Pelton wheelThe 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 wheelMachine that converts the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of powerA water wheel in Erlangen, GermanyThe reversible water wheel powering a mine hoist in De re metallica (Georgius Agricola, 1566)The sound of the Otley waterwheel, at Manchester Museum of Science and IndustryA water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill.
Kaplan turbineThe 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 Kaplan turbine was an evolution of the Francis turbine.
TurbineA turbine ( or ) (from the Greek τύρβη, tyrbē, or Latinturbo, meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical power when combined with a generator. A turbine is a turbomachine with at least one moving part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached.
Francis turbineThe Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The process of arriving at the modern Francis runner design took from 1848 to approximately 1920. It became known as the Francis turbine around 1920, named after British-American engineer James B. Francis who in 1848 created a new turbine design.
Jonval turbineThe Jonval turbine is a water turbine design invented in France in 1837 and introduced to the United States around 1850 and were widely used. The Jonval turbine is a "mixed-flow" turbine design. Mixed-flow designs were well suited for the low-head applications common in the eastern United States.
Kinetic energyIn physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of massm traveling at a speedv is 12mv2{\textstyle {\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}}. The kinetic energy of an object is equal to the work, or force (F) in the direction of motion times its displacement (s), needed to accelerate the object from rest to its given speed.
HydroelectricityElectricity generated by hydropowerThe Three Gorges Dam in Central China is the world's largest power-producing facility of any kind.Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower. Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also more than nuclear power.
DamBarrier that stops or slows the flow of waterA dam is a structure that impounds water or restricts its flow.Potential energyIn physics, potential energy is the energy of an object or system due to the body's position relative to other objects, or the configuration of its particles. The energy is equal to the work done against any restoring forces, such as gravity or those in a spring. The term potential energy was introduced by the 19th-century Scottish engineer and physicist William Rankine, although it has links to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's concept of potentiality.
Work (physics)In science, work is the energy transferred to or from an object via the application of force along a displacement. In its simplest form, for a constant force aligned with the direction of motion, the work equals the product of the force strength and the distance traveled. A force is said to do positive work if it has a component in the direction of the displacement of the point of application.
Electrical gridAn electrical grid (or electricity network) is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids consist of power stations, electrical substations to step voltage up or down, electric power transmission to carry power over long distances, and finally electric power distribution to customers. In that last step, voltage is stepped down again to the required service voltage.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.