Integrated Project
What is Hydropower ?

Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy, which uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. Hydropower currently accounts for nearly 27% of total U.S. utility-scale renewable electricity generation and 5.7% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation. 

While most people might associate the energy source with the Hoover Dam—a huge facility harnessing the power of an entire river behind its wall— hydropower facilities come in all size Some may be very large, but they can be tiny, too,  taking advantages of water flows in municipal water facilities or irrigation ditches. They can even be “damless,” with diversions or run-of-river facilities that channel part of a stream through a powerhouse before the water rejoins the main river. Whatever the method, hydropower is much easier to obtain and more widely used than most people realize. In fact, all but two states (Delaware and Mississippi) use hydropower for electricity, some more than others. For example, in 2020 about 66% of the state of Washington’s electricity came from hydropower. 

In a study led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on hydropower flexibility, preliminary analysis found that the firm capacity associated with U.S. hydropower’s flexibility is estimated to be over 24 GW. To replace this capability with storage would require the buildout of 24 GW of 10-hour storage—more than all the existing storage in the United States today. Additionally, in terms of integrating wind and solar, the flexibility presented in existing U.S. hydropower facilities could help bring up to 137 gigawatts of new wind and solar online by 2035.

Hydropower is energy in moving water

People have a long history of using the force of water flowing in streams and rivers to produce mechanical energy. Hydropower was one of the first sources of energy used for electricity generation, and until 2019, hydropower was the leading source of total annual U.S. renewable electricity generation.

In 2022, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.2% of total U.S. utility-scale1 electricity generation and 28.7% of total utility-scale renewable electricity generation. Hydroelectricity generation varies annually, and it's share of total U.S. electricity generation generally decreased from the 1950's through 2020, mainly because of increases in electricity generation from other sources. Hydroelectricity's percentage share of total annual U.S. electricity generation in 2001 through 2022 averaged about 6.7%.

Hydropower relies on the water cycle

Understanding the water cycle is important to understanding hydropower. The water cycle has three steps:

The amount of precipitation that drains into rivers and streams in a geographic area determines the amount of water available for producing hydropower. Seasonal variations in precipitation and long-term changes in precipitation patterns, such as droughts, can have significant effects on the availability of hydropower production.

Image of 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.

 


 

 


 

 

How does Hydropower works ?

Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is a renewable source of energy that generates power by using a dam or diversion structure to alter the natural flow of a river or other body of water. Hydropower relies on the endless, constantly recharging system of the water cycle to produce electricity, using a fuel—water—that is not reduced or eliminated in the process. There are many types of hydropower facilities, though they are all powered by the kinetic energy of flowing water as it moves downstream. Hydropower utilizes turbines and generators to convert that kinetic energy into electricity, which is then fed into the electrical grid to power homes, businesses, and industries.

 

History of Hydropower

Hydropower is energy in moving water
Humans have been harnessing water to perform work for thousands of years. The Greeks used water wheels for grinding wheat into flour more than 2,000 years ago, while the Egyptians used Archimedes water screws for irrigation during the third century B.C. The evolution of the modern hydropower turbine began in the mid-1700s when a French hydraulic and military engineer,Bernard Forest de Bélidor, wrote the groundbreaking Architecture Hydraulique.

In 1880, a dynamo driven by a water turbine was used to provide arc lighting —a technique where an electric spark in the air between two conductors produces a light—to a theatre and storefront in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1881, a dynamo connected to a turbine in a flour mill provided street lighting at Niagara Falls, New York. Both of these used direct current technology.

The breakthrough in alternating current, the method used today, allowed power to be transmitted longer distances and ushered in the first U.S. commercial installation: an alternating current hydropower plant at the Redlands Power Plant in California in 1893. The Redlands Power Plant utilized Pelton water wheels powered by water from the nearby Mill Creek and a three-phase generator that ensured consistent power delivery.

In the past century, a number of innovations have enabled hydropower to become an integral part of the renewable energy mix in the United States. Find out more about the last 100 years of hydropower with this timeline.
History of Hydroelectric Power – Turbines Info

 

REFERENCES :
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydropower/
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/hydroelectric-energy/
https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/hydropower-basics

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