Definition of hydroelectric plant

A Hydroelectric power station, as its name anticipates or suggests, it is a installation that takes place in a specific place with the mission of taking advantage of the body of water in movement that circulates through that place to transform it into electric power.

Basically, the hydroelectric plant consists of a dam that is responsible for containing the river water to store it in the reservoir. It also needs turbines that are coupled to alternators, because the turbine converts into mechanical energy the Kinetic energy at the behest of a watercourse and the alternator is a type of generator Energy whose primary function is the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy.

The dams are normally built with waterfalls, that is, upstream as it is popularly said, modifying the usual water courses; It will be precisely the unevenness of the water that facilitates the achievement of energy.

It is worth noting that the building of the dam will always be determined by the geographical characteristics of the terrain in question and obviously by those of the watercourse.

Normally, earth or concrete dams are erected, although concrete dams are certainly the most common and effective due to their strength and resistance.

This situation unfortunately has the other side that the surrounding land is flooded regularly and that the aquatic ecosystem present is affected in its normality.

They also have other elements that make their operation effective, such as room machines, which is the space where the turbines and alternators will be located, between others.

Now, hydroelectric plants are constructions that are used in all parts of the world for this additional benefit that water from provide us with electrical energy, something so precious in this technologically advanced world, yet so many benefits can be attributed to them as disadvantages.

In the benefits or have we must mark its low costs of maintenance and exploitation, its cleaning, the non-use of fuel while on the other side we find a very long time and money invested in its construction and the aforementioned negative environmental consequences: alteration of the aquatic flora and fauna, impossibility of navigability and alteration of the land.