HYDRO POWER

XII-C (RJ)
INDEX:

• WHAT IS HYDRO POWER?

• HISTORY OF HYDRO POWER.
• HOW DOES IT WORKS?
• ADVANTAGES OF HYDRO POWER
• DISADVANTAGES OF HYDRO POWER
• FAMOUS PROJECTS
- Three Gorges, China
- Itaipu, Brazil & Paraguay
-Xiluodu, China
-Guri, Venezuela
-Tehri Hydropower Complex
 WHAT IS HYDRO POWER?
• Hydropower is the use of falling or
fast running water to produce
electricity or to power machines.
This is achieved
by converting the gravitational or kin
etic energy of a water source to
produce power. Hydropower is a
method of sustainable energy
production. Hydropower is now used
principally for hydroelectric power
generator, and is also applied as one
half of an energy storage system
known as pumped-storage
hydroelectricity.
• Hydroelectric power is one of the
oldest and largest sources of
renewable energy, which uses the
natural flow of moving water to
generate electricity
 HISTORY OF
HYDROPOWER
• 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.
• In 1827, French engineer Benoit Fourneyron
developed a turbine capable of producing around 6
horsepower – the earliest version of the Fourneyron
reaction turbine.
• In 1849, British–American engineer James Francis
developed the first modern water turbine – the Francis
turbine – which remains the most widely-used water
turbine in the world today.
• The world’s first hydroelectric project was used to
power a single lamp in the Cragside country house in
Northumberland, England, in 1878. Four years later,
the first plant to serve a system of private and
commercial customers was opened in Wisconsin, USA,
and within a decade, hundreds of hydropower plants
were in operation.
 HOW DOES IT
WORKS?

• 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.
• 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.
• Dams are just one component of a
complete hydroelectric facility, but are
one major, visible component in the
system. The purpose of a hydroelectric
dam is to provide a place to convert
the potential and kinetic energy of water
to electrical energy by using a turbine
and generator. Dams act as the place
where water is held back and released in
a controlled manner through hydraulic
turbines, enabling the
mechanical energy of the water to be
transformed to electrical energy
• Typical dams work to create a reservoir
where water is stored at a given height.
This height and the rate at which the
water flows from the reservoir through
the turbines determines how much
electricity can be generated.
• As the height of the dam increases,
the amount of electricity generated
increases as well. At the top of the
dam is a gate that is used for
blocking or allowing the release of
water from the reservoir. This gate
is opened or closed to meet
electricity requirements
 ADVANTAGES OF
HYDROPOWER:
• Hydropower provides benefits beyond
electricity generation by providing flood
control, irrigation support, and clean
drinking water.
• Hydropower is affordable. Hydropower
provides low-cost electricity and durability
over time compared to other sources of
energy. Construction costs can even be
mitigated by using preexisting structures
such as bridges, tunnels, and dams
• Hydroelectric power is flexible. Some
hydropower facilities can quickly go from
zero power to maximum output. Because
hydropower plants can generate power to
the grid immediately, they provide
essential backup power during major
electricity outages or disruptions.
 DISADVANTAGES OF
HYDROPOWER:
• While no power plant is easy to build,
hydro plants do require you to build a
dam to stop running water. As a result,
they cost more than similarly sized
fossil fuel plants.
• Although, they will not need to worry
about purchasing fuel later on. So it
does even out over the long-term.
• While hydropower is renewable, there
are limited places in the world that are
suitable for plant construction. On top
of this, some of these places are not
close to major cities that could fully
benefit from the energy.
• When dams are built at higher
elevations, they pose a serious risk to
any town nearby that is below it.
While these dams are built very
strong, there are still risks. The
biggest dam failure in history is
the Banqiao Dam failure. Due to
excess rainfall from a typhoon, the
dam collapsed. This resulted in the
deaths of 171,000 people.
 FAMOUS PROJECTS:
1. Three Gorges, China – 22.5GW
• The 22.5GW Three Gorges hydroelectric
power plant in Yichang, Hubei province,
China, is the world’s biggest hydropower
station. It is a conventional impoundment
hydropower facility exploiting the water
resource of the Yangtze River. The project
is owned and operated by China Three
Gorges Corporation (CTGC) through its
subsidiary China Yangtze Power.
2. Itaipu, Brazil & Paraguay –
14GW
• The 14GW Itaipu hydroelectric power
plant is located on the Parana River, at the
border between Brazil and Paraguay. The
facility is operated by Itaipu Binacional.
• Construction of the $19.6bn plant began in
1975 and was completed in 1982. A
consortium of US-based IECO and Italy
based ELC Electroconsult carried out the
construction. Power production at Itaipu
was started in May 1984.
3. Xiluodu, China – 13.86GW
• The Xiluodu hydropower plant built on the
Jinsha River in central Sichuan Province of
China has an installed capacity of
13.86GW. Developed by CTGC, it was
officially inaugurated in 2013 and
connected to the grid in June 2014.
• The power plant features the world’s first
ultra-high concrete double-curvature arch
dam at an elevation of 610m. The
maximum height of the dam is 285.05m
and the reservoir area is 454,400km².
4. Guri, Venezuela –10.2GW
• Construction of the power project started in
1963. It was carried out in two phases, with
the first phase completed in 1978 and the
second phase in 1986. The power plant
consists of 20 generating units of different
capacities ranging between 130MW and
770MW.
• Alstom was awarded two contracts in 2007
and 2009 to refurbish four 400MW units
and five 630MW respectively. Andritz
received a contract to supply five 770MW
Francis turbines for the powerhouse II of
Guri in 2007. The Guri power station
supplies approximately 12,900GW/h of
energy for Venezuela.
 5.Tehri Hydropower Complex –
2,400MW
• It is also the eighth-tallest dam in the world and the
second-tallest in Asia. The length of the dam is 575
metres, while the base width is 1,128 metres and the
crest width is 20 metres.
• With a maximum planned capacity of 2,400MW, the
Tehri Hydropower Complex consists of the Tehri
Dam and the Tehri Pumped Storage Hydroelectric
Power Plant, and also includes the 400MW
Koteshwar Dam.
• Its reservoir stores water not just for the generation
of hydroelectricity (which is about 1,000MW in
addition to 1,000MW of pumped storage
hydroelectricity) but also for irrigation and municipal
water supply to other states of North India too, such
as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi,
Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir
and Rajasthan.
.
 BIBILOGRAPHY

- ENERGY.GOV
- ENERGY EDUCATION
- NS ENERGY