Hydropower

Abstract

Hydropower has a very long tradition in many countries and was first used to provide working power for grinding corn, sawing timber and other previously manual tasks. The development of the modern turbine took a big step forward in the 17th century when Leonard Euler presented his turbine theory. Later, hydropower became one of the main resources for electrical energy and it is the most effective method of energy transformation with efficiencies of modern Francis turbines being above 95%. Even if hydropower already plays a key role in the energy production contribution from renewable energy sources with an impressive worldwide installed hydropower capacity, there is still a huge potential to be utilized throughout the world. This chapter will describe hydropower plants and technologies with an insight on the energy conversion principle and physics. The benefits for the grid as well as the environmental aspects will also be discussed.