Water covers major part of the earth. It is of daily use and is essentially needed in our daily life. When it rains or snows, the water that comes from the sky reaches the land by flowing down through mountains and hills. This moving water is very useful, since it possess kinetic energy. We know that kinetic energy can be brought in work thus a lot of needs can be fulfilled by bringing this moving water in procession.
Water is used in lot of labor since old times. It was used in water mills and grist mills to crop wheat and corn. the machine used to work with the falling water. England has a dark history attached with water mills, even in its literature, the discussion of water mills is observed when one mill covered uses of 400 people. Water mills were kept in different methods. That is either it was situated in the river where the wheel turns with the flow of river or it also works in a manner when the water is placed in top.
In today’s world, flowing water has more importance and is used in more purposes. Water flow is used in creating electricity. and the electricity that is created with water is termed as Hydro-electric power. The hydro electric power is created due to moving water. Dams are built to stop the flow of rivers, this stores amount of water within the region. Else the flowing river is allowed to move towards the power plant or power house. One good example of dams is in California called Shasta Dam. Today US consumes water to create electricity and fulfill requirement of electricity in its country. It is counted as one of the largest producer of electricity. the electricity that we use equals 10 percent of the electricity that is supplied from water power. Similarly in California, 15 percent of the electricity that is circulated comes from hydro electric power. The consumption of water in forming hydroelectric power is best seen in Washington. Up to 87 percent of the electricity that is supplied is from the hydro electric power plants. Washington not only is self sufficient but also exports this electricity to other states as well. Some of the famous Dams in Washington are John Day Dam, John Coulee Dam and Chief Joseph Dam.
How does the Dam perform?
Its a simple way, the water behind the dam is passed through the intake and then through a pipe called penstock. The water there is pushed through the blades in turbine causing them to move. This turbine is some what the same as the turbine we learned about in our post 6, but the difference is that here water is used instead of steam. The turbine that moves causes the generator to create electricity. This electricity is then pass through long pipes to the city places where electricity is used like school, offices, homes and hotels. Hydro power is mostly situated in locations where mountains and lakes are rivers in States.