Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr. Akepati S. Reddy Thapar University Patiala (Punjab) 147 004 INDIA
Hydro-electric Power
Solar radiation drives the water cycle In high rainfall and mountainous areas rainfall runs off and allows capture of some of the energy as hydroelectric power Hydro-electric power plant involves conversion of Potential energykinetic energymechanical energyelectrical energy Situated at the bottom of a deep and steep sided valley or gorge or near the base of a dam Classification of hydro-electric power plants Run of the river power plants or low head power plants - only a few meters head; uses a low dam or weir (may also involve river diversions); electric output variable) High head power plants - involves dams, river diversions and reservoir storage; consistent & reliable; head often >1000 m) Large hydroelectric power plants Small (small, mini and micro) hydroelectric power plants capacity <10 MW, <2 MW and <100 kW) Hydraulic ram pumps (can use 0.5 meter to pump water through 250 meter head) Pumped storage hydroelectric units (90GW is the installed capacity; best option for temporary storage of energy)
North America
Asia Europe
>6900
>15561 4964
1678
2895 4702 2710
Middle East
Oceania Total World India
>272
593 >39287 (40,000) 2638
152
>232 >14284 (9000 is economically feasible)* 294
Economic feasibility depends on technology and competitiveness of alternative electricity options India has 84.044 GW technically exploitable capacity and at 40% annual load factor it can produce 294 TWh power per year
19% of the worlds electricity is from hydro In India 10 GW capacity is under construction And further 28 GW capacity is planned In 1996 India has 21.3 GW of installed capacity and it produced 69 TWh electricity (amounts to 25% of the total electrcity generated)
Impacts on climate
Decay of submerged vegetation and release of CH4 and CO2 Producing green house gases (some reservoirs produce more green house gases than fossil fuel based power plants)
Other impacts
Reservoir induced seismic activity (vaiont dam in Italian alps and mount TOC (350 million m3 material sliding into reservoir creating 110 m high water wave and killing 2600 people) Water in the reservoir influences the territory adjacent to it and alter local climate, soils and vegetation