{"id":167,"date":"2025-11-16T13:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T12:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilaklights.com\/blog\/?p=167"},"modified":"2026-08-29T16:51:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:51:36","slug":"power-generation-conventional-renewable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilaklights.com\/blog\/en\/power-generation-conventional-renewable\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of electricity generation sources: conventional vs renewable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Article reviewed by Jes\u00fas Andrade<\/a>, an electronics engineer with an MBA from ESIC. He combines 20 years\u2019 experience developing emergency lighting and risk-prevention devices with a strong background in business management. Andrade is currently CTO at SVE Worldwide, a company specialising in industrial risk-prevention solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of power<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of us aren\u2019t really aware of how important power is in our lives unless we\u2019ve gone through a power cut for a few hours and realised we suddenly can\u2019t do 90% of the things we\u2019re used to doing. Everyday actions like turning on the light, charging your phone or keeping food fresh in the fridge are only possible thanks to the power system, which brings electricity to every home. You might think it\u2019s all down to magic and that\u2019s why you don\u2019t have to go to the supermarket every day, but the truth is quite a bit more complex (spoiler alert). If you want to learn a bit about this fascinating topic, I invite you to keep reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Traditional fossil-fuel-based production systems vs. renewable systems<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Systems based on the mechanical rotation of an alternator vs. photovoltaic energy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conventional generation systems<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewable energy systems<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visual Summary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parts of the Electrical Power System<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The power system is divided into three clearly differentiated parts: generation systems, consumers<\/a>, and the distribution grid<\/a>, which carries power from the generation systems to consumers and is the hardest part to explain. In this post, we\u2019re going to focus on the first element: the generation systems<\/strong>. In this section we\u2019ll look at the main types of power generation systems used for electricity generation today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of power generation systems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are several ways to classify the different types of power plants:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional fossil-fuel-based production systems vs. renewable systems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re probably already familiar with this first distinction. Basically, the systems that come to mind when we talk about generating energy from gas, oil, coal or uranium (a key component for nuclear power plants) are the traditional ones; this is because we\u2019ve been using them for many, many years. As you probably know, using these energy sources has harmful polluting effects on the environment, mainly the emission of huge amounts of CO\u2082 into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the main alternative to traditional energy generation systems, we have renewable systems, which are characterised by using natural resources to generate energy in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Hydroelectric plants that use water as their main element, wind turbines driven by the wind or photovoltaic panels that harness the energy of the sun are all examples of renewable energy generation systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Systems based on the mechanical rotation of an alternator vs. photovoltaic energy <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How do traditional energy sources work?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most conventional systems, as well as wind turbines and hydroelectric plants (renewable energy), generate power based on the mechanical or rotational movement of a generator shaft. Since the goal of this post is not to make you shut down your computer and hit the bottle, let\u2019s just say that the heat produced by burning gas or oil, or the movement of the blades of a wind turbine, creates motion which, thanks to electromagnetism, ends up producing electric current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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