Chapter 12Small Hydropower Plant
12.1 Hydropower
Earlier when commercial electric power generation using hydropower was not available, it was used for irrigation and operation of various machines, such as watermills, textile machines and sawmills. Greeks were able to harness the power in the moving water thousands of years ago when they used water wheels, which picked up water in buckets around a wheel. The water's weight caused the wheel to turn, converting kinetic energy into mechanical energy for grinding grain and pumping water. In the 1800s, the water wheel was often used to power machines such as timber-cutting saws in European and American factories. It was then realized that the force of water falling from a height can turn a turbine which when connected to a generator can produce electricity. Thus, the world's first hydroelectric station (of 12.5 kW capacity) was commissioned on 30 September 1882 on Fox River at the Vulcan Street Plant, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA, used for lighting two paper mills. Hydropower is considered a renewable source of energy as it uses water but does not consume it. It, therefore, offers significant potential for carbon emission reductions. The installed capacity of hydropower by the end of 2013 was 1000 GW which contributed 16.4% of worldwide electricity supply [1]. Hydropower remains the largest source of renewable energy in the electricity generation. Hydropower systems use the energy in flowing water to produce electricity. Although there ...