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EspritFort t1_jdsv4q2 wrote

>Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?

Steam is created by heating up water a lot. Steam engines burned coal for that.

You can heat up the water by other means too! Nearly every conventional contemporary power plant uses steam turbines to generate its output. Coal power plants burn coal to provide steam for their turbines, gas power burn gas to provide steam for their turbines, nuclear power plants use the heat generated from nuclear fission to provide steam for their turbines.
It's steam turbines all the way down. Either way, none of it is particularly clean. There's always something that gets set on fire or used up in the process.

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saywherefore t1_jdtdxu1 wrote

Are there gas power stations that generate steam rather than operating gas turbines?

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VisualImportance5837 t1_jdtea7d wrote

Most gas power stations generate steam using the exhaust from their gas turbines to generate extra electricity.

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