How a Hydropower Turbine Works
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Hydropower Basics
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Hydropower, otherwise known as hydroelectric power, uses water to generate electricity. When water is at a high point, such as the mouth of a river, it has potential energy. As the water flows downhill, that potential energy is turned into kinetic energy, or movement. The moving water in a hydroelectric plant acts on turbines to create electricity. The water flows through a turbine, making it spin. That turbine turns an electric generator, producing electricity.
Impoundment
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Impoundment hydropower plants use dams to store water. A tube called the penstock carries water through the dam to the turbine. The water then flows out the other side of the dam. Impoundment hydroelectric plants are multifunctional. Not only do they generate electricity, but they can also control the water level behind the dam by slowing down or speeding up the flow of water.
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Diversion
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Diversion hydroelectric plants are much simpler to build than impoundment plants. Instead of trapping the river behind a dam, diversion plants use a small side channel to divert a part of it. Some of the water flows through the turbine to generate electricity while the rest of it continues on its original course. Once it has run through the turbine, the diverted water rejoins the rest of the river.
Pumped Storage
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Impoundment and diversion plants use rivers to generate hydropower, but pumped storage plants use water as a way to store power. In a pumped storage plant, water is pumped from a low reservoir to a high reservoir at a time when there isn't much demand for electricity such as the middle of the night. When the demand for power increases, the water flows back down to the lower reservoir through a turbine. The energy stored by pumping water earlier is turned back into electricity.
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