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Hydra electric6/27/2023 Employment – many countries use hydropower to bring affordable energy to rural areas.So building them can also help develop the surrounding area with transport links and infrastructure. Land development – dams can only be built in certain locations, and they take a long time to build.Recreation – the lakes or reservoirs created by a dam can be used for recreational purposes such as fishing, water sports and swimming.And stopping the flow can be done just as quickly when demand is low. In times of demand, they can hit capacity in just 2 minutes. Flexible – a hydro plant can easily control the flow of water.Reliable – the sun sets, and sometimes the wind doesn’t blow, but water can always be made to flow.So hydroelectric power lowers greenhouse gas emissions. Low emissions – the biggest appeal of any renewable energy is that it creates no emissions whilst in service.(And if water didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be around very long to need electricity!) Renewable – as long as water exists, hydroelectricity is possible.Advantages of hydro powerīillions of people the world over depend daily on hydroelectricity – it powers homes, offices, factories, hospitals and schools. When there’s a demand for electricity, the water is released back down to the lower reservoir and on to that all important turbine. It stores the energy by pumping water from a reservoir at a low level, up to a reservoir at higher level. This works as a kind of battery, storing energy generated from other sources such as solar, wind and nuclear. A pumped-storage facilityĪn example of a pumped storage facility in Australia One good example of this is the power stations at Niagara Falls. The water is channelled, via a series of canals, towards the generator-powering turbines. This type doesn’t use a dam, but instead harnesses the natural flow of water falling from a greater to a lesser height. A diversion facilityĪlso known as “run-of-river”. As the turbine blades spin, they power a generator. When energy’s needed, water is released through the dam, flowing downwards to spin a turbine. The dam is used to control the flow of water from the reservoir. A concrete dam is built to hold back a river and create a man-made reservoir. This is the “reservoir and dam” system we’re most familiar with. There are 3 different types of hydroelectricity power plants: An impoundment facility What are the different types of hydroelectric energy plants? That kinetic downward movement of water can be harnessed in various ways. We can rely on the force of gravity to ensure water always flows downwards. The basics of hydroelectricity depend on water flowing from one place to another. Would you like to know more about the impact of fossil fuels and how we’re moving towards becoming coal-free? Read our guide to fossil fuels, and then find out more about the future of renewables.Īnd to find out more about solar and wind energy, check out our relevant blogs. In our ever-increasingly climate-conscious world, water is a powerful and abundant alternative low-carbon source of energy. Water is as readily available and as free to use as solar or wind power. The water then evaporates, forms clouds, and the whole cycle begins again. Water falls to Earth in the form of rain, filling our rivers, lakes, reservoirs and oceans. Hydro energy is considered renewable because water is in infinite supply, and the water cycle is constant. The Contra Dam in Switzerland, used as a film location in Goldeneye To find out more about how OVO is fighting climate change by supplying renewable energy to around 500,000 UK homes, read our comprehensive blogs. The electricity is then fed into the National Grid, and into our homes. The flow of water is used to spin a turbine, which is connected to an electric generator. Put simply, hydro power, or hydroelectricity, is a form of renewable energy generated by the movement of water. What is hydroelectric energy or hydro power? Not quite so pretty as in days of old – but much more effective. That’s the scale of hydroelectric power stations we’re seeing nowadays. Then fast-forward a few hundred years to the opening scenes of Goldeneye, with James Bond bungee-jumping off a huge, vertigo-inducing dam. Picture that bucolic English scene, with a water mill sitting prettily by a flowing river. Medieval England got in on the act, too, and water energy has been harnessed in the UK ever since. In fact, the word “hydro” comes from the Greek word for water. Records of water mills being used across the ancient world date back to the 3rd Century BC. The power of water has been a crucial source of energy to humans for thousands of years.
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