Hydroelectricity

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Did you know that the prefix 'hydro' which is found in hydroelectricity comes from the Greek word hudor, which means water?

__ HYDROELECTRICITY __

__ Introduction __ Hydroelectricity, im sure some of you have heard, seen, or used this type of electricity. If you dont already know hydroelectricity is one of the most commonly used renewable energy resources to produce electrical energy in Canada. Now let's break it down, hydro comes from the Greek word hudro, meaning water, and electricity meaning the movements of electrons and protons so basically Hydroelectricity is generated by the harnessing of the power of flowing water. Now that you understand what hydroelectricity is let's learn more about this helpful, and widely used source of electricity!

This is the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station! This is located at Niagra Falls.

__ How Is It Generated? __ Now to produce hydroelectricity you need to have a hydroelectric station, one example is Niagara Falls, and they basically use the flow from the waterfall to turn their turbines. If you're wondering what a turbine is, it is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid or air flow and changes it into useful work. Now as you know most communities don’t have waterfalls, so they build dams across rivers to store water in a reservoir. Then the water is directed through a channel which is known as a penstock, and then to a turbine with these ridges around it. A penstock as I mentioned in the previous sentence is a regulator that has a valve or gate that controls the rate of water flow through a sluice. So after that process, the water then turns the turbine (which is connected to a generator) thus creating hydroelectricity! Now some hydroelectric stations in smaller communities use fast-flowing rivers to turn their turbines, but this is just another way of generating hydroelectricity! This is a hydroelectric generating station above. Water flows through a penstock, past the turbine (causing the turbine to turn). The turbine is connected to the generator, the generator converts the energy from the turbine into electrical energy!  Now as you can see in the table below there are a lot more pros then cons. This proves that hydroelectricity is a great source of renewable energy! · Reservoirs can be used for flood control, irrigation, recreation, and drinking water · Small-scale hydroelectric plants using close by rivers can be essential for some communities · Dams can store rain water or water directly from the river itself. Then, in case of a Drought, the dam will still have a moderately constant supply of water · Renewable energy source, because the water is not damaged by passing through the dam. · Produces power · Production is very inexpensive (of course after construction) · Not a lot of break downs ||  · Constructing the dam has a negative environmental impact. It floods large areas of land, disrupts or destructs wildlife, fish habitats, migration routes, and displacements of Aboriginal land and other communities. · Hydroelectric stations are extremely expensive to build · Ruins natural seasonal changes in he river, and ecosystems can be destroyed · Ends flooding that can help to clean out the silt in rivers, which causes them to clog in the first place. ||
 * PROS || CONS ||
 * · Huge hydroelectric generating stations produce electricity economically so it doesn’t waste electricity

__ Comparing Hydroelectricity __ Hydroelectricity is a renewable energy source so it can be replenished by natural processes unlike fossil fuels which is a non-renewable source of energy. Not to mention hydroelectricity doesn’t generate any nuclear waste unlike nuclear power. When compared to wind energy hydroelectricity power plants have a more predictable load. Also it was cheaper in cost when compared to solar photovoltaic in 2003! In addition hydroelectricity is the most widely used source of energy in 2007 in Canada making it better then the others. It was also the most used electricity worldwide in 2007, so this is used a lot all around the world.

Energy Production (TWh) ||~ Installed Capacity (GW) ||~ Capacity Factor ||~ Percent of all electricity  || BIBLIOGRAPHY [] [] TEXT BOOK: Page 477,482,483 484,485 [] [] [] BY: LEENA ANIS
 * ~ Country [[image:http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif caption="↓" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity#"]] ||~ Annual Hydroelectric
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|China] (2009)[|[25]] || 652.05 || 196.79 || 0.37 || 22.25 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/22px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png width="22" height="11"]] [|Canada] || 369.5 || 88.974 || 0.59 || 61.12 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Flag_of_Brazil.svg/22px-Flag_of_Brazil.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|Brazil] || 363.8 || 69.080 || 0.56 || 85.56 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png width="22" height="12"]] [|United States] || 250.6 || 79.511 || 0.42 || 5.74 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Flag_of_Russia.svg/22px-Flag_of_Russia.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|Russia] || 167.0 || 45.000 || 0.42 || 17.64 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Flag_of_Norway.svg/22px-Flag_of_Norway.svg.png width="22" height="16"]] [|Norway] || 140.5 || 27.528 || 0.49 || 98.25[|[24]] ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/22px-Flag_of_India.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|India] || 115.6 || 33.600 || 0.43 || 15.80 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Flag_of_Venezuela.svg/22px-Flag_of_Venezuela.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|Venezuela] || 86.8 || - || - || 67.17 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/22px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|Japan] || 69.2 || 27.229 || 0.37 || 7.21 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Flag_of_Sweden.svg/22px-Flag_of_Sweden.svg.png width="22" height="14"]] [|Sweden] || 65.5 || 16.209 || 0.46 || 44.34 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Flag_of_Paraguay.svg/22px-Flag_of_Paraguay.svg.png width="22" height="13"]] [|Paraguay] (2006) || 64.0 || - || - ||  ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/22px-Flag_of_France.svg.png width="22" height="15"]] [|France] || 63.4 || 25.335 || 0.25 || 11.23 ||