system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What is it about (steam or otherwise) turbines that makes them so ubiquitous for power generation? Do we really not have anything more efficient after more than a century?

It's almost mind-blowing to think that large-scale electricity production is just a handful of different ways to spin a turbine (nuclear, wind, hydro, coal; all basically the same core principle). Is there really no better commercial technology available for generation?
gpt
>  Is there really no better commercial technology available for generation?

Not really. It is important to note that time is not an assurance that improvement will arrive, that is just an expectation from our advances in other areas.

It turns out that steam turbines are just really good at producing electricity from a heat source. That isn't to say there have not been advances, but it is more in the form of better steam turbines rather than a fundamental shift in techniques.