Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hydropower is now used principally for hydroelectric power generation, and is also applied as one half of an energy storage system known as pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Hydropower is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels as it does not directly produce carbon dioxide or other atmospheric pollutants and it provides a relatively ...
Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century. Hydropower was referred to as "white coal". [19] Hoover Dam's initial 1,345 MW power station was the world's largest hydroelectric power station in 1936; it was eclipsed by the 6,809 MW Grand Coulee Dam in 1942. [20]
Turgo turbine and generator At Milford Sound, New Zealand. The Turgo turbine is an impulse water turbine designed for medium head applications. Operational Turgo turbines achieve efficiencies of about 87%. In factory and lab tests Turgo turbines perform with efficiencies of up to 90%. It works with net heads between 15 and 300 m. [1]
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. A PSH system stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off ...
There are also small and somewhat-mobile forms of a run-of-the-river power plants. One example is the so-called electricity buoy, a small floating hydroelectric power plant. Like most buoys, it is anchored to the ground, in this case in a river. The energy within the moving water propels a power generator and thereby
A calculation of the historic average annual hydropower production baseline for the facility, along with the supporting water flow information and corresponding actual annual power production data for the period of record. Such calculations must be based on the units operating capacities as authorized under a Commission's license or exemption.
The amount of hydroelectric power generated is strongly affected by changes in precipitation and surface runoff. [4] Hydroelectric stations exist in at least 34 US states. The largest concentration of hydroelectric generation in the US is in the Columbia River basin, which in 2012 was the source of 44% of the nation's hydroelectricity. [5]
Inside the Robert-Bourassa generating station, in northern Quebec, the world's largest underground power station, with an installed capacity of 5,616 MW.. An underground power station is a type of hydroelectric power station constructed by excavating the major components (e.g. machine hall, penstocks, and tailrace) from rock, rather than the more common surface-based construction methods.