set of power plants, electrical and thermal networks that are interconnected and connected by common modes of continuous production processes for the conversion, transmission and distribution of electrical and thermal energy, which allows for centralized management of such a system.

IN modern world Consumers are supplied with electricity from power plants, which may be located close to consumers or may be located at considerable distances from them. In both cases, the transmission of electricity is carried out through power lines. However, if consumers are remote from the power plant, transmission must be carried out at a higher voltage, and step-up and step-down substations must be built between them. Through these substations, using electrical lines, power plants are connected to each other for parallel operation. total load, also through heating points with the help of heat pipes, only at much shorter distances, thermal power plants and boiler houses are connected to each other.

The combination of all these elements is called an energy system; with such a combination, significant technical and economic advantages arise:

• significant reduction in the cost of electricity and heat;
• significant increase in the reliability of electricity and heat supply to consumers;
• increasing operating efficiency various types power plants;
• reduction of the required reserve capacity of power plants.

Energy

Energy- region social production, covering energy resources, generation, transformation, transmission and use of various types of energy. The energy sector of each state operates within the framework of the established corresponding energy systems.

Its goal is to ensure energy production by converting primary, natural energy into secondary, for example electrical or thermal energy. In this case, energy production most often occurs in several stages:

• obtaining and concentrating energy resources, an example would be the extraction, processing and enrichment of nuclear fuel;
• transfer of resources to power plants, for example, delivery of fuel oil to a thermal power plant;
• conversion of primary energy into secondary energy using power plants, for example, the chemical energy of coal into electrical and thermal energy;
• broadcast secondary energy consumers, for example via power lines.

Energy as a science, in accordance with the nomenclature of specialties of scientific workers, approved by the Ministry of Education and Science Russian Federation, includes the following scientific specialties:

• Energy systems and complexes;
• Electric power plants and electrical power systems;
• Nuclear power plants;
• Industrial heat and power engineering;
• Power plants based on renewable energy;
• High voltage technology;
• Thermal power plants, their energy systems and units.

Electric power industry

Electric power is a subsystem of the energy sector, covering the production of electricity at power plants and its delivery to consumers via power transmission lines. Its central elements are power plants, which are usually classified according to the type of primary energy used and the type of converters used for this. It should be noted that the predominance of one or another type of power plant in a particular state depends primarily on the availability of appropriate resources.

Electric power industry is usually divided into traditional and non-traditional.

Traditional electric power

A characteristic feature of traditional electric power is its long-standing and good development; it has undergone long-term testing in a variety of operating conditions. The main share of electricity throughout the world is obtained from traditional power plants; their unit electrical power very often exceeds 1000 MW. Traditional electric power industry is divided into several areas.

Thermal energy (thermal power engineering)

In this industry, electricity is produced at thermal power plants (TPPs), using chemical energy organic fuel.

Thermal power plants are divided into:

• Steam turbine power plants, in which energy is converted using a steam turbine unit;
• Gas turbine power plants, in which energy is converted using a gas turbine unit;
• Combined-cycle power plants, in which energy is converted using a combined-cycle plant.

Thermal power engineering on a global scale predominates among traditional types; 39% of the world's electricity is generated from oil, 27% from coal, 24% from gas, that is, only 90% of the total output of all power plants in the world. The energy of such countries as Poland and South Africa is almost entirely based on the use of coal, and the Netherlands - gas. The share of thermal power engineering in China, Australia, and Mexico is very large.

Hydropower

In this industry, electricity is produced at hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), using the energy of water flow for this purpose.

Hydroelectric power plants predominate in a number of countries - in Norway and Brazil, all electricity generation occurs on them. The list of countries in which the share of hydroelectric power generation exceeds 70% includes several dozen.

Nuclear power

An industry in which electricity is produced at nuclear power plants (NPPs), using the energy of a controlled nuclear chain reaction, most often from uranium and plutonium.

France is the leader in terms of the share of nuclear power plants in electricity generation, about 80%. It also prevails in Belgium, the Republic of Korea and some other countries. The world leaders in the production of electricity from nuclear power plants are the USA, France and Japan.

Non-traditional power engineering (Alternative energy)

Most areas of unconventional electric power are based on completely traditional principles, but the primary energy in them is either local sources, such as wind, geothermal, or sources that are under development, such as fuel cells or sources that can be used in the future, such as thermonuclear energy. The characteristic features of non-traditional energy are their environmental friendliness, extremely high costs for capital construction (for example, for solar power plant with a power of 1000 MW it is required to cover an area of ​​about 4 km² with very expensive mirrors) and a small unit power.

Directions of non-traditional energy:

• Small hydroelectric power plants
• Wind energy
• Geothermal energy
• Solar energy
• Bioenergy
• Fuel cell installations
• Hydrogen energy
• Thermonuclear energy.

We can also highlight a concept that is important due to its widespread use - small-scale energy; this term is not currently generally accepted; along with it, the terms local energy, distributed energy, autonomous energy, etc. are used. Most often, power plants with a capacity of up to 30 MW with units are called this way. unit capacity up to 10 MW. These can be classified as eco-friendly species power plants listed above, as well as small fossil fuel power plants, such as diesel power plants(among small power plants there is an overwhelming majority, for example in Russia - approximately 96%), gas piston power plants, gas turbine units low power on diesel and gas fuel.

Electrical networks

Electrical network - a set of substations, distribution devices and power lines connecting them, designed for the transmission and distribution of electrical energy. The electrical network provides the possibility of issuing power from power plants, transmitting it over a distance, converting electricity parameters (voltage, current) at substations and distributing it throughout the territory up to direct power consumers.

Electrical networks of modern energy systems are multi-stage, that is, electricity undergoes large number transformations on the way from electricity sources to its consumers. Also for modern electrical networks characterized by multi-mode, which is understood as the diversity of load of network elements on a daily and annual basis, as well as the abundance of modes that arise when various network elements are brought into scheduled repairs and during their emergency shutdowns. These and others characteristic features modern electrical networks make their structures and configurations very complex and diverse.

Heat supply

Life modern man associated with the widespread use of not only electrical, but also thermal energy. In order for a person to feel comfortable at home, at work, anywhere public place, all premises must be heated and supplied hot water for household purposes. Since this is directly related to human health, in developed countries suitable temperature conditions in various types of premises are regulated sanitary rules and standards. Such conditions can be realized in most countries of the world only with a constant supply of heating to the object (heat sink) a certain amount heat, which depends on the temperature of the outside air, for which hot water is most often used with a final temperature for consumers of about 80-90°C. Also for various technological processes industrial enterprises so-called production steam with a pressure of 1-3 MPa may be required.

In general, the supply of heat to any object is provided by a system consisting of:

• heat source, such as a boiler room;
• heating network, for example from pipelines hot water or a couple;
• heat sink, for example a water heating battery.

District heating

A characteristic feature of centralized heat supply is the presence of an extensive heating network, from which numerous consumers (factories, buildings, residential premises, etc.) are powered.

For district heating, two types of sources are used:

• Combined heat and power plants (CHP), which can also generate electricity;
• Boiler houses, which are divided into:
  • Hot water;
  • Steam.

Decentralized heat supply

A heat supply system is called decentralized if the heat source and heat sink are practically combined, that is heating network either very small or absent. Such heat supply can be individual, when separate heating devices, for example electric, or local, for example heating a building using its own small boiler house. Typically, the heating capacity of such boiler houses does not exceed 1 Gcal/h (1.163 MW). The power of individual heating sources is usually quite small and is determined by the needs of their owners.

Types of decentralized heating:

• Small boiler houses;
• Electrical, which is divided into:
  • Direct;
  • Accumulative;
• Heat pump;
• Pechnoye.

Heat networks

A heating network is a complex engineering and construction structure used to transport heat using a coolant, water or steam, from a source, a thermal power plant or boiler house, to thermal consumers.

From direct network water collectors using main heat pipelines, hot water is supplied to populated areas. The main heat pipelines have branches to which are connected the wiring to the heating points, which contain heat exchange equipment with regulators that supply consumers with heat and hot water. To increase the reliability of heat supply, the heating mains of neighboring thermal power plants and boiler houses are connected by jumpers to shut-off valves, which allow for uninterrupted heat supply even during accidents and repairs individual areas heating networks and heat supply sources. Thus, the heating network of any city is a complex complex of heat pipelines, heat sources and heat consumers.

Energy fuel

Since most traditional power plants and heating sources generate energy from non-renewable resources, the issues of extraction, processing and delivery of fuel are extremely important in the energy sector. In traditional energy, two principles are used great friend from different types of fuel.

Organic fuel

Depending on state of aggregation organic fuel is divided into gaseous, liquid and solid, each of them in turn is divided into natural and artificial. The share of such fuel in the global energy balance was about 65% in 2000, of which 39% was coal, 16% natural gas, 9% liquid fuel (2000). In 2010, according to BP, the share of fossil organic fuels was 87%, including: oil 33.6%, coal 29.6%, gas 23.8%. The same according to “Renewable21” 80.6%, not counting traditional biomass 8.5%.

Gaseous

Natural fuel is natural gas, artificial:

• Producer gas;
• Coke gas;
• Blast gas;
• Petroleum distillation products;
• Underground gasification gas;
• Synthesis gas.

Liquid

The natural fuel is oil; the products of its distillation are called artificial:

• Petrol;
• Kerosene;
• Solar oil;
• Fuel oil.

Solid

Natural fuels are:

Fossil fuel:

• Peat;
• Brown coal;
• Coal;
• Anthracite;
• Oil shale;

Vegetable fuel:

• Firewood;
• Wood waste;
• Fuel briquettes;
• Fuel pellets.

Artificial solid fuel are:

• Charcoal;
• Coke and semi-coke;
• Carbon briquettes;
• Coal processing waste.

Nuclear fuel

The main and fundamental difference between nuclear power plants and thermal power plants is the use of nuclear fuel instead of organic fuel.

Nuclear fuel is obtained from natural uranium, which is mined:

• In mines (France, Niger, South Africa);
• In open pits (Australia, Namibia);
• By underground leaching method (USA, Canada, Russia).

For use in nuclear power plants, uranium must be enriched, so after mining it is sent to an enrichment plant, after processing where 90% of the by-product depleted uranium is sent for storage, and 10% is enriched to a few percent (3-5% for power reactors). Enriched uranium dioxide is sent to a special plant, where cylindrical pellets are made from it, which are placed in sealed zirconium tubes almost 4 m long, fuel rods (fuel elements). For ease of use, several hundred fuel rods are combined into fuel assemblies and fuel assemblies.



Power plants work tirelessly day and night. They continuously send electricity to cities and collective farms, factories and factories.

When you put on a new suit, cut fresh bread at the table, or pour yourself a glass of water, you don’t even think about how much electricity is spent on it. And its consumption is not small. To sew, for example, a suit, you need to consume about 5 kWh of electricity. And all energy costs for every 6-7 kg of bread, from preparing seeds for sowing and ending with delivery to the bakery, are about 1 kWh. Even to clean, deliver to the city and lift ordinary tap water, need electricity.

Electric energy has penetrated into all sectors of the national economy. It frees a person from hard work, makes his life easier, and helps to reveal the fabulous riches of nature.

The advantages of electricity over other types of energy are endless. It can be obtained from any other energy and converted into energy different types. Electric current can be transmitted over a distance without large losses. Electric power plants use energy resources most economically. Electrical energy accelerates production processes, brings to life new industries - electrochemistry, electrometallurgy, high-frequency processing of metals, etc. - allows for the widespread introduction of automation and telemechanics into production.

According to the GOELRO plan, in 10-15 years the country was supposed to generate 8.8 billion kWh of electricity per year.

Some considered this plan fantastic at the time. It was difficult to dream in the harsh 1920, during a time of economic ruin, famine, and epidemics.

That year, all the power plants of the young republic produced only 500 million kWh of electricity. But soviet people were passionate about Lenin's idea of ​​electrifying the country.

Only 10 years have passed, and the plan, which seemed so daring, has been exceeded. And already in 1950 Soviet Union In terms of electricity production, it came out on top in Europe and second in the world.

Soviet power plants in 1965 will generate 500-520 billion kWh of electricity - 1000 times more than what the power plants of the young Soviet Republic could produce in 1920.

Over the next seven years, power plants with a total capacity of approximately 60 million kW will come into operation. This means that 5-7 GOELRO plans will be implemented annually!

Electrification is one of the foundations of the most important areas of the Soviet economy. Almost 70% of all electricity produced in our country is consumed by industry.

Electric power industry is penetrating deeper into the realm of machines. It is increasingly invading the executive mechanism of the machine, demanding new designs. Electric motors “grow” into the body of the car. The stator and rotor are no longer just motors - they are already working parts of the mechanism.

The importance of electrification has especially increased in connection with the creation of new automatic lines and automatic factories. Modern mechanization, automation and telemechanization are based on the use of electricity.

Electricity gives us ever greater power over the transformation of matter. New methods of chemistry and new processes in chemical technology based on the use of electrical energy. Modern technology is technology high speeds, high pressures, high mechanical and electrical voltages, very tall and very low temperatures. Here we need new materials with special, improved properties: corrosion- and heat-resistant metals, light alloys, semiconductors, ferromagnets, plastics. This new vast area of ​​materials production is characterized by enormous electrical capacity.

FIGHT FOR SAVINGS

When it comes to saving energy, the hand involuntarily reaches for the switch to turn off the light bulb in a room or hallway. If 10 million schoolchildren (and there are three times more of them in our country) make sure that 10 million 40-watt light bulbs burn in the evenings for just one hour less than usual, they will thereby save 400 thousand kWh of electricity.

And this is enough for 5 thousand powerful metalworking machines to work a full shift at factories.

But, of course, not only schoolchildren should save electricity. In some plants and factories, the windows are so dirty that they have to work with lamps during the day. Once you wash the windows, the lamps will go out, and the machines will get extra energy. On the streets, incandescent lamps should be replaced with more economical gas-light lamps. Experts have calculated that due to problems in industry and transport, as much electricity is lost annually as the Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station, the most powerful in the world, produces.

Thus, to produce a ton of aluminum, 17 - 19 thousand kWh are needed. And to smelt tons of high-quality steel, light and rare metals or special alloys, electricity needs to be spent from 15 to 60 thousand kWh.

Our factories need a huge amount of electricity. For example, each worker at a metallurgical plant receives up to 30 thousand kWh of electricity per year, and each worker at electric steel plants receives up to 150 thousand kWh.

The problem of electrification of agriculture is especially important now. During the period from 1959 to 1965, it is expected that the electrification of all collective farms will be largely completed, and the electrification of the RTS and state farms will be completed earlier.

Field workers will have 4 times more electricity at their disposal than in 1959. railways Electric traction is being widely introduced. As a result of their throughput increases by more than 2 times, and fuel consumption is reduced by 3-4 times.

By the end of the seventh anniversary, electric locomotives will drive trains along the entire length of Moscow highways - Far East, Moscow - Sverdlovsk, Karaganda - Magnitogorsk - Ufa, etc.

Housing construction also needs a lot of electricity. To build a modern blast furnace with 120 apartments, it is necessary to spend almost 1 million kWh of electricity.

Electricity will be needed both in everyday life and for the development of radio, television, and cinema. In 1965, the country's television alone will need the power of fifty Volkhov hydroelectric power stations!

The main role in energy supply belongs to thermal power plants. Now approximately 81% of electricity (and at the same time 100% of centralized heat supply) is provided by thermal power plants (for more details, see the article “Heat and Electricity Factory”). Their specific gravity and the value will increase.

Over the next seven years, we will put into operation new thermal power engineering giants with a total capacity of 47-50 million kW. They will be located in the eastern regions, near the richest coal deposits, directly next to large, high-water rivers. After all, more than 20 trainloads of coal need to be fed into the furnaces of a power plant with a capacity of 2.4 million kW per day. The water consumption for cooling turbine condensers and other plant needs reaches 100 m 3 /sec. These are seven streams like the Moscow River!

The design and construction of powerful nuclear power plants is in full swing. In 1958, the first stage - with a capacity of 100 thousand kW - of the world's largest nuclear power plant with a capacity of 600 thousand kW was put into operation. Powerful nuclear power plants are being built in the Voronezh region, the Urals and other places.

The development of a special area of ​​heat and power engineering - district heating - is of great importance for the country. Cogeneration is the supply of hot water or steam exhausted from a power plant to the consumer. In this case, fuel is used most profitably: combined heat and power plants (CHPs) increase the fuel utilization factor by approximately 2 times compared to conventional power plants. This is very important, since about half of all fuel produced in the country is used for the heating needs of industry. So, to produce a ton of paper you need up to 5 tons of steam, tons rubber products- up to 20 tons, tons of plastic - more than 10 tons, tons of yarn and cloth - from 10 to 20 tons.

Every year, more than 2 thousand buildings are connected to the expanding thermal network of CHP plants. Previously, they would have had to install about 4 thousand heating boilers. More than 5 thousand stokers would have to service these boilers. Boiler rooms would occupy an area of ​​about 60 thousand m 3 in houses. And how much money would have to be spent on fuel and transport! The capacity of all Soviet thermal power plants has already exceeded 12 million kW, and in 1965 it will reach 30 million kW.

RARE TRILLIONS

Some elements, such as iron, form huge accumulations in earth's crust; others are scattered in the water and rocks in the form of insignificant impurities. Thus, sea water contains ten millionths of a percent of manganese. This number seems insignificant to us. But scoop up seawater with a thimble, and it contains several hundred trillion manganese atoms.

Noble gas - xenon, which is filled with flasks light bulbs, is four hundred thousandths of a percent by weight of air. To produce a liter of xenon, you need to process 2.5 million liters of air! But in every cubic centimeter of air taken at random, we will still find up to 1 billion xenon atoms. Knowing this, we can appreciate the rarity of radon, a gas formed by the decay of radium atoms. Each cubic centimeter of air near the Earth's surface contains, on average, only one atom.

How many of you have ever seen the wind?

But we know that the wind exists. After all, we see how he shakes the trees, how he carries plucked leaves and branches, how he drives waves. And we learned how to harness this invisible man. The wind inflates the sails of our ships. The wind turns the wings of mills and wind turbines.

Well, who saw electricity?

No one saw him either.

But we know very well that it exists. After all, we see how brightly electric lamps shine, how fast trolleybuses and trams rush, how hot electric stoves heat, how well machines and machines with electric motors work.

But it wasn't always like this. Two hundred years ago, few scientists knew about electricity. And they knew something completely different from what we know. If you had asked a scientist of that time what electricity is, he would not have said anything about bright lamps or hot electric ovens, nor about powerful engines.

Electricity, the old scientist would say, is a mysterious liquid, invisible and weightless. Electricity appears in amber rubbed with cat skin and in thunderclouds. Under its influence, small pieces of paper and balls of elderberry pulp can dance. Electricity makes the frog's leg tremble and gives birth to menacing lightning. In 1753 in Russia, scientists Mikhail Lomonosov and Georg Richmann built a “thunder machine” and captured electricity from the air onto a pole with an iron tip. But one day lightning struck the pole, and Georg Richmann was killed... Be afraid of electricity: it is mysterious, capricious and very dangerous!

But many leading scientists of that time were not deterred by the tragic death of Richmann. Following Lomonosov and Richman, they began to study electricity. Italian Alessandro Volta invented the first electric battery. The Frenchman Andre-Marie Ampere investigated the laws of electric current. The German Georg Friedrich Ohm unraveled the mystery of the resistance of conductors. The electric arc of the Russian academician Vasily Petrov flashed dazzlingly. In the furious flame of this arc, the Englishman Humphry Davy received new, unknown metals: sodium, potassium, calcium. The Dane Hans Oersted discovered the magnetic effect of electric current. Finally, Boris Semenovich Jacobi, the son of a Prussian merchant, professor of architecture in Yuryev, invented the first electric motor.

So electricity ceased to be a mysterious liquid and became a new type of energy. From the quiet laboratories of scientists, this new energy began to penetrate more and more boldly into life.

Now electrical energy is our constant friend and assistant in any business. Mechanical energy will not light the lamp. Thermal energy will not flow through telephone and telegraph wires. And electrical energy can do everything. And the more we have, the richer, stronger we are, the faster we move forward.

But where can you get a lot of electrical energy? Where does it even come from?

It turns out that energy can change from one type to another. In a heat engine, thermal energy is converted into mechanical energy. And if a heat engine rotates an electricity generator, mechanical energy will turn into electrical energy. The generator can be rotated by a water engine or a water turbine. Then electrical energy will be obtained due to the mechanical energy of flowing water.

There are many thermal power plants operating in our country. They use thermal energy 4 coal, peat, shale, natural gas. There are also many hydroelectric power stations. They use the energy of rivers. Every year there are more and more power plants. But the reserves of fuel in the bowels of the earth are not endless. Yes, and they are not available everywhere. The energy reserves of rivers are also not endless. And not everywhere there are suitable rivers for the construction of power plants. What will happen to us next? Maybe humanity is threatened by a lack of energy, an energy famine?

No, there is no need to be afraid of this. There are many more powerful sources of energy in nature. We still don't use internal heat The earth, the warmth of the seas. Huge energy is used very little sun rays, the energy of ebb and flow. We are still poorly able to convert all these types of energy.

What about the energy of an atom? For the first time she broke free with enormous, destructive force. But it turned out to be much more difficult to use it for peaceful purposes. The world's first nuclear power plant was built in our country. This is a huge achievement of Soviet science and technology. How does this station work? In its reactor, atomic energy is converted into thermal energy. The heat boils the water in the boiler and turns into steam energy. Steam provides mechanical energy. He rotates the turbine. And finally, the turbine rotates the electric current generator. Mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy.

The path of transformation turns out to be very long. Is this good?

There is a tale about an unlucky old man who went to sell a horse. On the way, he changed the horse for a cow, the cow for a ram, the ram for a duck, the duck for a chicken, the chicken for an egg, the egg for a needle. With every exchange, the old man lost something.

Approximately the same thing happens when energy transfers from one type to another. In a nuclear power plant, not all the reactor heat is converted into steam energy. Some is lost to heat the reactor, pipes, boiler walls, air, and power plant building.

Not all steam energy is converted into mechanical energy. Part is lost to heat the turbine, part goes with the exhaust steam.

Not all of the turbine's mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. Some is lost to heat the generator. With every exchange there is a loss. So it doesn’t take long to get to the needle.

About 200 years ago the first steam mill was built in London. They hadn't invented it yet steam engine. There was only a steam pump. He pumped water from the river into a pool built on a hill. And from the pool water poured... onto the wheel of an ordinary water mill.

Of course, the energy losses were enormous. But they did not yet know how to convert steam energy directly into rotation.

So far, nuclear power plants are only the first steps in conquering a new type of energy.

Experiments are being conducted on the direct conversion of atomic energy into electrical energy. Nuclear batteries have been created. True, so far the energy losses in them are greater than in a nuclear power plant. But these are also the first steps.

Years will pass - we will completely master the mighty energy of the atom. And then there will be no limits to human power!