Hydro Electricity and Hydro Power

Hydro electricity is produced by hydro power. It is a renewable source of power, yields no waste, and doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a big factor regarding the emissions of green house gasses. 

Hydro electricity now provides about 20% of world electricity, this was 15% in 2003

Hydro electricity also provided over 63% of the total electricity from renewables in 2005.

Although large hydroelectric installations generate most of the world's hydro electricity there are the smaller and successful hydro schemes. These are particularly popular in China, which is home to over 50% of world small hydro capacity companies.

There are some countries which do not consider large hydro projects to be a sustainable energy source due to human and environmental impacts. The research and testing into smaller Hydro electricity plants has on the other hand been a real success.

Hydropower or hydraulic power is the vigour or power of moving water. It is captured and transformed for useful purposes.

Before the widespread accessibility of commercial electric energy, hydro power was used for irrigation, and operating of various types of machinery, such as cloth (textile) producing machinery, watermills and sawmills.

Designed machinery yields compressed air from falling water, which in turn could then be used to power various types of machinery which are at a distance from the water.

Water powered mills produced flour from grain and the energy produced from the mills was also used for sawing timber and stone. The energy from a wave of water released from a tank could also be used to extract metal ores. This method is known as hushing. This process was widely used in the United Kingdom in the medieval period and in later years was used to extract lead and ores. This process evolved into hydraulic mining and was in demand during the US gold rush period.

Hydro Electric Dam on the Saguenay River