Hydropower - Water Energy

Aug

22

Posted by tehreem, Published on 22 August 2008

It is one of the oldest sources of energy and was used thousands of years ago to turn a paddle wheel for purposes such as grinding grain.  Our nation’s first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 30, 1882. Until that time, coal was the only fuel used to produce electricity. Because the source of hydropower is water, hydroelectric power plants must be located on a water source. Therefore, it wasn’t until the technology to transmit electricity over long distances was developed that hydropower became widely used.

HOW HYDROPOWER WORKS

Understanding the water cycle is important to understanding hydropower. In the water cycle -

  • Solar energy heats water on the surface, causing it to evaporate.
  • This water vapor condenses into clouds and falls back onto the surface as precipitation.
  • The water flows through rivers back into the oceans, where it can evaporate and begin the cycle over again.

    • Mechanical energy is derived by directing, harnessing, or channeling moving water. The amount of available energy in moving water is determined by its flow or fall.Swiftly flowing water in a big river, like the Columbia River along the border between Oregon and Washington, carries a great deal of energy in its flow. So, too,with water descending rapidly from a very high point, like Niagara Falls in New York.

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    Filled Under: Eco Freindly, Environmental Friendly, Hydropower, Renewable Energy