Hydro electric generation has been around since 1878, where a single bulb was powered for Cragside country house in Northumberland, England, UK. It was one of the earliest methods of electricity generation and certainly one of the earliest forms of renewable generation. Long before wind turbines became scalable, hydro was well established.

Grand Rapids, Michigan site of the first hydro electric power generator in USA - 1880

This early generator provided electric power for arc lighting. Like an arc welder, arc lighting created light when high voltage electricity sparked across air between two electrodes producing light. This light was used in a theatre and store in the township. The technology was superseded by incandescent bulbs.

 

The first hydro power plant in USA was built in 1880. Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In China, the Shilongba Hydropower Station was the first in 1912. Thargomindah was the first town in Australia (3rd in world) to have it's street lights powered by hydro electric. That plant is still operational, making it probably the oldest working hydro electric generation station in the world.

Loch Treig is a freshwater lake in the Scottish Highlands. A remote area with stunning natural beauty. In the 1920s a 18 miles (29 km) pipeline was bored right through the hills, the pipe comes out of the mountains in the foothills of Ben Nevis (UK's biggest mountain). From there the water descends to a generation station powering a factory and feeding excess energy in to the UK National Grid.

Made In China

With nearly a third of total world power output, China is now by far the world's largest producer of electricity using hydro electric generation.

Generating around 15% of their electricity needs from hydro electric stations, China makes 4 times more power in this way than second placed country Brazil.

In fact, they create more power with hydro electric generation than the next 4 biggest producing countries combined. Namely, in order of production amount from largest to smallest Brazil, Canada, USA and Russia.

The only European country to make the top ten, Norway makes nearly 90% of its electricity needs from hydro electric stations. Norway exports power to neighbouring countries. There are plans to lay an undersea cable to Scotland, opening the large UK market to the Norwegian power companies.

Paraguay takes the prize for top producer when compared to their total production with very nearly 100% coming from hydro electric generation.

So what exactly is hydro electric generation?

Hydro is a Ancient Greek language word meaning water. Hydro electric generation is the process of generating electricity using water.

Most commonly this involves the water having potential energy in that it is elevated above the generation plant. As it descends at speed down a pipe it enters the electricity generator, turning it and this turning motion creates electricity.

Pump storage is a form of hydro electrical generation where water is pumped to a storage lake for use later. This process converts electrical energy in to potential energy, ready to be converted back in to electrical energy when required. There are of course inefficiencies with this system, but it helps the network maintain full power at peak times.

What is the future for Hydro Electric

Unlike other forms of electricity generation, Nuclear or wind for example, hydro stations are very long lived. This may be because the technology to drive the turbines is less complicated. Basically a big pipe for water to flow and a propeller to turn the generator. The generator itself has scheduled maintenance same as any other generator method, but for most stations, the water flow facilities and turbine of a hydro electric station are robust.

Drought is a problem for some countries that have invested in hydro electric generation stations. When water levels are low in a lake, reservoir or river that is used to generate hydro electricity, a Government may have to balance the need to generate electricity against providing a decent drinking water supply or disrupting fishing businesses.

About The Author
Belinda Garcia
Chewells Contributor

Belinda writes for us. We give her story topics that we need covered and she does the... »

Read Next

...

Replies

• Be the first to reply. Fill in the form below.

Leave a Reply

We value your comments but kindly request that all messages are on topic and respectful. Please take the time to read our commenting policy.