Hydroelectric Power

HYDROELECTRIC POWER

This lesson will take a look at hydroelectric power.  It will take a look at two different types of hydroelectric power plants and how they work.

Your task for this lesson is simple

1)     Watch the video and read the lessons in the next slide

2)     Complete the questions which follow for your evaluaton on the lesson.

If you have any questions at any point, feel free to ask your instructor.

Step 1:  Read the following about two types of hydroelectric power plants found in the world

A)  IMPOUNDED

An impounded power Plant is a power plant that is built on a large river.  This involves the building of a dam on the river and incorporating a power plant into the construction of the dam. The following illustraton is a demonstration of an impounded power plant:

B)  DIVERTED POWER PLANT

A diverted power plant takes water from a water source, such as a river, and transports the water up to several miles away to the power plant, turning the turbines, and returns the water back to the source. The following pictures demonstrate how a diverted power plant works:

The water is collected by an intake dam such as this. It is sent over a system of pipes, tunnels, from the intake dam to the power plant.

The pipes travel over several miles (in the case of this power plant, about 15 miles) till they reach above the plant, where the water is gravity fed into a power plant like this one:

In the plant, the water is fed into the turbines as demonstrated in the video and then back out into the river as shown below:

Step 2:  Now that we know about two types of hydroelectric plants, let's look at how hydroelectric power works.  Click on the following link or copy and paste in a new browser window:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeGDjcdETRo

Using what you learned about hydroelectric power, answer the following questions:

1)   What requirements are there in order to have a hydroelectric plant (In other words, why would hydroelectric plants not work in a place like a desert)?

2)   In 1-2 Simple Sentences, explain how hydroelectric power plants generally make electricity. 

3)   What are the benefits of hydroelectic power?  What are the problems, if any, created by hydroelectric power?

4)   Which type of hydroelectric power plant do you think is the best?  Defend your answer.

5)   How do you think this method of producting electricity similar to static electricity?

Anchor Activities

For further research, you may wish to complete one of the following projects (discuss with your teacher before beginning one)

1)  Design your own hydroelectric power plant.  Draw on a poster board or other medium what type of hydroelectric power plant you would create and draw what it would look like.

2) Do further research on the problems that creating an imbeded hydroelectric power plant would create.  Write a 2-3 page paper on these problems. Include 1-2 examples of problems that were created becauase of an imbeded dam being built.

3) Design your own project about a hydroelectric power plant. Make sure to discuss you project with your teacher before starting.

You now have more an understanding of how hydroelectric power plants work.  Of course it is not an option for everywhere, but it is a viable option for many places where water is a viable source to create electricity.

All photos not credited below taken by Aaron Pierce, Hydroelectric Power Webquest Creator

Hoover Dam Photo in Introduction (Photo) Retrieved from http://southernmostwalker.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html on May 20, 2015. Taken by Chester Kalb

Impounded Dam (Diagram) Retireved from http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/corpinfo/ir/kojin/generation/hydro-e.html on May 20, 2015