The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel. Many earlier variations of impulse turbines existed, but they were less efficient than Pelton's design. Water leaving those wheels typically still had high speed, carrying away much of the dynamic energy brought to the wheels. Pelton's paddle geometry was designed so that when the rim ran at half the speed of the water jet, the water left the wheel with very little speed; thus his design extracted almost all of the water's impulse energy—which made for a very efficient turbine.
A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work.
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and water level.
The Grande Dixence Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence at the head of the Val d'Hérémence in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At 285 m (935 ft) high, it is the tallest gravity dam in the world, fifth tallest dam overall, and the tallest dam in Europe. It is part of the Cleuson-Dixence Complex. With the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation, the dam fuels four power stations, totaling the installed capacity to 2,069 MW, generating approximately 2,000 GWh annually, enough to power 400,000 Swiss households.
Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. Installations below 5 kW are called pico hydro. These installations can provide power to an isolated home or small community, or are sometimes connected to electric power networks, particularly where net metering is offered. There are many of these installations around the world, particularly in developing nations as they can provide an economical source of energy without the purchase of fuel. Micro hydro systems complement solar PV power systems because in many areas water flow, and thus available hydro power, is highest in the winter when solar energy is at a minimum. Micro hydro is frequently accomplished with a pelton wheel for high head, low flow water supply. The installation is often just a small dammed pool, at the top of a waterfall, with several hundred feet of pipe leading to a small generator housing. In low head sites, generally water wheels and Archimedes screws are used.
The Robert-Bourassa generating station, formerly known as La Grande-2 (LG-2), is a hydroelectric power station on the La Grande River that is part of Hydro-Québec's James Bay Project in Canada. The station can generate 5,616 MW and its 16 units were gradually commissioned between 1979 and 1981. Annual generation is in the vicinity of 26500 GWh.
The Temengor Dam or Temengor Hydro-Electric Project or Temengor Power Station is a dam in Gerik, Perak, Malaysia. It is located on Perak River about 200 km northeast of Ipoh. Construction of the dam impounded Temenggor Lake.
Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project is a 1,450 MW run-of-the-river hydropower connected to the Indus River about 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Attock in Punjab and east of Swabi and Haripur districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Construction of the project that began in 1995 consists of 5 generators each with a maximum power generation capacity of 290MW. Inauguration of the plant on 19 August 2003 by President General Pervez Musharraf also saw the commissioning of the first 2 of the 5 generators i.e. Unit 1 and Unit 2. The last generator was commissioned on 6 April 2004 and the project was completed by that December. It cost US$2.1 billion with funding from Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, European Investment Bank and Islamic Development Bank.
The Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station is a concrete gravity dam on the Angara River and adjacent hydroelectric power station. It is the second level of the Angara River hydroelectric station cascade in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. From its commissioning in 1966, the station was the world’s single biggest power producer until Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station reached 5,000 MW in 1971. Annually the station produces 22.6 TWh. Currently, the Bratsk Power Station operates 18 hydro-turbines, each with capacity of 250 MW, produced by the Leningrad Metal Works in the 1960s.
Veresen Inc. was a Calgary, Alberta-based energy infrastructure company with three main lines of business: pipelines, natural gas and power generation. It was a publicly-traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and was known as Fort Chicago Energy Partners L.P. In 2017, it was acquired by Pembina Pipeline for $9.7 billion.
The Salto Osório Hydroelectric Power Plant is a dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Iguazu River near Osório in Paraná, Brazil. It is the second dam upstream of the Iguazu Falls and was completed in 1979. The power station has a 1,078 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a rock-fill embankment dam.
The Salto Santiago Hydroelectric Power Plant is a dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Iguazu River near Santiago in Paraná, Brazil. It is the third dam upstream of the Iguazu Falls and was completed in 1979. The power station has a 1,420 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a rock-fill embankment dam.
The Koyna Hydroelectric Project is the largest hydroelectric power plant in India, just after Tehri Dam Project. It is a complex project with four dams including the largest dam on the Koyna River, Maharashtra hence the name Koyna Hydroelectric Project. The project site is in Satara district.
Castaic Power Plant, also known as the Castaic Pumped-Storage Plant, is a seven unit pumped-storage hydroelectric plant, operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which provides peak load power from the falling water on the West Branch of the California State Aqueduct. It is a cooperative venture between the LADWP and the Department of Water Resources of the State of California. An agreement between the two organizations was signed on September 2, 1966, for construction of the project.
The Linth–Limmern Power Stations are a system of hydroelectric power stations located south of Linthal in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland. The system uses five reservoirs and four power stations at steep variations in altitude.
The Bissorte Dam is a gravity dam in the Maurienne Valley, in Savoie, France, about 7 km (4.3 mi) east of Valmeinier. It was built from 1930 to 1935 to supply a hydroelectric plant capable of generating 75 megawatts (MW) of power.
The Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Plant is located just north of Snoqualmie in King County, Washington state, US. It is situated about 22 mi (35 km) east of Seattle. Located just below the Snoqualmie Falls, the power plant consists of two power houses, Plant 1 and Plant 2. Plant 1 was completed in 1899 and is located underground. It is the first completely underground hydroelectric power plant ever built in the world. Plant 2 was built in 1910 and is located along the right bank of the Snoqualmie River. Both plants receive water from a small reservoir created by a weir atop the falls. Plant 1 has an installed capacity of 13.7 MW and Plant 2 a capacity of 40.2 MW for a total installed capacity of 53.9 MW, enough to power 40,000 homes.
The Montézic Power Station is a pumped-storage power plant near the commune of Montézic in northern Aveyron, France. Its 910 megawatt capacity ranks it second among France's main pumped-storage facilities, and is the only one situated on the Central Massif.
The Vorotan Cascade, or the ContourGlobal™ Hydro Cascade, is a cascade on the Vorotan River in Syunik Province, Armenia. It was built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. The Vorotan Cascade consists of three hydroelectric power plants and five reservoirs with a combined installed capacity of 404.2 MW. It is one of the main power generation complexes in Armenia.
Wreck Cove is the largest hydroelectric system in Nova Scotia with a generating capacity of 215.8 MW. Constructed from 1975 to 1978, south of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Wreck Cove collects drainage water from 216 square kilometres (83 sq mi) of the Cape Breton Highlands plateau to generate renewable electricity. It consists of two generating stations: the Gisborne Generating Station, with an installed capacity of 3.5 MW, and the Wreck Cove Generating Station, with an installed capacity of 212 MW, producing on average 318 million kWh annually - enough energy to power about 30,000 homes.
