Energy & Green Tech

How will hydropower bolster a renewable energy world?

In the last few years, U.S. summers have looked a little apocalyptic. Wildfires raged across the West Coast. Floods stole homes. In July 2021, the Earth's hottest month ever was recorded, and power grids flickered, causing ...

Energy & Green Tech

Hydropower supply chain deep dive assessment: Report

A new Department of Energy report produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) identifies several supply chain must-haves in maintaining the pivotal role hydropower will play in decarbonizing the nation's grid.

Energy & Green Tech

Why we need hydropower for a resilient grid

America's most critical piece of energy infrastructure—the grid—is more vulnerable than ever before. The reasons are two-fold: a shift in power source mix is affecting grid stability, combined with an uptick in natural ...

Energy & Green Tech

Hydropower decline adds strain to power grids in drought

After water levels at a California dam fell to historic lows this summer, the main hydropower plant it feeds was shut down. At the Hoover Dam in Nevada—one of the country's biggest hydropower generators—production is ...

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Hydropower

Hydropower, hydraulic power, hydrokinetic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of falling water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower has been used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as watermills, sawmills, textile mills, dock cranes, and domestic lifts. Since the early 20th century, the term is used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydro-electric power, the energy of which could be transmitted considerable distance between where it was created to where it was consumed.

Another previous method used to transmit energy had employed a trompe, which produces compressed air from falling water, that could then be piped to power other machinery at a distance from the energy source.

Water's power is manifested in hydrology, by the forces of water on the riverbed and banks of a river. When a river is in flood, it is at its most powerful, and moves the greatest amount of sediment. This higher force results in the removal of sediment and other material from the riverbed and banks of the river, locally causing erosion, transport and, with lower flow, sedimentation downstream.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA