WATER PROJECT

HOW DAMS & HYDROPOWER WORK

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• Most hydropower plants rely on dams that holds back water, creating large reservoirs, or Lakes. Often, this reservoir is used as a recreational lake, such as Lake Roosevelt at the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State.
• Gates on the dam open and gravity pulls the water through the pen stock, a pipeline that leads to the turbine.Water builds up pressure as it flows through this pipe.
• The water strikes and turns the large blades of a turbine, which is attached to a generator above it by way of a shaft. The most common type of turbine for hydropower plants is the Francis Turbine, which looks like a big disc with curved blades. A turbine can weigh as much as 172 tons and turn at a rate of 90 revolutions per minute, according to the Foundation for Water & Energy Education.
• As the turbine blades turn, so do a series of magnets inside the generator. Giant magnets rotate past copper coils, producing alternating current by moving electrons.
• The transformer inside the powerhouse takes the alternating current and converts it to higher-voltage current.Used water is carried through pipelines, called tail races, and re-enters the river downstream.
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