Talk:Steam-electric power station

Do we really need 4 articles on exactly the same subject?

Wikipedia now has these 4 articles, all on the same subject:

• Fossil fuel power plant
• Power station
• Thermal power station
• Steam-electric power plant

Do we really need all of these? In my opinion, this sort of thing reflects badly on Wikipedia. What can we do to get these four articles merged?? - mbeychok 17:56, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

They should not be merged as they are, and need to be, distinct. Duplicate content should be moved to the appropriate article. - Rod57 (talk) 15:23, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

There is also one on the Rankine cycle! Donebythesecondlaw (talk) 20:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The section below is an attempt to address this issue. -- Kjkolb (talk) 00:38, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Reversion of the redirection to the article "thermal power station"

First, it should be disclosed that I was the one who started this article, although I only wrote three short paragraphs. If the consensus is to redirect to "thermal power station", I will accept it. I do not blame anyone for their actions. They acted completely reasonably under the circumstances. In addition, no one objected to a merge or redirect.

My position is that "thermal power station" and "steam-electric power plant" are not equivalent. For example:

• Perhaps the non-steam-electric power plants that are responsible for generating the most electrical energy on a kilowatt-hour basis are gas turbines. They are used alone in peaking power plants that generate electricity when usage is at its highest, and they are also used in baseload combined cycle power plants, where their exhaust is used to drive a steam-electric system.
• Another example is an array of solar dishes that each concentrate sunlight on a Stirling engine. It is a thermal power station, albeit an unconventional one, but it is not a steam-electric power plant.
• Reciprocating engines are used as small power plants in isolated towns, especially in high latitudes. They are also used as small power plants when a source of methane is around, such as wastewater treatment plants and landfills. They are also used in hospitals and other buildings where having uninterrupted power is essential. While such buildings often use such generators very infrequently, a few have decided to use a generator full time to generate electricity for the building, as well as heat for some process, in a cogeneration system. However, I do not know what the usual choice of equipment is in that type of setup. I suppose it could be a reciprocating engine, a small gas turbine, a fuel cell or a few other things.
• Another example, while it has not been used as what you would generally call a "power plant", is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. It generates power using the heat of radioactive decay of unstable isotope, but not steam. I suppose that multiple generators could be combined to generate power for a very small town or small, but extremely energy-efficient town. It would probably be nice to have some sort of energy storage system to handle the changes in demand, though.

While all steam-electric power plants are thermal power stations, not all thermal power stations are steam-electric power plants. While I understand that the terms may have become/been synonymous to those in the power industry and other groups. However, in my opinion, they are not. While steam-electric power plants generate the majority of our electricity, and the vast majority of electricity that comes from thermal power stations is currently steam-electric, it is not the same as equivalence.

However, I agree with that content should not be overly repetitive, as pointed out by mbeychok, and I will try to get into solutions for that later. -- Kjkolb (talk) 05:37, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

If you want to get my attention to your post on this topic or the article in general, please leave a brief message on my talk page. Thank you very much, Kjkolb (talk) 00:34, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

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