Hydroelectricity

Energy, 1992

The development of hydroelectric power throughout the world is receiving renewed attention as the economic, political, and environmental costs of conventional energy production rise. There is currently a perception that hydro electricity has environmental and economic advantages over electricity produced by conventional energy technologies, but there is a paucity of information about the environmental impacts of hydroelectric facilities as a function of size and type. We characterize the environmental impacts of hydroelectric developments and quantify these impacts as a function of the size and type of project. Several unexpected conclusions arise from our analysis. For most hydroelectric facilities, size, as measured by installed capacity, is not necessarily a good indicator of the severity of environmental costs. For impacts such as land flooded and evaporative water lost, smaller facilities cause greater environmental disruptions per unit of energy produced than do larger facilities. A more striking conclusion, however, is that differences m the type of facility, as indicated by the relationship between dam height and gross static head, are often far more important from an environmental perspective than are differences in the installed electrical capacity of a facility. Another major conclusion is that the development of hydroelectric facilities (independent of their size) such as dams at new sites and dams operated to produce peak power are often, accompanied by environmental and ecological disruptions comparable to or exceeding those of conventional nonhydroelectric energy facilities. These results suggest that there is no justification to expedite licensing procedures for hydroelectric facilities smaller than some arbitrarily chosen installed capacity, as currently permitted by' some laws. Appropriate policies should emphasize the development of dams on the basis of other favorable physical, chemical, and biological characteristics.

The study focuses on the Environmental Factors that are necessary for Hydroelectric Power Generation. . The hydroelectric power plant instructional device was designed for showing the similar process of hydroelectric power plant in generating electricity to the small villages. Based on the evaluation conducted, the factors were proven to be highly acceptable based on the given criteria on aesthetics, functionality and reliability. The study really supports the findings of the researchers about the project. The research project “Environmental Factors Necessary for Hydroelectric Power Generation.” will be used in laboratory purposes and the findings can also help our instructors in demonstrating and explaining about hydroelectric power plant.

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In this work we summarized the all the concepts of hydropower plants dams as well as all hydropower plants. Introduction There are many ways to generate electricity in modern day. One of them is to use the gravitational force of falling water, which is also known as hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity occurs in a dam, where the falling water is used to generate enough force to turn a turbine that is connected to an electricity generator. With this action, potential energy of water is transformed into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy. This is both an efficient and green way of generating electricity: it is not as hard as the geothermal electricity because people do not have to find a perfect area to generate it; and it is also not as polluting as the nuclear power plants are. Therefore, hydroelectricity is much greener than the nuclear power plants which generate electricity, and much easier to generate than the geothermal electricity, where it is economically attractive, provides security of supply and has low levels of COR 2 Remissions Hydropower has been using in thirty country worldwide and its production is estimated at 1/5 total global production with 90% efficiency. The greatest benefit from the hydropower program is the abundant low-cost energy the projects contribute to electric power grids. Because hydroelectric power plants burn no fuel, operating costs are low and are immune to rising fossil fuel prices, when construction costs were low. As a result, these plants are playing a significant role in keeping electricity costs affordable for consumers, creating a positive impact on the economy. Not only, but a dams which use to produce energy also used to irrigation and keep water to expected drought periods. So hydropower is considered a major renewable energy where it just produce through magnetic induction, the generator converts the mechanical energy of the turbines to electricity. In Sudan there's 92% primary energy consumption comes from fossil fuels and 8% from hydropower. However, the current installed capacity is about 60% of hydropower. The country is making efforts to integrate more renewable energy resources and seeks 11% of renewable electricity generation except hydropower by 2031. Sudan has also adopted a national energy efficiency plan in 2012 and has set cumulative energy efficiency targets of 11.8% and seeks 32% by 2020[1, 2, and 3] Classification of Hydropower Plants According to Capacity Hydropower plants classified according its capacity to six types large, medium, small, mini, micro, pico and will be discuss below in details [4]. 1. Large hydropower plants: >100 MW 2. Medium hydropower plants: 25-100 MW 3. Small: 1-25 MW

Green Energy and Technology, 2013

In present days, most government policies plan to increase their national electricity grid. The reality is that several villages, farmers, and settlers will not have access to electricity because of infrastructural and economic constraints. Although high technological solutions can be necessary to expand the main grid, small stand-alone projects may sometimes require very simple solutions. Even so, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of how to implement them without major social or environmental impacts. This chapter shows the basic principles of hydropower resources, how to plan sites in rivers where the water flow and height differences are large enough so that new small hydropower plants can be built. Usually these plants will have a capacity of 10–20 \( {\text{kW}} \), for runoff the river applications, or from 20 to 100 \( {\text{kW}} \) for water flows above 0.3 m3/s during the dry season, and a height difference of at least a few meters. Even during the dry season, the electricity is often sufficient for powering light at night, computers or television sets and a refrigerator, which will already have major impacts on such places. In this chapter, the following hydro turbine systems are discussed: fixed-speed with an induction generator; variable-speed with a cage-bar induction generator; variable-speed with a multiple-pole synchronous generator or multiple-pole permanent magnet synchronous generator; and variable-speed with a doubly-fed induction generator.

United Nations Industrial Development Organization and International Center on Small Hydro Power, 2013

Liu, H., Masera, D. and Esser, L., eds. (2013). World Small Hydropower Development Report 2013. United Nations Industrial Development Organization; International Center on Small Hydro Power. Available from www.smallhydroworld.org.

International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology

Water's potential energy is used to generate electricity in hydroelectric power plants. It generates clean energy. Water may be utilised for agriculture and other purposes after it has been used to generate power. In 1882, a waterwheel on Wisconsin's Fox River was used to generate electricity for the first time. Early in the twentieth century, hydropower continued to play an important role in the global expansion of electrical service. Hydroelectric power plants range in size from a few hundred kW to thousands of MW. For generating capacities less than 100 KW, they are classified as micro hydro power plants. As a renewable and clean source, hydroelectric power plants are far more reliable and efficient than fossil fuel power plants. As a result, small to medium-sized hydroelectric generating stations were upgraded wherever there was a sufficient supply of moving water and a demand for electricity. Small hydro plants fell out of favour as electricity demand increased in the middle of the century and the efficiency of coal and oil-fired power plants improved. Hydropower plant megaprojects have been created. The bulk of these power plants used enormous dams to flood large amounts of land in order to provide water storage and hence a continual supply of energy. The environmental implications of such huge hydro projects have recently been noted as a source of concern. Developers are finding it increasingly difficult to build additional dams due to objections from environmentalists and residents in the flooded areas. As a result, the necessity for small-scale hydroelectric power plants in the form of mini and micro hydro power plants has developed. Malaysia has no micro hydro power plants, and the smallest category of hydro power plants in Malaysia is mini hydro, with capacities ranging from 500 kW to 100 kW. The purpose of this work is to explore the conceptual design and development of a micro hydro power plant. Hydroelectric power generating is one of several methods for producing energy. Coal, natural gas, and oil were the three most commonly utilized energy sources in 2009. These sources not only emit hazardous pollutants to the environment, but they also deplete scarce resources. As a result, other energy sources must be investigated. The inherent energy of moving water is harvested by guiding the water through a turbine, which converts the energy of moving water into mechanical energy. In the generator, mechanical energy is turned into electricity. The flow rate and pressure head of the water supply must be determined in order to select the right generator for a certain application. Small-scale hydropower is one of the most cost-effective energy options to be explored for rural electrification in developing nations. It is also the key hope for future hydro projects in Europe, where large-scale prospects have either been exhausted or are now deemed environmentally undesirable. Little hydro technology is incredibly durable and one of the most ecologically friendly energy sources accessible. The growth of hydroelectricity in the twentieth century was commonly connected with the construction of big dams. Hundreds of large concrete, rock, and earth barriers were built across river valleys across the world to construct massive artificial lakes. Although providing a substantial, steady power source as well as irrigation and flood control benefits, the dams inevitably inundated significant areas of arable land and displaced thousands of local residents. In many situations, the dam's output and longevity have been diminished as a result of fast silting up. There are also other environmental issues that might arise as a result of such significant influence with river flows.

Sustainability

Hydropower remains a key renewable energy source in the pursuit of the decarbonization of the economy, although the relatively high potential impact of the hydro-morphological alterations it may cause poses significant concerns for aquatic ecosystems. In the last years, new technologies and practices have been increasingly adopted to minimize the impacts of hydropower plants, while improving efficiency and flexibility of energy generation. The overall effect of these innovations may be a more sustainable design and operation of hydropower, striking a better balance between the objectives of decarbonization and ecosystem protection. This contribution presents and discusses a few representative examples of hydropower installations from companies in Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium and the USA, where solutions have been adopted in this direction. The case studies cover (1) ecologically improved and low head hydropower converters (Vortex turbine, Hydrostatic Pressure Machine, VLH and...