Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Open cycle gas turbines start quickly and are kept for the hours of highest demand, despite poor efficiency. The figure is taken from US Energy Information Administration, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

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Peaking plants run for a few hours a year

Open cycle gas turbines start quickly and are kept for the hours of highest demand, despite poor efficiency A peaking plant skips the steam cycle used in combined cycle stations, so it turns only about 35 to 40 percent of the fuel's energy into electricity. That waste is tolerable because the plant may run a few hundred hours a year, when power prices are highest. Units derived from jet engines can reach full output within minutes. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

US Energy Information Administration

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: electricity, gas-turbines, demand

Peaking plants run for a few hours a year: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Open cycle gas turbines start quickly and are kept for the hours of highest demand, despite poor efficiency. The figure is taken from US Energy Information Administration, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.