Hydro power is generated by using electricity generators to extract energy from moving

water. Historically people used the power of rivers for agriculture and wheat grinding.
Today, rivers and streams are re-directed through hydro generators to produce energy,
although there arepros and cons as far as local ecosystems are concerned. The articles
on this page explore the use of water to generate electricity.

The total energy of water in a river is the combination of the water current’s kinetic
energy and the potential energy of the water current. Huge power plants are placed
inside of dams. When the water flow through the dam ,the turbines’ blades are spinned
which are connected with generators.

History

Early uses of waterpower date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, where irrigation
has been used since the 6th millennium BC and water clocks had been used since the
early 2nd millennium BC. Other early examples of water power include the Qanat
system in ancient Persia and the Turpan water system in ancient China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropower

Waterwheels and mills

Hydropower has been used for hundreds of years. In India, water wheels and watermills
were built; in Imperial Rome, water powered mills produced flour from grain, and were
also used for sawing timber and stone; in China, watermills were widely used since the
Han Dynasty. The power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for
extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at
the Dolaucothi gold mine in Wales from 75 AD onwards, but had been developed in
Spain at such mines as Las Medulas. Hushing was also widely used in Britain in the
Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic
mining when used during the California gold rush.

In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated "vigina wheel" pumps
raised water into irrigation canals. At the beginning of the Industrial revolution in Britain,
water was the main source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwright's
water frame.[1] Although the use of water power gave way to steam power in many of
the larger mills and factories, it was still used during the 18th and 19th centuries for
many smaller operations, such as driving the bellows in small blast furnaces (e.g. the
Dyfi Furnace)[2] and gristmills, such as those built at Saint Anthony Falls, utilizing the
50-foot (15 m) drop in the Mississippi River.
In the 1830s, at the peak of the canal-building era, hydropower was used to transport
barge traffic up and down steep hills using inclined plane railroads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropower

World distribution of hydropower

• Hydropower is the most important and widely-used renewable source of energy.

• Hydropower represents 19% of total electricity production.

• China is the largest producer of hydroelectricity, followed by Canada, Brazil, and

the United States (Source: Energy Information Administration).

• Approximately two-thirds of the economically feasible potential remains to be

developed. Untapped hydro resources are still abundant in Latin America, Central
Africa, India and China.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuhy.html

Advantages to hydroelectric power

• Fuel is not burned so there is minimal pollution

• Water to run the power plant is provided free by nature

• Hydropower plays a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

• Relatively low operations and maintenance costs

• The technology is reliable and proven over time

• It's renewable - rainfall renews the water in the reservoir, so the fuel is almost
always there

Hydroelectric power is not perfect, though, and does have some disadvantages

• High investment costs

• Hydrology dependent (precipitation)

• In some cases, inundation of land and wildlife habitat

• In some cases, loss or modification of fish habitat

• Fish entrainment or passage restriction

• In some cases, changes in reservoir and stream water quality.In some cases,
displacement of local populations

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuhy.html