A Guide to Hydro-Power

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• Tags: Alternative Energy, Energy Conservation, Environment, global issues, Green Living, hydro power, hydroelectric power, Renewable Energy, saving energy

Hydro-power has been used for a variety of functions over the years. It was used in flour mills, where water-wheels turn a shaft, that ground the flour, and even in irrigation system thousands of years ago. These days, it has a more prominent role as a renewable source of energy.

Nowadays hydro-power is generated in 3 different ways: hydroelectric power, tidal power, and wave power.

Hydroelectricity:

Hydro-electric dams produced up to 90% of the world’s alternative energy, so it plays a vital role. Here, dams release water through huge turbines, which are spun by the force of the water.

The benefit to this type of hydro-power is the dam serves two purposes – to store water and to produce power. In fact, the water has so much stored energy, that it is capable of generating thousands of megawatts of power to light up an entire city.

There are number of environmental and social concerns, however; with building these large dams. They affect the spawning patterns of various fish, they can wipe out entire communities as they flood the land, and destroy natural vegetation.

Tidal Energy:

With tidal energy, hydropower is generated as the tides come in and go out.

This has been achieved by France and Russia since 1966 in areas with a large tidal range, such as bays and estuaries. One of the systems of tidal power works by trapping water at high tide with a tidal barrage, then releasing that water in one quick burst at low tide. This gushing water drives turbines to produce power.

Because it works with the tides, the system is very predicable, however; this is also its pitfall, since it only works every 6 hours when the tides changes.

Another, more modern tidal energy system works where large turbines (that look like wind turbines) are sunk in the shallows and are spun by the shifting tidal currents.

The advantage of this system is that it is an adaptation of an already technologically advanced wind turbine – so all the refinement has been done. Furthermore, the dense water is far more efficient than wind at spinning these turbines. Thus even slow-moving water is just as effective as a strong wind.

The disadvantage with this tidal power system is that it can only operate in a shallow area. This is usually where other economic activities, such as oyster farming, take place, and also where marine life thrives.

Wave Power:

Harnessing the power of the waves is the newest type of hydro-power. The system works where surface waves, are used to displace air, which is then compressed and released through turbines, that then spins to make electricity. Two types currently exist – the first is built along the shore-line, where waves constantly break, and the second is built on floating devices in the deep oceans.

Although this technology is relatively new, it has been estimated that there is enough energy in ocean waves to produce up to 2000 Megawatts of power.

However, wave power systems do have environmental concerns. Their hydraulic fluids could leak out into the ocean, causing water pollution and the fixed structures on the coastline can damage the natural plant and animal life on the seafloor.

Man has developed innovative techniques to harness the power of water to produce electricity, but like most renewable energy solutions, there will always be social and environmental impacts.

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy, Energy Conservation, Environment, global issues, Green Living, hydro power, hydroelectric power, Renewable Energy, saving energy