Introduction Hydroelectric power plants convert the kinetic energy contained in falling water into electricity.

The energy in flowing water is ultimately derived from the sun, and is therefore constantly being renewed. Energy contained in sunlight its it on land in the form ofevaporates water from the oceans and depos rain. Differences in land elevation result in rainfall runoff, and allow some of the original solar energy to be captured as hydroelectric power.

Hydropower is currently the world's largest renewable source of electricity, accounting for 6% of worldwide energy supply or about 15% of the world's electricity. Traditionally thought of as a cheap and clean source of electricity, most large hydro-electric schemes being planned today are coming up against a great deal of opposition from environmental groups and native people.

History of Hydro Power

however its origin in the Middle Ages, when the English civil engineer John Smeathon made the first water wheel of cast irons. In the year 1880 was built the first hydro-electric power plant in North England, with which the manufacture of current could. At the start of the 20th century the interest in this clean energy it became larger, since the generator was invented, better turbines were used and the demand for current constantly rose. The principle of a hydro-electric power plant however never changed. That means; the water was always kept in a high-altitude memory and led then across pressure pipes to the actual power station.

Humans have used falling water to provide power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other applications. The first use of moving water to produce electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882, two years after Thomas Edison unveiled the incandescent light bulb. The first of many hydroelectric power plants at Niagara Falls was completed shortly thereafter. Hydropower continued to play a major role in the expansion of electrical service early in this century, both in North America and around the world. Contemporary Hydroelectric power plants generate anywhere from a few kW, enough for a single residence, to thousands of MW, power enough to supply a large city.

Early hydroelectric power plants were much more reliable and efficient than the fossil fuel fired plants of the day. This resulted in a proliferation of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating stations distributed wherever there was an adequate supply of moving water and a need for electricity. As electricity demand soared in the middle years of this century, and the efficiency of coal and oil fuelled power plants increased, small hydro plants fell out of favour. Most new hydro-electric development was focused on huge "mega-projects". Efficiency is often higher with larger and more modern turbines.

The majority of these power plants involved large dams which flooded vast areas of land to provide water storage and therefore a constant supply of electricity. In recent years, the environmental impacts of such large hydro projects are being identified as a cause for concern. It is becoming increasingly difficult for developers to build new dams because of opposition from environmentalists and people living on the land to be flooded. This is shown by the opposition to projects such as Great Whale (James Bay II) in Quebec and the Gabickovo-Nagymaros project on the Danube River in Czechoslovakia.

Electricity generation Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. In this case the energy extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow. This height difference is called the head. The amount of potential energy in water is proportional to the head. To obtain very high head, water for a hydraulic turbine may be run through a large pipe called a penstock.

Pumped storage hydroelectricity produces electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations.

At times of low electrical demand, excess generation capacity is used to pump water into the higher reservoir. When there is higher demand, water is released back into the lower reservoir through a turbine. Pumped storage schemes currently provide the only commercially important means of largescale grid energy storage and improve the daily load factor of the generation system. Hydroelectric plants with no reservoir capacity are called run-of-the-river plants, since it is not then possible to store water. A tidal power plant makes use of the daily rise and fall of water due to tides; such sources are highly predictable, and if conditions permit construction of reservoirs, can also be dispatchable to generate power during high demand periods. Less common types of hydro schemes use water's kinetic energy or undammed sources such as undershot waterwheels. Annual electric energy production depends on the available water supply. In some installations the water flow rate can vary by a factor of 10:1 over the course of a year.

Small-scale hydro-electric plants Although large hydroelectric installations generate most of the world's hydroelectricity, some situations require small hydro plants. These are defined as plants producing up to 10 megawatts, or projects up to 30 megawatts in North America. A small hydro plant may be connected to a distribution grid or may provide power only to an isolated community or a single home. Small hydro projects generally do not require the protracted economic, engineering and environmental studies associated with large projects, and often can be completed much more quickly. A small hydro development may be installed along with a project for flood control, irrigation or other purposes, providing extra revenue for project costs. In areas that formerly used waterwheels for milling and other purposes, often the site can be redeveloped for electric power production, possibly eliminating the new environmental impact of any demolition operation. Small hydro can be further divided into mini-hydro, units around 1 MW in

size, and micro hydro with units as large as 100 kW down to a couple of kW rating. Small hydro schemes are particularly popular in China, which has over 50% of world small hydro capacity.

Small hydro units in the range 1 MW to about 30 MW are often available from multiple manufacturers using standardized "water to wire" packages; a single contractor can provide all the major mechanical and electrical equipment (turbine, generator, controls, switchgear), selecting from several standard designs to fit the site conditions. Micro hydro projects use a diverse range of equipment; in the smaller sizes industrial centrifugal pumps can be used as turbines, with comparatively low purchase cost compared to purpose-built turbines.

Advantages
Economics The major advantage of hydroelectricity is elimination of the cost of fuel. The cost of operating a hydroelectric plant is nearly immune to increases in the cost of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas or coal, and no imports are needed.

Hydroelectric plants also tend to have longer economic lives than fuel-fired generation, with some plants now in service which were built 50 to 100 years ago. Operating labor cost is also usually low, as plants are automated and have few personnel on site during normal operation. Where a dam serves multiple purposes, a hydroelectric plant may be added with relatively low construction cost, providing a useful revenue stream to offset the costs of dam operation. It has been calculated that the sale of electricity from the Three Gorges Dam will cover the construction costs after 5 to 8 years of full generation.

Greenhouse gas emissions Since hydroelectric dams do not burn fossil fuels, they do not directly produce carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). While some carbon dioxide is produced during manufacture and construction of the project, this is a tiny fraction of the operating emissions of equivalent fossil-fuel electricity generation.

Related activities Reservoirs created by hydroelectric schemes often provide facilities for water sports, and become tourist attractions in themselves. In some countries, aquaculture in reservoirs is common. Multi-use dams installed for irrigation support agriculture with a relatively constant water supply. Large hydro dams can control floods, which would otherwise affect people living downstream of the project

Disadvantages
Recreational users must exercise extreme care when near hydroelectric dams, power plant intakes and spillways.

Environmental damage Hydroelectric projects can be disruptive to surrounding aquatic ecosystems both upstream and downstream of the plant site. For instance, studies have shown that dams along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America have reduced salmon populations by preventing access to spawning grounds upstream, even though most dams in salmon habitat have fish ladders installed. Salmon spawn are also harmed on their migration to sea when they must pass through turbines. This has led to some areas transporting smolt downstream by barge during parts of the year. In some cases dams have been demolished (for example the Marmot Dam demolished in 2007) because of impact on fish. Turbine and powerplant designs that are easier on aquatic life are an active area of research. Mitigation measures such as fish ladders may be required at new projects or as a condition of re-licensing of existing projects.

Population relocation Another disadvantage of hydroelectric dams is the need to relocate the people living where the reservoirs are planned. In February 2008, it was estimated that 40-80 million people worldwide had been physically displaced as a direct result of dam construction.In many cases, no amount of compensation can replace ancestral and cultural attachments to places that have spiritual value to the displaced population. Additionally,

historically and culturally important sites can be flooded and lost. Such problems have arisen at the Three Gorges Dam project in China, the Clyde Dam in New Zealand and the Ilisu Dam in Southeastern Turkey.

Affected by flow shortage Changes in the amount of river flow will correlate with the amount of energy produced by a dam. Because of global warming, the volume of glaciers has decreased, such as the North Cascades glaciers, which have lost a third of their volume since 1950, resulting in stream flows that have decreased by as much as 34%.[12] The result of diminished river flow can be power shortages in areas that depend heavily on hydroelectric power.

Comparison with other methods of power generation Hydroelectricity eliminates the flue gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, including pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, dust, and mercury in the coal. Hydroelectricity also avoids the hazards of coal mining and the indirect health effects of coal emissions. Compared to nuclear power, hydroelectricity generates no nuclear waste, has none of the dangers associated with uranium mining, nor nuclear leaks. Unlike uranium, hydroelectricity is also a renewable energy source. Unlike fossil-fueled combustion turbines, construction of a hydroelectric plant requires a long lead-time for site studies, hydrological studies, and environmental impact assessment. Hydrological data up to 50 years or more is usually required to determine the best sites and operating regimes for a large hydroelectric plant. Unlike plants operated by fuel, such as fossil or nuclear energy, the number of sites that can be economically developed for hydroelectric production is limited; in many areas the most cost effective sites have already been exploited. New hydro sites tend to be far from population centers and require extensive transmission lines. Hydroelectric generation depends on rainfall in the watershed, and may be significantly reduced in years of low rainfall or snowmelt. Long-term energy

yield may be affected by climate change. Utilities that primarily use hydroelectric power may spend additional capital to build extra capacity to ensure sufficient power is available in low water years.

The Future of Hydro-Electric Power The theoretical size of the worldwide hydropower is about four times greater than that which has been exploited at this time. The actual amount of electricity, which will ever be generated by hydropower, will be much less than the theoretical potential. This is due to the environmental concerns outlined above, and economic constraints. Much of the remaining hydro potential in the world exists in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. Harnessing this resource would require billions of dollars, because hydroelectric facilities generally have very high construction costs. In the past, the World Bank has spent billions of foreign aid dollars on huge hydroelectric projects in the third world. Opposition to hydropower from environmentalists and native people, as well as new environmental assessments at the World Bank will restrict the amount of money spent on hydroelectric power construction in the developing countries of the world. In North America and Europe, a large percentage of hydropower potential has already been developed. Public opposition to large hydro schemes will probably result in very little new development of big dams and reservoirs. Small scale and low head hydro capacity will probably increase in the future as research on low head turbines, and standardized turbine production, lowers the costs of hydro-electric power at sites with low heads. New computerized control systems and improved turbines may allow more electricity to be generated from existing facilities in the future. As well, many small hydroelectric sites were abandoned in the 1950's and 60's when the price of oil and coal was very low, and their environmental impacts unrealised. Increased fuel prices in the future could result in these facilities being refurbished.

Conclusions Hydroelectric power has always been an important part of the world's electricity supply, providing reliable, cost effective electricity, and will continue to do so in the future. Hydropower has environmental impacts, which are very different from those of fossil fuel power plants. The actual effects of dams and reservoirs on various ecosystems are only now becoming understood. The future of hydro-electric power will depend upon future demand for electricity, as well as how societies value the environmental impacts of hydro-electric power compared to the impacts of other sources of electricity.