What kind of energy is hydroelectric power

To get an idea what kilowatts means, let's see how much electric energy we can make in a year. Since electric energy is normally measured in kilowatt-hours, we multiply the power from our dam by the number of hours in a year. The average annual residential energy use in the U.

So we can figure out how many people our dam could serve by dividing the annual energy production by 3, So our local irrigation or recreation dam could provide enough renewable energy to meet the residential needs of people if we added a turbine and generator. Note: Before you decide to add hydropower to a dam, have a hydropower engineer review your calculations and consult with the local resource agencies to be sure you can obtain any permits that are required.

Book Navigation. How Hydropower Works Hydropower plants capture the energy of falling water to generate electricity. Parts of a Hydroelectric Plant Most conventional hydroelectric plants include four major components see graphic below : Dam. Raises the water level of the river to create falling water. Also controls the flow of water. The reservoir that is formed is, in effect, stored energy. The force of falling water pushing against the turbine's blades causes the turbine to spin. A water turbine is much like a windmill, except the energy is provided by falling water instead of wind.

The turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy. The U. Hydro: how hydro power is generated. Department of Energy: how hydropower works. Ontario Power Generation: hydroelectric power. In the world's conversation about energy, one point is beyond debate: Energy makes a vital contribution to people's quality of life, to society and to human progress.

This is true today, and it will remain true in the future. That's why Energy Matters was created. Because the source of hydroelectric power is water, hydroelectric power plants are usually located on or near a water source.

The volume of the water flow and the change in elevation—or fall, and often referred to as head —from one point to another determine the amount of available energy in moving water. In general, the greater the water flow and the higher the head, the more electricity a hydropower plant can produce. At hydropower plants water flows through a pipe, or penstock , then pushes against and turns blades in a turbine to spin a generator to produce electricity.

Conventional hydroelectric facilities include Run-of-the-river systems , where the force of the river's current applies pressure on a turbine. The facilities may have a weir in the water course to divert water flow to hydro turbines. Storage systems , where water accumulates in reservoirs created by dams on streams and rivers and is released through hydro turbines as needed to generate electricity. Most U. Pumped-storage hydropower facilities are a type of hydroelectric storage system where water is pumped from a water source up to a storage reservoir at a higher elevation and is released from the upper reservoir to power hydro turbines located below the upper reservoir.

The electricity for pumping may be supplied by hydro turbines or by other types of power plants including fossil fuel or nuclear power plants. Pumped-storage hydroelectric systems generally use more electricity to pump water to the upper water storage reservoirs than they produce with the stored water.

Therefore, pumped-storage facilities have net negative electricity generation balances. The U. Energy Information Administration publishes electricity generation from pumped storage hydroelectric power plants as negative generation.

Click to enlarge. Hydropower is one of the oldest sources of energy for producing mechanical and electrical energy and up until , it was the largest source of total annual U.

Thousands of years ago, people used hydropower to turn paddle wheels on rivers to grind grain. Before steam power and electricity were available in the United States, grain and lumber mills were powered directly with hydropower.

The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity in the United States was in to power 16 brush-arc lamps at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The first U. There are about 1, conventional and 40 pumped-storage hydropower plants operating in the United States. The oldest operating U.

The largest U. Generation capacity is net summer capacity. Hydropower explained.