* Fossil-fuel power stations may also use a steam turbine generator or in the case of natural gas-fired power plants may use a combustion turbine. A coal-fired power station produces heat by burning coal in a steam boiler. The steam drives a steam turbine and generator that then produces electricity. The waste products of combustion include ash, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. Some of the gases can be removed from the waste stream to reduce pollution. 
* Nuclear power plants use the heat generated in a nuclear reactor's core (by the fission process) to create steam which then operates a steam turbine and generator. About 20 percent of electric generation in the USA is produced by nuclear power plants.
* Geothermal power plants use steam extracted from hot underground rocks. These rocks are heated by the decay of radioactive material in the Earth's core.
* Biomass-fuelled power plants may be fuelled by waste from sugar cane, municipal solid waste, landfill methane, or other forms of biomass.
* In integrated steel mills, blast furnace exhaust gas is a low-cost, although low-energy-density, fuel.
* Waste heat from industrial processes is occasionally concentrated enough to use for power generation, usually in a steam boiler and turbine.
* Solar thermal electric plants use sunlight to boil water and produce steam which turns the generator.
* Hydrogen power plants can use green hydrogen from electrolysis to help balance supply and demand from Variable renewable energy sources.