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Sankey diagrams

These diagrams are a way of looking at the input and output of energy for a power station – or indeed any type of machine. They show the input energy and then the percentages of this that are useful output energy and 'wasted' heat energy.

The example is of a typical nuclear fission power station where only 42% of the input energy is finally converted to electrical energy.

 
 
 
© Keith Gibbs 2008