Gas turbines - the 'prime movers' of modern power plant engineering

The gas turbine has given an impetus to many of the developments that have marked the more recent progress of power plant engineering. New materials and innovative blade cooling and combustion technologies have gained it a reputation as one of the most efficient machines on the market today for generating electrical energy. It is in part because of this that combined cycle power plants outperform conventional plants in several areas: efficiency and operating flexibility are better, capital expenditure and running costs are lower, and plant sites are smaller. Another benefit of the gas turbine is that it can be run with almost every fossil fuel, while clean combustion makes it environmentally kind.