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Water. By: Ryan Besachio. How Water is Used to Make Energy. Water is formed by a dam blocking a river, creating an artificial lake called a reservoir. Water flows through tunnels at the bottom of the dam. As the water moves through the tunnels, it turns turbines connected to a generator.
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Water By: Ryan Besachio
How Water is Used to Make Energy • Water is formed by a dam blocking a river, creating an artificial lake called a reservoir. Water flows through tunnels at the bottom of the dam. As the water moves through the tunnels, it turns turbines connected to a generator.
Advantages From Using Hydropower • Once a dam is constructed, electricity can be produced at a constant rate. • The build up of water in the lake means that energy can be stored until needed, when the water is released to produce electricity. • When in use, electricity produced by dam systems do not produce green house gases. They do not pollute the atmosphere.
Disadvantages From Using Hydropower • Dams are extremely expensive to build and must be built to a very high standard. • The high cost of dam construction means that they must operate for many decades to become profitable. • The flooding of large areas of land means that the natural environment is destroyed.
History of Hydropower • B.C. -Hydropower used by the Greeks to turn water wheels for grinding wheat into flour, more than 2,000 years ago • 1880-Michigan's Grand Rapids Electric Light and Power Company, generating electricity by dynamo belted to a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory, lit up 16 brush-arc lamps. • 1881-Niagara Falls city street lamps powered by hydropower. • 1882-World's first hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton. • 1887-San Bernardino, Ca., opens first hydroelectric plant in the west. • 1901-First Federal Water Power • 1933-Tennessee Valley Authority established.1 • 1937-Bonneville Dam, first Federal dam, begins operation on the Columbia River. • 2003-About 10% of U.S. electricity comes from hydropower. Today, there is about 80,000 MW of conventional capacity and 18,000 MW of pumped storage.
10 Largest Dams in the World (10-1) • 10. Robert-Bourassa Dam, Canada • 9. Zeya Dam, Russia • 8. Krasnoyarsk Dam, Russia • 7. W.A.C Bennett Dam, Canada • 6. Aswan High Dam, Egypt • 5. Guri Dam, Venezuela • 4. Daniel Johnson Dam, Canada • 3. Akosombo Dam, Ghana • 2. Bratsk Dam, Russia • 1. Kariba Dam, Zimbabwe
5 Facts about Hydropower • Hydropower is the most significant renewable energy source. • Hydropower is the only renewable energy source that is in some measure competitive with fossil fuels. • Hydropower is the force of energy of moving water. • Hydropower can't be used in all areas because it needs fast flowing water throughout whole year. • Hydropower is very efficient energy source because some turbines can achieve efficiency of 95 % and more.
5 facts about Water • Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic. • Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it. • Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s surface. • The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water. • The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
Works Cited • http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/hydr2.htm • http://energy.gov/eere/water/history-hydropower • http://interestingenergyfacts.blogspot.com/2008/03/hydropower-facts.html • http://www.allaboutwater.org/water-facts.html • Earth Science from Prentice Hall • http://www.water-technology.net/features/feature-ten-largest-dams-in-the-world-reservoirs/