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hydro power

Read and learn more about hydro power. For more, visit the Renewable Energy website EnergySourceRenewable.org

Q: Hydro power?
I wanted to know a cheap way to create a simple hydro power plant (The age old spindle in a creek design), anyone know where I could find more info, or even a design to build one?

A: Andrew, I have studied what you want to do for many years hoping to build one myself. I have a plan in my head and even some professors at the Universty of Virginia said I was right with my designs and ideas.
My problem has been finding a tract of land that I could afford and fit the bill for hydro electric.
Most all of the books I have read, and I have read everything I could find, cover to cover, says and this is a qoute from them
“a turbine is more efficient than a water wheel, however a water wheel doesn’t require as much water as a turbine”
That statement contradicts itself. How can a turbine be more efficient if it has to have more water flow that a wheel does.
Anyway, I would love to quide you through the building process if you have a large enough creek. According to where you live, I would love to help you with it, and not charge you anything. I just want to build one before I get tooooooo old. LOL.
They say a water wheel is inefficient because you must gear it up so high you loose power from the gearing.
If you have 12′ of head, for a 12 foot wheel, that is 24 to one gearing if you run a belt on the perimeter of the wheel to a 6″ pulley, from get go. Install a 30″ pulley on a common shaft with the 6″ pulley going to a 1 1/2″ pulley on an alternator and you have a 480 to one ratio.
A water wheel built correctly can turn 12 rpm’s so that gives you 5,760 rpm’s at the generator which will produce juice.
The shaft sould be 2″ cold roll steel because it is the cheapest shaft you can get that will carry the load and the bearings won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Cut two 12″ disc from 1/4″ steel plate and use a 12″ steel pipe for a hub.
From there, you build something that looks like an oversized bicycle wheel useing 1/2″ electrical emt counduit for the spokes and according to your buget, use 16 to 22 gauge sheet metal for the rim and buckets.
You can make your own belt, easier than the people that used water wheel 150 years ago because we have what is know as masons line. It is a heavey nylon line used for keeping the rows of brick and block in a straight line.
Old timers used to use hemp rope for the belt and could set the mill more than a football field from the water wheel. With electricity, that saves on the high priced wire and you don’t loose the voltage you would either.
The rope is simple to make and you can buy the string in 1,000 yard rolls to keep the cost down. It is hard to explain on here, but if you are really interested in building a power site, I would really love to tell you everything I know about it and if you will e-mail me at dennis_phillips7@yahoo.com I will give you my phone number and a time you can reach me.
I know I make it sound easy but I have been a welder/fabracator most of my life.

By the way, how much water flow and head do you have???

Q: hydro power?
please supply links to diy power sites.I have creek

A: Try this:

Q: What happens to the fish that go through a hydro power plant?
What happens to the fish that go through a hydro power plant?

A: Fish come to hydro plants because the water is warmer and they get more food

There are grills or screens that keep them from being taken into the plant. If they are they get caught in the next screen, They die.

Q: How the kinetic emergy of water is converted into electrical energy (real power) in hydro power plant?
In hydro power plants kinetic energy of the water was is used to spin turbines and voltage is built up to the rated level. By increasing the percentage of guide vanes opening, further, real power (watt) is built up and gradually increased. What action contibutes the real power?

A: See, when the h2o is in the reserviour , or in the lake or river , it has potential energy, but when it is realeased it gains kinetic energy and potential energy becomes less….so when the h2o rotates the turbines at the end of the dam, there’s this armature which creates electric energy. It contains twosets of magnets that revolve and a great force is produced and then goes to the high levels where this energy ,produced by the force turns into electric energy.

Q: Is there any alternative for Mega Hydro power projects?
Mega hydro power projects causes sinking of large area (forest, agriculture land, villages, etc.) which results into depletion of our ecosystem, can’t we go for any other form of energy which is clean and still doesn’t affect the environment on the large scale and can be implemented worldwide easily.

A: geothermal powerplant (provided your location is on the ring of fire belt)….

Q: what will be capital investment for the complete construction project of 1MW capacity of Hydro Power Plant?
I am interested for the project construction of small Hydro Power Plant ranging from 500KW to 1MW capacity. So, i wanted to know the approximate capital investment for the above projects.

A: Generally it’s about $300-$500 per KW

Good luck

Q: Is hydro power good for the Earth?
What are some facts about hydro power?

A: Hydro power would be great for the earth if we could find a way to affordably produce it, in the mean time nuclear power is the best option, unfortunately too many people who dont know anything about it are against it!

Q: What types of emissions are produced by coal farming power and hydro electric power plants?
What types of emissions are produced by coal farming power and hydro electric power plants and what are the effects of such emissions on human health and the environment?

A: Coal fired electric plants produce CO2, HCl, HCHO, CO, H2O, SO2, particulate… that covers the big ones. I’m not sure about hydro-electric plant emissions… If they just use the water to turn the turbines and generate electricity, they have no emissions. THis is not to say that they don’t have an environmental impact though. Hydro plants alter the water tables and can change entire ecosystems in the surrounding areas.

The coal plant emissions create smog, acid rain, and pump CO2 and H2O out in big quantities – these molecules absorb a lot of infrared energy, so they hold heat in the atmosphere.

Q: What are the differences between coal fired, combine cycle, wind and hydro power plant.?
What are the differences and which one is the best in term of power output and running cost ?

A: Coal fired just means a boiler that uses coal. Combined cycle is a gas turbine that drives a generator and the exhaust gasses make steam (maybe to run a steam turbine or for a process). Wind is windmill, and hydro is a dam with water going through a turbine.

“best” is relative. Wind and hydro have the best running cost (nearly free) but high capital cost to build – and hydro drowns entire ecosystems while wind is not reliable in most places because the wind may not be blowing when you need the power. Combined cycle has the “best” efficiency of fuel burning systems, but higher operating cost than coal, because coal is inexpensive. However, both create more air pollution. Hydro can affect river ecosystems both by having varying flow and low water temperatures (bad for many kinds of fish), nutrients settle out, etc. Coal and combined cycle may increase water temperatures which can also be bad for fish.

Q: What are the advantages of having hydro power, geothermal power and solar power?
Oh yeah, and what are the disavatages?
P.S. Answer like this: An adavantage of having hydro power is…

An adavantage of having geothermal power is…

An advantage of having solar power is…

Ans it’s the same thing for the disadvantages.

A: Those are all of the ways that make energy without wasting natural resources such as coal and oil. Also, those types of energy can be used for a very long time. But fossil fuel have to run out some time.

Fine, I will answer it like that.

An advantage of having hydro power is that when there is a dam on a river, the river never stops running, so the electricity is still being made constantly.

An advantage of having geothermal power is that geysers shoot up a lot so that can be an advantage (I don’t know geothermal energy that well)

An advantage of having solar energy is that we will have it for 5 billion more years so you can have solar energy for your whole life time.

A disadvantage to hydro power is that dams in rivers riun the water ecosystem down stream.

Sorry, I can’t think of a disadvantage to geothermal energy, because I don’t know that much about it.

A disadvantage to solar power is that well, there is night.

I hope you like my answer now.

Q: How do I use hydro-power to generate electricity?
I’m thinking about doing a science fair project on electricity, but I am not sure how to create a water-powered wheel that can generate charges and energy. Any suggestions ? :)

A: It’s a fairly complex problem. You could use a small DC motor like a slot car motor as a generator, and power it with a small water wheel made of thin plywood, plastic, sheet metal, or some combination. You will have to learn quite a bit about gears, bearings, and the mathematics involved in determining the sizes of the various components.

But that’s why you do a science fair project: to learn science. So do it. You might find some project ideas on the internet by searching on “science fair water turbine.”

Good luck.

Q: How do I convert hydro power to electricity?
I have a science fair at my school. I need to convert a renewable energy source into electricity. My teacher said he’ll call the newspaper if i can light 100 light bulbs so…..how can I convert running water into electricity? What do i need to do this?

A: First you have to find a fast moving stream on land that you can use. That may be difficult. You need to get the permission of the owner of the land, and all owners that are downstream of your spot, as you will change the water flow of the stream.

Method 1: You need to build a dam to stop the water flow and let it build up in a reservoir. Then let it flow down a pipe to pick up speed, and run it into a turbine, which spins. Attached to the turbine is a generator that generates the electricity.

Method 2: Use a water wheel (there are several types) which is connected via a belt or gears to the generator. You will probably have to dig a canal to get the water to the proper spot.

He didn’t say how big the light bulbs are, so they could be small flashlight bulbs at about 1 watt each, so a total of 100 watts is not impossible.

.

Q: What is hydro power future potential?
I am doing a project for my science class about the alternative energy and I need some help on finding what hydro powers future potential is please help :]

A: The hydroelectric industry has been termed “mature” by some who charge that the technical and operational aspects of the industry have changed little in the past 60 years. Recent research initiatives counter this label by establishing new concepts for design and operation that show promise for the industry. A multi-year research project is presently testing new turbine designs and will recommend a final turbine blade configuration that will allow safe passage of more than 98 percent of the fish that are directed through the turbine. The DOE also recently identified more than 30 million kilowatts of untapped hydroelectric capacity that could be constructed with minimal environmental effects at existing dams that presently have no hydroelectric generating facilities, at existing hydroelectric projects with unused potential, and even at a number of sites without dams. Follow-up studies will assess the economic issues associated with this untapped hydroelectric resource. In addition, studies to estimate the hydroelectric potential of undeveloped, small capacity, dispersed sites that could supply electricity to adjacent areas without connecting to a regional electric transmission distribution system are proceeding. Preliminary results from these efforts have improved the visibility of hydroelectric power and provide indications that the hydroelectric power industry will be vibrant and important to the country throughout the next century.

http://www.answers.com/topic/hydroelectricity

http://www.free-flow-power.com/?gclid=CIrv5KqvvpoCFQoMDQodHnA9rw

Q: What are the efficiencies of steam power over other types of hydro-power? advantages?
steam power vs. dams, steam power vs. water turbine, steam power vs. tide power, steam power vs. etc.
amount of water need? amount of energy produced? amount of money required?

A: You cannot compare efficiencies of steam power vs. dam power because dam power does not burn fuel. Neither can you compare operational costs, including construction costs, because dam power is a byproduct of irrigation and flood control.

Tide power has lost its appeal.

The rest of the question is meaningless, as presented.
.

Q: Does anyone have a suggestion for how to do a hydro-power demonstration?
for my final project in high school i have to do a presentation on hydropower which needs to be 20 minutes long. i have a slide show and also a poster. but that’s still doesn’t fill the 20 minutes. so i was thinking of doing a demonstration of how a hydropower plant works and then i realized i didn’t know where to begin. i tried looking on different websites but i couldn’t find anything. so i’m hoping you can help me. or if you have any other suggestions that you think will help please let me know.

A: In addition to the powerpoint presentation, you could demonstrate how a hydropower generator works by building a simple generator out of a kleenex box, wire, nail, and a small magnet – instructions at the first link.

Also, don’t forget to to cover the ecological effects of hydropower on fish ( second link):

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