Water. It is probably the most underutilized of the three major renewable energy sources (the others being solar and wind). Strangely enough, it also has the potential for being the most reliable and powerful; you’ve just got to harness all that energy somehow. Here are a few links to help you in that endeavor:

• RE-Energy.ca has plans for a very small micro hydroelectric generator. It’s more like a school science project, but it could be very helpful as a starting point if you want to build you own generator and have had minimal experience.

• Oregon.gov has many tips for helping you determine everything you need as well as how much power is available from the water source.

• THIS site gives step-by-step instructions although they are a bit vague.

• And THIS site has quite a lot of information about all types of micro hydroelectric systems.

Small scale hydro electric plants generally have no larger generating capacity than 10 megawatts; this can, however, be increased to 25 and 30 MW in Canada and the United States. This type of hydro electric power plant is usually used to serve small communities or industrial plants.

These plants can be divided up even more into two more categories:

• Mini hydro
• Micro hydro

Mini hydro plants have a generating capacity of less than 1000 kilowatts; micro hydro has a capacity of less than 100 kW. Micro hydro plants are usually serve very small, rural communities where it isn’t economical to tie it into the main grid, or even individual family units.

(Source)(Source)(Source)

Many large scale hydro electricity plants harness the energy of water by stopping some, not all, of the water behind a dam. Some plants, however, use water diverted from the main source via a penstock; this process is called diversion. The plants at Niagara Falls are good examples of this.

For a dam, the water is then gravity fed through a penstock to the turbine. The water causes the turbine to spin extremely quickly. After the water spins the turbine it is sent through the trailrace which carries it to the rest of the river or other water source. The turbine is connected to the turbine shaft, that is attached to the generator. In the generator there are magnets and copper wire. The spinning turbine causes the turbine shaft to spin, and that makes the magnets in the generator rotate. This rotating creates a current in the wire which is then sent to the transformer. The transformer increases the voltage and sends it out through power lines.

(Source)(Source)(Source)(Image source)

Hydro electricity is just another name for power that is generated by harnessing the power of moving water. The water does not have to be falling, just moving. The potential energy in water is directly proportional to the head, or the difference in the height between the source and the water’s outflow. The exact amount of potential energy that can be converted can be calculated from the head.

Pumped storage is another type of hydro power. It is not quite as efficient, but often more practical for smaller operations.

Hydro electricity is the largest source of renewable power in the world. The hydro electric capacity has more than doubled since 1970. Current worldwide capacity is at 776 gigawatts, and another 100 GW is under construction. The UN estimated that the total “technically exploitable” hydro power potential 15 trillion kilowatt hours per year; this is half of the world’s projected electrical use by 2030. Only 15 percent of this is being converted currently.

In America, hydro power electricity production covers 7 percent of all the power needs. This 7 percent comes from the 2378 hydro plants in operation, but there are many closed plants that could be re-operated without too much trouble.

(Source)(Source)