Fossil fuel power station Fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a power station which burns a fossil fuel such as coal, natural gas, or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation. In many countries, such plants provide most of the electrical energy used. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating internal combustion engine. All plants use
Evolutionary history of plants billion years ago, and that communities of complex, multicellular photosynthesizing organisms existed on land in the late Precambrian, around . Evidence of the emergence of embryophyte land plants first occurs in the mid-Ordovician (~), and by the middle of the Devonian (~), many of the features recognised in land plants today were present, including roots and leaves. Late Devonian (~) free-sporing plants such as "Archaeopteris" had secondary vascular tissue that produced wood and had formed forests of tall trees. Also by late Devonian, "Elkinsia", an early seed fern, had evolved seeds. Evolutionary innovation continued into the Carboniferous and still continues