Power Essay, Research Paper

Hydro Power

My alternative power source is Hydro power. It comes from water. The oldest and simplest form was the water wheel first used in ancient Greece for grinding grain. The water wheel design was changed by Jean Victor Poncelet in the 18th century. He made the blades curved which raised the efficiency by 70 percent. The water wheel was now called a hydraulic turbine. The turbine is a rotary engine that changes the energy of a moving stream of water to mechanical energy. Mechanical energy is then transferred through a drive shaft to operate a generator.

A Hydro power plant cost a lot to set up but once it?s set up and running it?s a lot cheaper than a fossil fuel plant. Hydro power is a cleaner source of energy than fossil fuel. Hydro power has its drawbacks. It needs a steady flow of water to keep its turbines at a constant speed.

The changes in water flow could affect the output of electrical power. Fossil fuel plants can adapt to changing electrical needs more quickly. As long as we have fossil fuel available.

Hydro power is a renewable source of power. It doesn?t hurt the environment as much as fossil fuel. In 1978 to encourage the production of electricity from renewable resources the federal government passed the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. The law says that utility companies by electrical power from small power produces from hydroelectric plants.

The largest hydroelectric power plant in the United States is the Grand Coulee. Which has a capacity of 7,600 megawatts. The total usable hydro power of the world is estimated at 2,789,000 megawatts of which only 15 percent is being used now. The future of Hydro power looks good because of the problems from using fossil fuels.