Hydroelectric power

In order to generate electricity from the kinetic energy in moving water, the water has to move
with sufficient speed and volume to spin a propeller-like device called a turbine, which in turn
rotates a generator to generate electricity. Roughly speaking, one gallon of water per second
falling one hundred feet can generate one kilowatt of electricity.
To increase the volume of moving water, impoundments or dams are used to collect the water.
An opening in the dam uses gravity to drop water down a pipe called a penstock. The moving
water causes the turbine to spin, which causes magnets inside a generator to rotate and create
electricity.
There are a variety of types of turbines used at hydropower facilities, and their use depends on
the amount of hydraulic head at the plant. The most common are Kaplan, Francis, and Pelton
wheel designs. Some of these designs, called reaction and impulse wheels, use not just the
kinetic force of the moving water but also the water pressure.
The Kaplan turbine is similar to a boat propeller, with a runner (the turning part of a turbine) that
has three to six blades, and can provide up to 400 MW of power. The Kaplan turbine is
differentiated from other kinds of hydropower turbines because its performance can be improved
by changing the pitch of the blades. The Francis turbine has a runner with nine or more fixed
vanes. In this turbine design, which can be up to 800 MW in size, the runner blades direct the
water so that it moves in an axial flow [6]. The Pelton turbine consists of a set of specially
shaped buckets that are mounted on the outside of a circular disc, making it look similar to a
water wheel. Pelton turbines are typically used in high hydraulic head sites and can be as large as
200 MW.
Hydropower can also be generated without a dam, through a process known as run-of-the-river.
In this case, the volume and speed of water is not augmented by a dam. Instead, a run-of-river
project spins the turbine blades by capturing the kinetic energy of the moving water in the river.
Hydropower projects that have dams can control when electricity is generated because the dams
can control the timing and flow of the water reaching the turbines. Therefore these projects can
choose to generate power when it is most needed and most valuable to the grid. Because run-ofriver projects do not store water behind dams, they have much less ability to control the amount
and timing of when electricity is generated.
Another type of hydropower technology is called pumped storage. In a pumped storage plant,
water is pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir during off-peak times when
electricity is relatively cheap, using electricity generated from other types of energy sources.
Pumping the water uphill creates the potential to generate hydropower later on. When the
hydropower power is needed, it is released back into the lower reservoir through turbines.
Inevitably, some power is lost, but pumped storage systems can be up to 80 percent efficient.
There is currently more than 90 GW of pumped storage capacity worldwide, with about 20
percent of that in the United States. The need to create storage resources to capture and store for
later use the generation from high penetrations of variable renewable energy (e.g. wind and
solar) could increase interest in building new pumped storage projects.

Vocabulary

Propeller-propulsor
Turbine-turbina
Generator-generator
Dam-baraj
Drop-cadere brusca
Pipe-teava
Penstock-vana
Bucket-galeata
Circular disc- disc circular
Reservoir-rezervor
Wheel-roata
Lower-inferior
Spine-rotire
Pressure-presiune

Summary

In order to generate electricity from the kinetic energy in moving water, the water has to move
with sufficient speed and volume to spin a propeller-like device called a turbine, which in turn
rotates a generator to generate electricity.
To increase the volume of moving water, impoundments or dams are used to collect the water.
An opening in the dam uses gravity to drop water down a pipe called a penstock. The moving
water causes the turbine to spin, which causes magnets inside a generator to rotate and create
electricity.
There are a variety of types of turbines used at hydropower facilities, and their use depends on
the amount of hydraulic head at the plant. The most common are Kaplan, Francis, and Pelton
wheel designs. Some of these designs, called reaction and impulse wheels, use not just the
kinetic force of the moving water but also the water pressure.
The Kaplan turbine is similar to a boat propeller, with a runner (the turning part of a turbine) that
has three to six blades, and can provide up to 400 MW of power.
When the hydropower power is needed, it is released back into the lower reservoir through
turbines. Inevitably, some power is lost, but pumped storage systems can be up to 80 percent
efficient.

Word study

Hydroelectric power- In order to generate electricity from the kinetic energy in moving
water, the water has to move with sufficient speed and volume to spin a propeller-like
device called a turbine, which in turn rotates a generator to generate electricity.
Kinetic energy- Energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion.
Electricity- A form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles,either
statically as an accumulation of charge or dynamically as current.
Gravity- The force of attraction by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the center
of the earth.
Turbine- Any of various machines having a rotor, usually with vanes or blades, driven
by the pressure, momentum, or reactive thrust of a moving fluid, as steam, water, hot
gases, or air, either occurring in the form of free jets or as a fluid passing through and
entirely filling a housing around the rotor.
Generator- A machine that converts one form of energy into another, especially
mechanical energy into electrical energy, as a dynamo, or electrical energy into sound, as
an acoustic generator.
Renewable energy- any naturally occurring, theoretically inexhaustible source of energy,
as biomass, solar, wind, tidal, wave, and hydroelectric power, that is not derived from
fossil or nuclear fuel.