What is hydro power ?

Water has huge power. We can feel this one our bodies when we cross a sea or river. The power we get from water is called hydro-power. Hydro-power has been one of the first force used by human beings to simplify their work. For example, tasks such as turning wheat into flour, processing wood to make paper, making textile, and turning hard metals into various interesting shapes, which were difficult to do earlier, have been made easy by using hydro-power. Dams are made by erecting huge walls in water to generate electricity. Even today there are ferries and boats without engines that use the force of flowing water. Even tides in the oceans can be used to produce energy.

How does a watermill work ?

A watermill uses a large wooden or metal wheel to generate power. It consists of many small blades, over which the flowing water of a stream run; this wheel is called the 'water wheel'. The flowing water rotates the wheel. This rotational movement produces electricity when connected to a generator. Although mills were used to generate hydro power in earlier times in all countries, people in the underdeveloped countries uses them even today. Electricity produced in such a manner is pollution free and does not harm our environment.

How is electricity generated by using a dam ?

Dam walls are mostly made of a material called concrete. These dams retain a large amount of water. The retained water puts very high pressure on the lowermost layers of water. If the water in these lowermost layers is diverted, it flows at a very high speed, and hence a high energy is produced with the hep of a device called turbine. In the turbine, the energy is sued to generate  electricity. The type of energy we can reuse since it is unlimited in nature is called renewable energy, such as the energy from the sun, wind, and water. Hydro-power is currently the only renewable energy that is used to a large extent. In Austria, approximately half of the electricity is generated by hydro-power, while in Norway all the electricity is generated by hydro-power

(all the image from google image credit goes to google)