The Joy of Hydropower
The term "hydropower" is a common word used to generalize the many different means of utilizing the energy in flowing water, ranging from large hydroelectric power plants to systems that harness both tidal and wave power. Hydroelectric facilities provide approximately 25 percent of the world's electricity supply-with plants operating in 86 countries across the globe (Carless, Jennifer 1993). Hydroelectric dams produce electricity much more efficiently than other conventional sources (such as coal and nuclear) while also maintaining a lower price-per-kilowatt (Carless, Jennifer 1993). Finally, hydro systems are "clean", meaning they release no hazardous by-products into the environment.Hydropower is indirectly associated to solar energy, due to the fact that the sun evaporates water from the earth (Carless, Jennifer 1993). The evaporated water then returns to earth in the form of rain, sleet, snow, etc., filling waterways that eventually make their way into the oceans (Allaby, Ian 1990). The flow of the water in these streams and rivers is what conventional hydroelectric systems use for power generation. The logic behind hydroelectric power is quite elementary: it simply uses the natural kinetic ene
Bureau of Reclamation, "The History of HydropowerDevelopment". Water is stored in an upper reservoir for release to generate power during hours of peak demand. Dept of Engineering,University of California-Los Angeles. Dams put an end to those spring floods and allow vegetation to clog up river backwaters (Water Power, 1996). The sediment carries nutrients that are vital to fish and any agricultural areas that may be established downstream and its blockage can deprive fish and other wildlife of needed food and the land of fertilized soil (Carless, Jennifer 1993). htmNovember, 1999Carless, Jennifer, Renewable Energy. Searls, Peter, Hoover Dam: A Case History in EngineeringDesign. The industrialization has had a negative effect on the water that animal life thrives on in the region surrounding a large dam, as evidence from many locations has proved.
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