Estudiante

Alternative energy
H2O– Hydro Energy
Alejandro Marin
Carolina Diaz
Andrea Jimenez
Stephanie Quiel
Ilich Diaz
Physics
Instituto Cultural de Panama
10th

-2013-
Contenido
Hydro power? What’s that? 3
How does Hydropower work? 4
So... What’s the cost? 5
Is there any profit from this ? Total revenues? 6
The H2O car? 7
Benefits of the H2O Car 8
Advantages for Hydropower? 9But… what are the disadvantages? 10
Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12

Hydro power? What’s that?
Hydropower is electrical energy derived from falling or running water. The water pressure that is created by water is used to turn the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to a generator, which converts the mechanical energy into electricity.
Flowing water creates energy that can becaptured and turned into electricity. This is called hydroelectric power or hydropower.
The most common type of hydroelectric power plant uses a dam on a river to store water in a reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through the turbine, spinning it, which in turn activates a generator to produce electricity. But hydroelectric power doesn't necessarily require a large dam. Somehydroelectric power plants just use a small canal to channel the river water through a turbine.
Another type of hydroelectric power plant - called a pumped storage plant - can even store power. The power is sent from a power grid into the electric generators. The generators then spin the turbines backward, which causes the turbines to pump water from a river or lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, wherethe power is stored. To use the power, the water is released from the upper reservoir back down into the river or lower reservoir. This spins the turbines forward, activating the generators to produce electricity.
A small or micro-hydroelectric power system can produce enough electricity for a home, farm, or ranch.

How does Hydropower work?
Hydroelectricity works by harnessing the potentialenergy of flowing water. Gravity pulls water downstream, where it meets and turns the blades of a hydroelectric turbine. The turbine shaft turns the generator rotor, and that creates electricity in the same manner as with other electrical generators. While large hydroelectric plants that are part of a larger dam structure are common in the popular imagination, there are hydroelectric plants thatuse straight river flow and do not involve dams. Other models that are micro-generators and use ordinary streams to generate power.

So... What’s the cost?
The Investment costs of large (10MWe) hydropower plants range from $1750/kWe to $6250/kWe. It is very site-sensitive, with a typical figure of about $4000/kmWe (US$ 2008). The investment costs of small (1–10MWe) and very small (1MWe) hydropower plants may range from $2000 to $7500/kWe and from $2500 to $10,000/kWe, respectively, with indicative, average figures of $4500/kWe and $5000/kWe. Operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of hydropower are between 1.5% and 2.5% of investment cost per year. The resulting overall generation cost is between $40 and $110/MWh (typical $75/MWh) for large hydropower plants, between $45 and $120/MWh(typically, $83/MWh) for small plants, and from $55 to $185/MWh ($90/MWh) for VSHPs. These kinds of projects are high investments and have been cataloged as a disadvantage for hydro electrical companies.

Is there any profit from this ? Total revenues?
In 2011, the city's eight hydroelectric facilities generated more than 50 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. Each year, the hydrogeneration provides enough power to supply about 8,000 homes. Since the first hydro went into service in 1985, more than 600 million kWh have been generated and more than $27 million in revenue has been produced for the cities around the world.  In 2011, the sale of hydroelectric power produced more than $2.4 million of revenue for the city. Basically it depends how much your hydropower station...