Example of Energy Conversion Efficiency
| Conversion process | Energy efficiency |
|---|---|
| Electricity generation | |
| Gas turbine | up to 40% |
| Gas turbine plus steam turbine (combined cycle) | up to 60% |
| Water turbine | up to 90% (practically achieved) |
| Wind turbine | up to 59% (theoretical limit) |
| Solar cell | 6–40% (technology dependent, 15% most often, 85–90% theoretical limit) |
| Fuel cell | up to 85% |
| World Electricity generation 2008 | Gross output 39%, Net output 33%. |
| Engine/Motor | |
| Combustion engine | 10–50% |
| Electric motors | 70–99.99% (above 200W); 50–90% (between 10–200W); 30–60% (small ones < 10W) |
| Natural process | |
| Photosynthesis | up to 6% |
| Muscle | 14–27% |
| Appliance | |
| Household refrigerators | low-end systems ~ 20%; high end systems ~ 40–50% |
| Incandescent light bulb | 0.7–5.1%, 5–10% |
| Light-emitting diode (LED) | 4.2–14.9%, up to 35% |
| Fluorescent lamps | 8.0–15.6%, 28% |
| Low-pressure sodium lamps | 15.0–29.0%, 40.5% |
| Metal halide lamps | 9.5–17.0%, 24% |
| Switched-mode power supply | currently up to 95% practically |
| Electric shower | 90–95% (overall it would be more efficient to use a heat pump, requiring less electric energy) |
| Electric heaters | ~100% (essentially all energy is converted into heat) |
| others | |
| Firearm | ~30% (.300 Hawk ammunition) |
| Electrolysis of water | 50–70% (80–94% theoretical maximum) |
Read more about this topic: Energy Conversion Efficiency
Famous quotes containing the words energy, conversion and/or efficiency:
“In the west, Apollo and Dionysus strive for victory. Apollo makes the boundary lines that are civilization but that lead to convention, constraint, oppression. Dionysus is energy unbound, mad, callous, destructive, wasteful. Apollo is law, history, tradition, the dignity and safety of custom and form. Dionysus is the new, exhilarating but rude, sweeping all away to begin again. Apollo is a tyrant, Dionysus is a vandal.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)