Healthy Hydropower

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream; not only plan but also
believe...” - Anatole France (December 24th, 1896). Nora read that quote thinking of her father. A
few moments later, she heard her mother crying. Nora came sprinting to her mother. “Are you
okay mom?” exclaimed Nora “Yes sweetheart, I’ll be with you in a little, go do something.” her
mother wept. Nora walked away rather slowly thinking what could be wrong with her mother.
She walked past the dining table her father made before he passed away less than a year ago. She
glanced at the paper sitting there. She started reading it. She suddenly felt her heart racing before
she read the words. She knew why her mother was so upset just by reading the title of the page,
“Iraqi Electricity”
Amir, Nora’s father passed away a year ago. Amir was a creative person and always liked to go
in his workshop and create something useful. Today, his workshop is filled with almost anything
you could imagine. Since Amir passed away, Nora walks into his workshop every day, and she’d
get inspired by looking at the items Amir has collected over the years and she’d try to make
something out of them. Ever since that day, Nora started discovering her passion and purpose in
life.
Nora read the paper, not surprised because she knew it was coming. Especially because they
haven’t made money ever since Amir died. Nora started thinking of ways to get the money to
solve the problem. She thought and she thought. They had been saving up and they have enough
for this bill, but not enough for upcoming bills. Nora’s mother had a very simple job which was
to sell vegetables at the market. That didn’t make the money they needed
As she was thinking, Nora suddenly had a bolt of excitement. She knew what to do. Nora told
her mom she was leaving to the local library. She took a deep breath as she stepped in.
Nora started searching on the web “economical electricity”. The first thing that showed up for
her was a National Geographic website. She clicked on it and then came up a list of healthy
electricity. She noticed one thing; they all take place in dams. She clicked on the first one,
“Hydropower "she scrolled down and read, “Harnessing the power of water is the cheapest form
of energy, but environmental and other concerns cast doubts on its worth” Soon, Nora started
growing more interested the more she learned about it. She started searching more materials
desperate to learn about Hydropower.
Consequently, she started jotting down notes as she was reading about Hydropower. in
summary, she learned that Hydropower is the use of renewable energy generated from the water.
It is found in dams and it is the eco-friendliest ways to generate electricity. Only about 7% of the
world is making use of this type of energy making. That’s because hydro-powered dams require
expensive turbines which is used to make the cycle going. When the water goes down the
penstock from the dam, water pressure increases. Therefore, this pressure is used to power the
turbines. There is a rotor that spins the turbine. The rotor is spun around by the water pressure.
Large electromagnets are attached to the rotor, connected by a copper wire called a stator, and
the generator rotor spins the magnets creating electricity through the coils of the stator. The
stator coil stretches to the voltages through the station transformers and set across transition
lines. After the water finished its cycle, it exits the generating stations to the tailrace where it
rejoins the mainstream of the water.
Nora was satisfied with what she found. She ran back home and went inside her father’s
workshop. She started gathering things like, plastic spoons, a small piece of plywood, a 12V DC
Gear Motor, and a 5mm LED light. She started sketching. She took the plywood and outlined a
tiny circle that outlined the end of her eraser on her pencil. She took a mug and started tracing it
around the small circle. She grabbed her X-ACTO knife and cut the circles out. She ended up
with a round circle with the tiny hole cut out in the middle. She grabbed a marker and with a
ruler, split the round piece equally into eighths. Then, cut out slits along the lines she drew and
then took the 8 plastic spoons, trimmed them to fit the slits and glued them in. Then, took the
12V DC Gear Motor, which was like the turbines that kept the cycle running, and she glued it to
the tiny hole in the middle. After, she took the LED lights and attached it to the two hanging
wires on the end of the gear motor. After that, she took the remaining pieces of plywood and
screwed it on to the round circle and then she created a base to it. She smiled as she imagined the
infinite possibilities of her finished product

She took a barrel of water and placed it on a stepping stool so it could deliver the high-
pressure water to the “rotor” to power the machine. She turned the water spout on. She watched
the water slowly as it trickled down to the hydropower machine. It started to build up speed as
the water pressure increased. And slowly but surely, she started to see the LED light gradually
turn on. She burst into excitement screaming to her mother to come over. Nora’s mother came
rushing with puffy eyes. She looked down and saw the LED light turning on. She burst into joy
and hugged her daughter for she knew that everything was going to be alright.

Soon enough, their house was filled with hydropower machines. They finally weren’t living in
distressed thoughts about no electricity for their home. And soon, the whole city knew about it
and Nora decided to make a small business for her hydropower machines for the whole city. It
grew successfully and eventually, her and her mother didn’t have to worry about making enough
money to live and they lived a happily hydro-powered ever after!

Page Break

Works Cited
Hydropower. (2009, October 09). Retrieved from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/hydropower/
This source is recommended reading because it explained hydropower and the overview of what
it is. It is a good source especially since it’s from a worldwide known website.

Muise, S. (n.d.). Hydro Power. Retrieved from https://www.studentenergy.org/topics/hydro-

power
This source is a recommended reading because it clearly explained the way hydro-powered dams work. It
also has a good explanation of the history of hydropower.

What is hydropower? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.originenergy.com.au/blog/about-

energy/what-is-hydropower.html
this source is recommended reading because it not only explained what hydropower is, but it also talked
about how Australia uses hydropower and the benefits. This helped because it gave me an idea of the
benefits of hydropower.