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Green Technology Products for Sustainable Development
Published in Miguel A. Esteso, Ana Cristina Faria Ribeiro, A. K. Haghi, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Development, 2020
The use of hydropower was promoted by energy-intensive industries such as aluminum smelters and steelworks. On September 30, 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant, Appleton Edison Light Company, began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. Hydroelectricity is a form of energy that harnesses the power of moving water to generate electricity. Since 1889 onward, all hydropower projects were aimed at electricity generation. The 22.5 GW Three Gorges hydroelectric power plant in China is the largest hydropower generating facility ever built. Though not mentioned here, many other turbines were designed and manufactured, as well as several dams were also established during this period. The world’s total installed capacity of hydropower in 2018 was estimated to be 1292 GW with electricity generation reaching 4200 terawatt-hours (TWh). Globally, hydropower is produced in 157 countries (Table 3.1), with 47 countries adding an estimated 21.8 gigawatts (GW) of hydropower capacity into operation in 2018. With Brazil increasing its installed capacity by 3.7 GW in 2018, it thereby reached a total capacity of 104 GW and so has now overtaken the United States (103 GW) as the second-largest country with respect to hydropower capacity (Table 3.2). Currently, hydropower contributes almost two-thirds of the renewable electricity generation, without which the objective of limiting climate change to 1.5 or 2 °C above preindustrial levels would likely be impossible.
Renewable Energy
Published in Chitrarekha Kabre, Synergistic Design of Sustainable Built Environments, 2020
Human civilization in antiquity started on the banks of rivers and streams as water is the lifeline of sustenance as well as it can be harnessed to perform work. Water is an extraordinary source of renewable energy, especially moving water via gravity, waves or tides is a source of kinetic energy. Historically the force of water flowing in the streams and rivers was used to produce mechanical energy for grinding grains into flour, saw wood, and other works. It is also a tremendous source of thermal energy stored from the sun. The earth’s oceans are sources, too, of tidal energy, wave energy, and thermal energy, all of which can be harnessed to generate electricity. A hydroelectric power or hydropower is the electricity created when the kinetic energy is harnessed from flowing water. Moving water turns a turbine and shaft, which spins a generator that produces electricity. Hydroelectric power produced 21.76% of the total renewable electricity in the United States in the year 2019, and 2.5% of the total US electricity. The water cycle makes the hydropower a sustainable option since solar energy evaporates surface water into clouds and recycles back to the earth as precipitation.
Hydroelectricity: Pumped Storage
Published in Brian D. Fath, Sven E. Jørgensen, Megan Cole, Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems, 2020
Pumped storage hydro is a form of hydroelectric power generation for electric utilities that incorporates an energy storage feature.[16] The water, the source of potential and kinetic energy, moves between two reservoirs—an upper and a lower one—with a significant vertical separation (see Figure 3).[17] Water is stored in the upper reservoir until such time as the utility determines it is economic to use it to produce electricity for the system. The water in the upper reservoir is stored gravitational energy.[18] When the water is released, the force of that water spins the blades of a turbine that connects to a generator that produces electricity.[19]
Trends in an increased dependence towards hydropower energy utilization—a short review
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2019
Girma T. Chala, M. I. N. Ma’Arof, Rakesh Sharma
The main technologies used in a hydropower facility constitute dammed reservoir, running river, pumped storage, stream technology and new technology gravitational vortex [8]. In this regard, the research in Europe mainly focuses on the main elements of electromechanical equipments such as turbines, pumps and generators. Basically, there are two types of turbines: impulse and reaction turbines. There are three types of impulse turbines: Turgo, Pelton and cross flow turbines. However, most reaction turbines are of axial flow turbine (Kaplan turbine) type. Reaction turbines have better performance in low head and high flow sites compared to impulse turbines (Yaakob, Ahmed, Elbatran, & Shabara, 2014). The water flows via channel or penstock to a waterwheel or turbine where it strikes the bucket of the wheel, causing the shaft of the waterwheel or turbine to rotate. When generating electricity, the rotating shaft, which is connected to an alternator or generator, converts the motion of the shaft into electrical energy. World bank (WB: 2009) reported that hydropower would have important contribution to the efforts of the development and cooperation of region in scarce water resources (Vassoney, Mochet, & Comoglio, 2017). The inherent technical, economic, and environmental benefits of hydroelectric power make it an important contributor to the future world energy mix, particularly in the developing countries.
Conceptualizing Chinese engagement in South-East Asian dam projects: evidence from Myanmar’s Salween River
Published in International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2018
Interviewees such as TP8 and FP4 argued that CTGC was involved in this specific project because only this developer can develop a project of such a scale and that the project may not be possible to complete without CTGC’s engagement. CTGC may be the most experienced mega-dam developer globally, having constructed the 22.5 GW Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric power station in the world (McDonald et al., 2009; Wilmsen, Webber, & Yuefang, 2011). Sinohydro’s vast capabilities for constructing large dams were also repeatedly praised by interviewees, including TP6 and TP8. Already Magee and McDonald (2006), McDonald et al. (2009), and interviewees such as TP8 noted that Chinese companies have accumulated significant experience in constructing half of the world’s 45,000 large dams. No evidence showed that CTGC or Sinohydro may be exploiting its contractual parties via unfavourable contract terms or delivery. Rather, scholars such as Nordensvard et al. (2015) stress that Chinese dam developers tend to be particularly low-priced. This was echoed by European dam developers such as TP1 and TP2. Even International Rivers (2015), an NGO which was mostly advocating against dam developers, rated CTGC ‘good’ for its environmental management in its projects, and ‘fair’ for its social safeguard policy commitments. Meanwhile, Sinohydro was rated ‘good’ for its environmental project management and ‘good’ for its social safeguard policy commitments (International Rivers, 2015). These ratings were largely echoed by TI1, FI2, TNI3 and FNL3.
A study on operation problems of hydropower plants integrated with irrigation schemes operated in Turkey
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2018
Hydroelectric power is a renewable energy resource, which is based on the hydrological water cycle. Hydropower is considered as a natural, reliable, and a low-cost renewable energy production technology (Brown, Müller, and Dobrotková 2011; IPCC 2011). Hydroelectric power has been used for over a 100 years and it has become the main electricity production source in 55 countries of the world (IHA 2003). Despite its widespread use all over the world, only one-third of the global economic hydroelectric potential has yet been used (Karki 2008). Today, hydroelectric power, generated by large and small-scale hydroelectric power plants in the European Union (EU) represent 13% of the total electricity production. In this case, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are to reduce by more than 67 million tons of a year (IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2011).