What Is Hydroelectric Energy, And How Does It Work

Hydroelectric power has been around for centuries and reaches as far back as the time of the Romans, and the Greeks that used water-powered mills to grind corn. Now centuries later the Hydroelectric Power plants today are more high tech and used for electricity all over the world.

Building a Hydroelectric Power plant takes a lot of work and landscaping.

The area of which the plant is going to be constructed needs to be in a valley area, and a very large valley area at that. First start off by building a damn, with a very large elevation drop for large water storage. Next comes the Reservoir, this is basically a door way at the bottom to make a constant flow of water. Then the Penstock is the tube that passes the water that is being sucked to the Tribune Propeller, which uses the flowing water to turn. The last step that hooks the power together is building the Powerhouse and this connects the produced power to a Generator that takes that produce energy and runs it to that power house that will transfer the energy to the Power lines that run electricity anywhere where the lines run and use the plant.

Hydroelectric plants and even the water powered mills that were used centuries ago were invented to run off of water because the earth has so much water. Lately there has been a lot of discussion about the world running out of water, but with all the precipitation the earth gets, it could take a while. When it does rain the damn that is storing water to be processed for energy catches that water and stores it as well.

A few problems that come with building a Hydroelectric Power Plant, is that the water could over flow and flood towns, and the wilderness. The damn wall can get cracked or damaged and break and flood a whole state. Having these plants built could cost almost millions to build and hurt tax payers. Imagine if this was being built in your city or town, you would have to pay the price by contributing to this plant being built, right from your very own pocket. This could mean anything from high gas prices, to higher utility bills. You live there so it's your responsibility to help out, like it or not. Another problem is the fact that having this large damn built in such a large area kills some much of Mother Nature.

It takes away homes of the many animals that live in the wilderness. Having wildlife destroyed seems to be the saddest factor, because so many animals get killed every year for different reasons as it is, and a lot of those animals seem to be a species that is going extinct. Sometimes great inventions come with very high price to pay.

The author regularly write about different aspects of electricity and the environment for a number of websites across the net.