What is the efficiency of thermal power plants?
The efficiency of typical gasoline engines is around 20%. The efficiency of coal and nuclear power plant is typically around 35%. The efficiency of modern high performance coal plants can be up to 45%. The efficiency of combined cycle gas turbine power plants can be up to 55%. The heat sink for all of the above engines is either the air at the bottom of the atmosphere or a water body whose temperature is likely to be close to the air temperature. For calculation purposes engineers use a nominal cold source temperature of 288 K (15C). The maximum work that can be produced by transferring heat from a given hot source temperature to 15C is called exergy. The maximum efficiency of nuclear power plants is less that that of a coal power plant because the fuel temperature must be kept low to prevent damage to the fuel bundles.
