A solid or liquid fuel to plasma to electricity power source that provides at least one of electrical and thermal power comprising (i) at least one reaction cell for the catalysis of atomic hydrogen to form hydrinos, (ii) a chemical fuel mixture comprising at least two components chosen from: a source of H 2 O catalyst or H 2 O catalyst; a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; reactants to form the source of H 2 O catalyst or H 2 O catalyst and a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; one or more reactants to initiate the catalysis of atomic hydrogen; and a material to cause the fuel to be highly conductive, (iii) a fuel injection system such as a railgun shot injector, (iv) at least one set of electrodes that confine the fuel and an electrical power source that provides repetitive short bursts of low-voltage, high-current electrical energy to initiate rapid kinetics of the hydrino reaction and an energy gain due to forming hydrinos to form a brilliant-light emitting plasma, (v) a product recovery system such as at least one of an augmented plasma railgun recovery system and a gravity recovery system, (vi) a fuel pelletizer or shot maker comprising a smelter, a source or hydrogen and a source of H 2 O, a dripper and a water bath to form fuel pellets or shot, and an agitator to feed shot into the injector, and (vii) a power converter capable of converting the high-power light output of the cell into electricity such as a concentrated solar power device comprising a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) photoelectric cells or a plurality of photoelectric cells, and a UV window.