Chapter 1 Hydro Power: Global and North American Perspectives
-
Published:2025
The development of dams on rivers has played a vital role in supporting and advancing civilization throughout history. Dams have stored water for crop irrigation and flood control, produced mechanical power, and more recently generated electricity. Hydropower ingeniously combines two of the most fundamental elements of nature on our planet Earth - water and gravity - to help sustain survival and improve our lifestyle.
This chapter will describe the role of hydropower from past to present and potentially far into the future. Hydropower has been demonstrated to be a safe, reliable and renewable energy resource worldwide, essential to our electrical supply mix. Traditionally hydropower has made use of natural rivers, recently enhanced for pumped storage with adjacent secondary off channel reservoirs and since evolved to oceans with wave and tidal power.