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The Kelvin water dropper, invented by Scottish scientist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) in 1867, [1] is a type of electrostatic generator. Kelvin referred to the device as his water-dropping condenser. The apparatus is variously called the Kelvin hydroelectric generator, the Kelvin electrostatic generator, or Lord Kelvin's thunderstorm.
The Faraday generator is named for Michael Faraday's experiments on moving charged particles in the Thames River. A simple Faraday generator consists of a wedge-shaped pipe or tube of some non-conductive material. When an electrically conductive fluid flows through the tube, in the presence of a significant perpendicular magnetic field, a ...
Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. The power extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow.
A screw turbine at a small hydro power plant in Goryn, Poland. The Archimedean screw is an ancient invention, attributed to Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC.), and commonly used to raise water from a watercourse for irrigation purposes. In 1819 the French engineer Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785–1836) suggested using the Archimedean ...
The PCU sways back and forth with the movement of the waves, [7] and this movement of the flap drives two hydraulic pistons that pump high-pressured water through three sub-sea pipeline to an onshore hydro-electric water turbine. The turbine then drives a 315 kW electrical generator, which converts the wave energy into electricity. [9]
The size of hydroelectric plants can vary from small plants called micro hydro, to large plants that supply power to a whole country. As of 2019, the five largest power stations in the world are conventional hydroelectric power stations with dams. [21]
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.
In early 1871 Belgian inventor Zénobe Gramme invented a generator powerful enough to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. [1] In 1878, a hydroelectric power station was designed and built by William, Lord Armstrong at Cragside, England. It used water from lakes on his estate to power Siemens dynamos. The electricity supplied power ...