A hydroelectric powerplant generates electricity with renewable energy - waterA hydroelectric powerplant generates electricity with renewable energy – water. Dams on streams and rivers are an intrinsic part of human history. They’re clean, quiet, and impressive. Should one ask, what is hydroelectric power, or, how does it work? A good example is a You Tube video below. Like they say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'
A hydro dam is really a simple concept. Take the Grand Coulee Dam for instance. It’s located in Grand Coulee, Washington, and was completed in 1942 at a cost of $300 million. The Franklin D. Roosevelt lake/reservoir behind it has a capacity of 421 million cubic feet of water. Its 28 turbines are gravity fed. When all turbines are online, an annual production of up to 23,860,944,469 kilowatt-hours is possible. Interestingly, the entire northwest depends on a gravity based system for it energy needs.
Take a look at this gravity fed colossus if you want to see some serious water power at work.
One hydro dam is unique in that it is located in both Arizona and Nevada. Bolder Dam AKA Hoover Dam, actually retains more water than Grand Coulee. Lake Mead holds 1.24 trillion cubic feet of water. Now that’s a reservoir. It was Completed in 1936 this behemoth’s concrete won’t be completely cured for another 200 years. By today’s dollar value, the cost would approach more than a billion, but in 1936, it was only $165 million. Like the Grand Coulee, its hydroelectric turbine is gravity fed. That makes a lot of people in the southwest dependent on law – the law of gravity. In order to resist the gigantic weight of the reservoir behind it, the dam’s base is 660 feet wide. That’s as thick as the length of two footballs fields end to end. The power generating capacity is four billion KW a year. Who-ooa! Hoover Dam I could go on, giving statistics about other hydro dams, like California’s Folsom Dam, or the huge dam recently developed in China. I could tell you that Canada is the world’s largest hydro power producer in the world, but so what, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen em all. The beauty is a hydroelectric turbine uses 100% renewable energy. However there is another hydro dam you may be interested in. It’s a micro power hydroelectric powerplant you may be able to build yourself. Interested? read on, better yet, take a look.
Well, there you have it; the hydroelectric powerplant, a little history, how they work, and their awesome grandeur and the huge amounts of power they generate. What else can I say, except maybe head over to the micro-hydro-generator page Links: A hydroelectric powerplant uses a little gravity and a whole lot of water to make electricity.  Custom Search
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