Hydroelectric power in the United States of America

Hydroelectric power has a very old history and is a kind of renewable energy. Since September 30, 1882 the world first hydroelectric power plant has been in operation and existing on the fox river in Appleton, Wisconsin. The electricity that generate in the world got about 20% came from Hydroelectric power and it hold the largest share of worldwide electric production. Hydroelectric power is basically convert the natural forces such as flowing water in river or waterfall into electricity. It is clean and sustainable for future power usage. Hydroelectric power plant usually build on dam due to dam can store much of water and can reconstruct the environment of the downstream. Besides, the dam can control the flow rate of water and prevent flood at the downstream of dam.

According to the institute energy research, the renewable energy has taken over about 9.9% of all energy consumed in the United State of America in 2015. But in this 9.9% or renewable energy, hydroelectric power has taken over about 25% which in the biggest and most popular renewable energy source in United State of America in 2015. The reason that cause hydroelectric power become one of the popular renewable power source is that the process that convert natural forces into electricity doesn’t need any sources which will cause pollution to the environment such as oil, coal and natural gas. Which means that, hydroelectric power plant does not create any pollution components such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen dioxide to the environment.

This may not seem like a significant change, but the lesser the pollution components produce can be correspond to enormous changes to the environment. Next, the conventional hydroelectric technology about 90% which is highly efficiency.

According to the US Department of energy, the hydroelectric power is the fourth cheap energy sources. Although the cost to build a hydroelectric power plant is high but it has a low operating cost and long lasting. The hydroelectric power plant can be operated automatically in condition without people. In order to build a hydroelectric power plant, the height of water in the dam has decided how much the potential power to generate electricity. The higher the dam build, the more potential energy in water. The higher position of water enables the water moved downward effortlessly. In the structure of a hydroelectric power plant, the water flow through the gate and flow through the penstock which is control by the gates. The water flow through the penstock will control the total amount of electricity generated in the hydroelectric power plant. The potential and kinetics of water will be converted into rotational motion when the water push the blades of the turbine. When the shaft is rotate, the coil inside the generator will be rotate too and produce the electricity because the rotation of the shaft inside the generator will produces magnetic field that using electromagnetic field induction converted into electricity.

According standard 4247-1, generally can be defined as two main point which are additional provision relating to drainage and precaution for underground power station and provision to meet emergency condition for drainage. In the standard 5496, some changes are added in standard 5496 which are the width of each pipe are recommended as 1000mm and depth of Kaplan & Francis turbine recommended has been increased. In conclusion, although many hydroelectric power plant are construct in worldwide but many of them are small and not so efficiency compare with big hydroelectric power plant. New big hydroelectric power plant are necessary to be construct in worldwide to replace the un-renewable energy.