Short answers, pulled from the story.
The modern steam turbine was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884. His first model was connected to a dynamo that generated 7.5 kW of electricity, and within his lifetime the generating capacity of a single unit grew by roughly 10,000 times.
About 42% of all electricity generation in the United States in 2022 was produced using steam turbines. They are the core of thermal power stations fueled by fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, geothermal energy, and solar energy.
The largest steam turbine ever built is the 1,770 MW Arabelle steam turbine, manufactured by Arabelle Solutions. Two units are planned for installation at Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station in England.
In an impulse turbine, fixed nozzles accelerate steam into high-speed jets that strike bucket-shaped rotor blades, with the pressure drop occurring only across the stationary nozzles. In a reaction turbine, the moving blades themselves form convergent nozzles and the pressure drops across both the stationary and moving rows, with the Parsons turbine being the classic 50% reaction design.
The operational life of modern steam turbines often exceeds 50 years. Maintenance costs run around $0.005 per kilowatt-hour, making them among the longest-lived and lowest-maintenance large power generation machines in use.
Since the 1980s, gas turbines and diesel engines have replaced steam turbines on most ships because diesel engines routinely exceed 50% thermal efficiency while propulsion steam turbines have yet to break that threshold. Diesel plants also require fewer operators, reducing running costs.