Hydroelectric Power: Traditional energy

 Hydraulic power, Water power or Hydropower are same terms. It is the power obtained by the force of moving water. This power can be used for different purposes. Along with production of electricity, hydropower was used for irrigation, and operation of various machines in old days.   Some of these machines are water mills, textile machines and saw mills.

 A method known as trompe was also used. In this method some machinery was operated by the air produced by the falling water. This hydro power has been used for hundreds of years. Water wheels and water mills were common in India whereas flour was produced by grains by using water powered mills in Imperial Rome. Hydroelectric power or hydroelectricity is another very important application of hydropower. It refers to the generation of electricity by the movement of falling or flowing water. Water is used as renewable energy source in this case and history tells that hydroelectricity is the most widely used form of renewable energy.

The way of producing electricity by hydropower is very environmental friendly and no waste or pollution is given out in this process. Unlike fossil fuels in which greenhouse gases were emitted it does not result in environmental degrading. In 19^th century, electrical generator was developed which can also work with hydropower. There are four main methods for the production of electricity using hydropower. They are listed below :

1. Conventional.  
2. Pumped storage.  
3. Run of the river.  
4. Tide.  

In conventional method water is generally stored in large areas named as Dams. Water turbines and generators are present at the water outlets of the dams. Potential energy of water is used for moving these turbines. When water is released from the dams, it results in movement of turbines and turbines provide mechanical rotation to the electrical generators. Electrical generators then convert this mechanical rotation into electric current. Rotation depends on the head of the dam. Head is the height difference between the turbines and source of water. The amount of potential energy depends upon the head of the dam. Greater the head, greater will be force of water and in result greater will be rotation of turbines. For delivering water to a turbine while maintaining pressure a special pipe is used and known as penstock.

There are lots of advantages in using hydroelectricity. This type of energy production allows us to avoid using uranium, oil, coal or fossils fuel for production of electricity. These alternatives to hydroelectricity are not only expensive but also result in environmental degrading due to emission of polluted gases. Running hydroelectric power stations does not require large number of employees and these systems are highly automatic. Size of these systems can be set according to the amount of flow we have. That means we are not fixed in size allotment of power plants as in case of other alternatives. Electricity produced by the way of hydro powered systems is relatively high because it does not make use of finite energy sources.

Regards,

The Solar Heating Systems Team

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