Hydropower
Omkar Khanna
9/19/17
Per: 1,2
Mr. Ward
Abstract
One efficient way to acquire energy is Hydropower. Hydropower is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water. This energy converter is harmless to the environment. Other ways will affect the atmosphere and the environment in a negative way. The most common device for hydropower is a dam. It relies on the water cycle. This is one of the oldest sources of energy.
Pros People have been using hydropower for centuries. Farmers have used water wheels to grind wheat into flour. They were usually placed by some source of water like a river. Then the water wheel picks up water that is flowing by buckets that are around the wheel.
…show more content…
Many countries take advantage of hydropower. In 2004, Russia, the U.S.A, Brazil, Canada, and China were the biggest producers of hydropower.
The cheapest way to generate electricity, today, is hydropower. The reason for that is, once a dam has been constructed and equipment installed, the source of the energy is free. It is a fuel source that is renewable because of things like snow and rainfall. Engineers may control the water flow on demand.
History
Back to the 19th Century, hydropower was discovered. The first hydroelectric power plant was created in Niagara Falls in 1879. In the city of Niagara Falls, street lamps were the first to be powered. In 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operating in the United States in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Parts to a hydropower plant There are three parts to a typical hydropower plant. The first part is an electric plant where electricity is produced. The second is a dam that open and closes to control the flow of water. Water behind the dam goes into an intake and is pushed against blades in a turbine which causes them to turn. Then the turbine rotates a generator to create electricity.
…show more content…
These facilities are: impounded, diversion, and pumped storage. Some of these facilities use dams and some don’t.
Plants range from small systems, for a house or whole village, to big projects creating electricity for all kinds of utilities. The impoundment facility is the most seen type of hydropower plant. This facility is a large hydropower system that uses a dam to store water in a reservoir. The water that is released from this reservoir then flows through a turbine, which causes it to spin, activating a generator to create electricity. A diversion hydropower plant brings together a good amount of a river through a canal. This facility does not need the use of a dam. All diversion power plants require a lot of infrastructure. A pipeline or tunnel, called a penstock that delivers water from the reservoir to the moving turbines. A building to house the generators, called a powerhouse. A channel which diverts water to return to the river. Roads that lead to the reservoir and
Furthermore, even though the Friend dam is the first primary purpose of it; it also follows a secondary purpose also. And that would be the Friend Power Authority which has 4 power plants. And within the plants it has turbines in it. What this turbine does it is that it generates water into the channel or tubes, and then it let it out into the four outlets which flows out into its benefits locations.
The use of turbines from dams to provide power was a brilliant idea until water levels started running lower than normal. The water waste from humanity is directly contributing to portions of it, aside from drought conditions affected by pollution, widespread fires battled, and more adds to the depletion thereof. When humanity is relying on power provided from dams to handle the demand, they are essentially relying on the assumption that water levels will always be there to provide it. The Hoover Dam provides power to the southwestern portion of the USA that has a large number of people.
Yet, there is no such thing as “clean hydro power,” with the exception of very small-scale hydropower dams at the individual or neighborhood level. Hydro powered dams can cause major fluctuations in downstream flows, and even dewater the stream channel, leading to direct death of fish and other species. The main effects of a dam on a river is that it disrupts flows, lowers water quality, blocks the movement of rivers vital nutrients and sediment, destroys fish and wildlife habitat, and eliminates recreational opportunities. Reservoirs slow and broaden rivers, making them warmer, reducing water quality, and harboring destructive nonnative species that scatter throughout the watershed and prey on and compete with native wildlife. The environmental, economic, and social impacts of a dam and reservoir may run the entire length of the river from the highest mountain peaks that feed the headwaters to the river’s outlet at the ocean according to
The article “Hydropower as a Renewable Energy Source” (n.d.) shows that man-made dams make up seventy-five percent of the United States’ total renewable energy.
Water-power at Niagara Falls to Be Successfully Utilized: Its Objects, Facilities and Resources, Inducements for Manufacturers, Etc. Buffalo: Matthews, Northrup, 1886. 5. Print.
There is hydro-Electric energy that can be harnessed from waterfalls or dams.” In fact, hydropower accounted for 62.9 percent of Canada’s electricity production in 2011” (CEA, 2012). Geothermal energy is produced from sending water into a deep cavity in the earth creating steam but there is none being produced in Canada. “By 2050, roughly 80 per cent of Canada’s power generation capacity will be geothermal” (Hamilton, 2010). Solar panels are a good source of naturally occurring energy. “Solar thermal power has seen average annual growth of 9.5% since 2000” (Canada, 2014). Wind turbines are becoming more popular as another way to harness a great source of natural energy and create 3% of Canadian’s electricity (CWEA, 2014). Last but not least there is nuclear power created from fission or fusion of uranium atoms. Nuclear power already generates 15% of Canada’s power (WNA, 2014). As well there are new advancements in alternative renewable fuel sources. Propane, ethanol, manure, used oil are all used as renewable fuels over all types of transportation. Electric cars are being offered as an alternative to gas powered
Basically, water are condensed and stored in a tank below the turbine. Then the pump pumps out the water from the tank to go into the steam generator. The containment structure has two compartments that are linked together. So the pressurized water moderator and coolant is pumped to the control rods. The control rod is made of steel pressured vessels so that the water will remain liquid at 320 degree Celsius.
Water is absolutely essential to all human life. It is more important than even oxygen, to every single, living, creature on Earth. No one on Earth, could survive without it. Historically, the water wheel, was first used to lift water from a river onto irrigation streams. Then during the Middle Ages, a water-powered wheel was created that was capable of harnessing power from the flow of water. It was used for smashing linen to create paper and in the milling of flour. Then throughout the Industrial Revolution, Europe’s economy was boosted by the creation of the steam engine.
The first type of renewable energy is hydroelectric energy or well known as hydropower. In greek word, hydro means water and thus hydroelectric energy refers to electricity generated using flowing water at high velocity. Lutgens and Tarbuck (1992, p. 163) stated that “running water is of great importance to people as we depend upon rivers for energy, travel and irrigation”. Continuous availability of water in universe made water to be the main source of hydroelectric energy. Water has been widely utilized by mankind since the beginning of civilization and wate...
The “Hydropower” National Geographic. n. d. a. d. a. d 1 April 2014. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/hydropower- profile /.> “Hydropower as a Renewable Energy Source” naturalresources.house.gov. Web.
Hydropower, the use of water to power machinery or produce electricity, provides the most renewable energy in the United States, and uses alternating current in most modern plants ("Hydropower…”). Hydropower relies on the water cycle and is a clean fuel source; it doesn’t pollute the environment like plants that burn fossil fuels. It is by far the most efficient way to generate electricity, being half the cost of using nuclear power, two-fifths the cost of using fossil fuels, and a quarter the cost of using natural gas ("Wind and Water…”). Also, hydropower is not subject to market fluctuations of embargos, and the average lifespan of a facility is 100 years. Hydropower also has many non-energy benefits such as water supply, flood control, navigation, irrigation, and recreation. However, it does face many environmental challenges such as impacts to aquatic habitats, aesthetic alterations of landscapes, changes to water quality, and interruptions of marine life ("Hydropower…”).
The water is then used when there is a lack of supply. For example many small dams impound water in the spring, for use in the summer dry months. Storage dams also supply a water supply, or an improved habitat for fish and wildlife; they may store water for hydroelectricity as well.2 A diversion dam is a generation of a commonly constructed dam which is built to provide sufficient water pressure for pushing water into ditches, canals or other systems. These dams, which are normally shorter than storage dams are used for irrigation developments and for diversion the of water from a stream to a reservoir.
There are different kinds of resources that we can use in order to produce renewable energy. Solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power are just some of the kinds of renewable energy that might be the best options to obtain energy because they come from natural resources. Although renewable energy can be expensive to build, it has less environmental damage in comparison to non-renewable energy. Besides the natural resources such as sun, wind, water and hydrogen, we also have geothermal power, and biofuels as renewable sources.
Solar power for instance is one of the most popular and easiest of all of the renewable energy sources to harness, especially for home and business uses. (Galbraith) For around the same ...
A steam turbine's two main parts are the cylinder and the rotor. As the steam passes through the fixed blades or nozzles it expands and its velocity increases. The high-velocity jet of steam strikes the first set of moving blades. The kinetic energy of the steam changes into mechanical energy, causing the shaft to rotate. The steam then enters the next set of fixed blades and strikes the next row of moving blades. As the steam flows through the turbine, its pressure and temperature decreases, while its volume increases. The decrease in pressure and temperature occurs as the steam transmits energy to the shaft and performs work. After passing through the last turbine stage, the steam exhausts into the condenser or process steam system. The kinetic energy of the steam changes into mechanical erringly through the impact (impulse) or reaction of the steam against the blades.