Hydropower

What is hydropower?

Hydropower or hydraulic power is the energy of moving water.

Some facts about hydropower:

• Hydropower is the kinetic energy of falling water
• Hydropower has already been used in history
• Is immediately available and renewable
• Helps conserve fuel

The principle of hydropower:

How the natural water cycle works can be seen here:

http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/images/ocp2003/ocpfy2003-fig5-1.htm

What was it used for in the past?

In the history humans used the energy of down flowing water to transport their building materials over a far distance.

Prior to the widespread availability of commercial electric power, hydropower was used for irrigation, and operation of various machines, such as watermills, textile machines, and sawmills.

How does a hydropower plant work?

A conventional hydroelectric plant is mentioned at http://earthsci.org/mineral/energy/hydro/hydro.html .

There are several forms of water power:

Waterwheels

Tidal power

How it works, economic, social and environmental aspects under
http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/01-02/RE_info/Tidal%20Power.htm

Wave power

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/wavepower/

Hydropower or hydraulic power is the energy of moving water. It may be captured for some useful purpose.

Prior to the widespread availability of commercial electric power, hydropower was used for irrigation, and operation of various machines, such as watermills, textile machines, and sawmills. In the history humans used the energy of down flowing water to transport their building materials over a far distance. Today the largest use of hydropower is for electric power generation, which allows low cost energy to be used at long distances from the water source.

Hydropower plants capture the energy of falling water to generate electricity. A turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy. Then a generator converts the mechanical energy from the turbine into electrical energy.

Most conventional hydroelectric plants include four major components (see graphic above):

1. Dam. Raises the water level of the river to create falling water. Also controls the flow of water. The reservoir that is formed is, in effect, stored energy.
2. Turbine. The force of falling water pushing against the turbine’s blades causes the turbine to spin. A water turbine is much like a windmill, except the energy is provided by falling water instead of wind. The turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy.
3. Generator. Connected to the turbine by shafts and possibly gears so when the turbine spins it causes the generator to spin also. Converts the mechanical energy from the turbine into electric energy. Generators in hydropower plants work just like the generators in other types of power plants.
4. Transmission lines. Conduct electricity from the hydropower plant to homes and business.

There are several forms of water power:

• Waterwheels, used for hundreds of years to power mills and machinery
• Hydroelectricity, usually referring to hydroelectric dams or run-of-the-river setups.
• Tidal power, which captures energy from the tides in horizontal direction
• Wave power, which uses the energy in waves

Vocabulary:

purpose = Zweck

prior = vor

widespread = weit verbreitet

irrigation = Bewässerung

source= Quelle

to convert = umwandeln

tidal = Gezeiten-…

http://renewables.blog.com (About the project)
http://renewables1.blog.com (The planning stage)
http://renewables2.blog.com (Solar energy)
http://renewables3.blog.com (Wind energy)
http://renewables4.blog.com (Biomass)

http://renewables6.blog.com (Geothermal power)
http://renewables7.blog.com (Conventional energies)