Hydropower

“ I wish to point out to you the attitude of the administration as to the Federal regulation of water power in our navigable rivers.
It is needless to remind such a body as yours of the importance of that sphere of Conservation. All our other present sources of power—such as coal, wood, oil, and the like—are limited, and will be eventually exhausted. Water power alone is permanent. And just as we are coming to learn more and more the value of that permanence, we are simultaneously, through the development of electricity, learning to transmit its energy to greater and greater distances. ”

“ If these storm or flood waters can be stored in reservoirs, the stream-flow throughout the year can be made fairly uniform and the power possibilities greatly increased. The Geological Survey believes that by storing the flood waters and regulating the flow of the streams, the large rivers of the United States may be made to furnish 150,000,000 horse-power, enough, if it could be utilized, to supply every power need of our country for many years to come without using a ton of our coal, and without in any way decreasing the water. ”

“ If a power development is proposed of such a character that some considerable sacrifice of power might be made in the dry seasons with no serious loss, most small streams may be developed to provide for as much as one-quarter to one-half of a cubic foot per second per square mile. On the other hand it is often found practicable to provide a small auxiliary power plant, such as gasolene or kerosene, to fall back upon in dry weather, or to supply extra power occasionally, in which case the water-power development need not be limited to the minimum flow of the stream. ”

“ In these cases, an artificial source of water power is created by using a steam-engine to pump water to a reservoir at a great elevation, or to pump water into a closed reservoir in which there is great pressure. The water flowing from the reservoir through hydraulic engines gives back the energy expended, less so much as has been wasted by friction. Such arrangements are most useful where a continuously acting steam engine stores up energy by pumping the water, while the work done by the hydraulic engines is done intermittently. ”

“ Generally, water so secured will have to be raised to an elevated reservoir by some mechanical force. If the demand is to be a large one, and if the community can afford the cost, the most reliable plan will be to use steam-power for pumping; but in smaller places, and where economy is a great object, wind-power may serve an excellent purpose.
If a stream of pure water is available at a sufficient height, it may be led directly to the reservoir, or its current may be used to drive a water-wheel sufficient to do the pumping. ”

“ On the other hand, the purposes for which power is usually required are not only for the elevation of water for a water supply, but for many other and varied requirements. In such cases the power must be developed in such manner that it may be utilized to operate machinery near the site of the development, or transmitted for some distance, and there used to operate machinery or for lighting or heating. To develop water power in this manner requires some kind of a waterwheel. ”

“ In some cases, as at Niagara, the hydraulic power can only be economically developed in very large units, and it can be most conveniently subdivided and distributed by transformation into electrical energy. Partly from the development of new industries such as paper-making from wood pulp and electro-metallurgical processes, which require large amounts of cheap power, partly from the facility with which energy can now be transmitted to great distances electrically, there has been a great increase in the utilization of water-power in countries having natural waterfalls. ”

“ When it is possible to obtain a sufficient supply and head, water is adopted to furnish the required power for operation. At mines, with water sufficient to produce a part only of the needed power, we may see both steam and water power utilized. In the cases of some mines which are distant from sources of both coal and water supply, power is generated at points where stores of natural energy are available for use and the power is transmitted (usually as electricity, sometimes as compressed air) over long distances to the mines. ”

“ If, on the other hand, all of the water that passes down a stream could be made to do electrical work, and if the utilization of this water had other advantages nearly or quite as great as the reduction of expense for coal, then many water-powers would await only development to bring profit to their owners. ”

“ There are a great number of magnificent water power sites, within very easy access of the surveyed route of the railway, all of which can be easily developed to furnish almost unlimited electrical energy. Hydro-electric energy could be developed at any one of these sites within a distance of thirty miles from the road, which would make transmission to points along it, or possibly operation of it actually, by electricity. It certainly assures cheap power for any manufacturing or milling centre which may develop. All these power locations must inevitably become very valuable. ”

“ The direct system, commonly called the Holly Plan, does away with reservoir and stand pipe, and delivers the water directly into the mains under a pressure usually fifty pounds per square inch for domestic use, which is increased to one hundred pounds when fires occur. In the Holly Plan, a reserve power is used for fire purposes, besides mechanical device for regulating and controlling the variable pressure.
In either the stand pipe or direct system, a reserve power should be provided equal to the largest daily consumption. ”

“ Where a stream is difficult to dam or to divert, water is pumped from it. This has been feasible only since about 1950, when low-cost diesel engines and sufficient hydroelectric power became available from newly constructed dams on other streams. ”

“ In order, therefore, to supply an equable driving head to the dynamos, the turbine wheels would have to be powerful enough to work up to the required capacity on the minimum difference of level. Since the power made available by the dam would be remarkable for the vast volume of water to be drawn on, rather than for great difference of level, the interference of the tides in at times reducing this difference perhaps considerably would be a matter of grave inconvenience in the way of the successful operating of the power generators. ”

“ Ruskin has said that picturesque beauty cannot exist with any manufacturing district where coal is the propelling power. The requirements of such a condition effectually prevent it; but what would be the saving, not only to the picturesque character of the landscape, but the purses of millowners, if water power was more commonly taken advantage of! It has long been a crying reproach to the country that all round our coasts, and in our inland streams, water-power exists that would drive all the machines in the world without exhausting a tithe of its force, or even beginning to do so. ”

“ Every exposed place is crowned by a cluster of huge windmills that lift water to some pond or reservoir placed as high as possible. Every stiff breeze, therefore, raises millions of tons of water which operate hydraulic turbines as required. Incidentally these storage reservoirs, by increasing the surface exposed to evaporation and the consequent rainfall, have a very beneficial effect on the dry regions in the interior of the continent, and in some cases have almost superseded irrigation. ”

“ One advantage of water- over steam-power is the smaller cost of the building with the former for a given capacity of plant. The building for direct-connected electric generators, driven by water-wheels, is relatively small and simple. Space for fuel, boilers, economizers, feed-water heaters, condensers, steam piping, and pumps is not required where water-power is used. No chimney or apparatus for mechanical draught is needed. ”

“ In our very legitimate aspiration to figure as a factor in the world's manufacturing, we must not lose sight of the vast and increasing value of water power, especially in electro chemical industries. In our anxiety to compete with such lands as America and Canada, it would be folly to ignore the fact that in the fall of Niagara river those countries possess the greatest hydraulic energy on earth, together with immense possibilities of this character in other directions. ”

“ All the surplus water will run off through the spillway, and as it runs it will pass through turbines and turn dynamos to generate electricity for operating the machinery of the Gatun Locks that will lift ships over the dam. ”

“ The great advantage of water-power is that the expense of maintenance—once the plant is installed—is practically nothing. This advantage is offset in some measure by the fact that other forms of power, gas, steam, or windmills, are already installed, in many instances and that their judicious use in generating electricity does not impair their usefulness for the other farm operations for which they were originally purchased. In recent years gasoline engines have come into general use on farms as a cheap dependable source of power for all operations ”

“ The pumped storage plant, an engineering innovation of growing use, is to supplement the energy produced by other plants during periods of peak demands. During such periods it generates energy through use of hydroelectric units driven by water falling from an elevated reservoir into a lower pool. [3] During off-peak periods it uses energy from other sources to pump water from the lower pool back to the headwater pool. [4] The project is capable of creating up to 350 megawatts and the energy created will be utilized in Missouri, Illinois, and possibly Iowa. ”

“ Water power is as great a source of wealth as a coal bed or a gold mine.
The most tremendous waterfall in our country is Niagara Falls, which every minute hurls millions of gallons of water down a 163-foot precipice. The energy possessed by such an enormous quantity of water flowing at such a tremendous speed is almost beyond everyday comprehension, and would suffice to run the engines of many cities far and near. Numerous attempts to buy from the United States the right to utilize some of this apparently wasted energy have been made by various commercial companies. ”

“ To use rain-power economically on any considerable scale we must look to the natural drainage of hill-country and take the water where we find it either actually falling or stored up and ready to fall when a short artificial channel or pipe can be provided for it at moderate cost. The expense of aqueducts, or of underground water-pipes, to carry water to any great distance—any distance of more than a few miles or a few hundred yards—is much too great for economy when the yield to be provided for is power ”

“ It does not follow from the foregoing that it is always more economical to develop two or more smaller water-powers at different points along a river for transmission to some common centre than it is to concentrate the water at a single larger station by more elaborate hydraulic construction, and then deliver all of the energy over a single transmission line. The single larger hydraulic and electric plant will usually have a first cost larger than that of the several smaller ones, because of the required canals or pipe lines. ”

“ If every raindrop which falls anywhere in the United States, allowing only for the amount of water needed by agriculture and the loss due to seepage and evaporation, were collected and all the power which it could develop in its journey to the sea were efficiently utilized, the resultant energy would amount to just about the same as the total which we get out of our present coal consumption for all purposes. Water power—hydroelectric energy—can never replace coal. ”

“ There are other ways in which public control of water power must be exercised, but these two are the most important.
Water power on non-navigable streams usually results from dropping a little water a long way. In the mountains water is dropped many hundreds of feet upon the turbines which move the dynamos that produce the electric current. Water power on navigable streams is usually produced by dropping immense volumes of water a short distance, as twenty feet, fifteen feet, or even less. ”

“ If water-power can be used, the water-motor will necessarily be placed as low as possible, in order to obtain the fullest available power. One point is essential. Special care must be taken to keep the appliances above highest flood-level. If the water in the stream is not sufficient to carry off the tailings, the battery should be placed at such a height as to leave sufficient slope for tailings’ dumps. This is more important when treating ore of such value that the tailings are worth saving for secondary treatment. ”

“ The prime requisite to the creation of a water power is the existence of falling or flowing water. The amount of power which may be available varies; first, with the amount of water flowing, and second, with the amount of fall. It requires about one cubic foot of water per second, falling through a height of ten feet, to make available one theoretical horsepower. The fall may be either naturally concentrated at one point in a cascade or it may be artificially concentrated, for the purpose of development, by combining the fall of several cascades or a series of rapids. ”

“ The value of a pumping system recommends itself on the point of economy in construction, for the outlay is in proportion to the existing necessities, which can be increased as the demands require. The original water consumers are not, therefore, taxed so heavily for future exigencies of gravity works. This idea can be better illustrated by the comparative cost of construction and maintenance of gravitation and pumping works:
The reservoir system is the most preferable of the three methods, when natural elevation can be secured, for the pumping service is distinct from the distribution ”