HOW DO WE GET ENERGY FROM WATER?

From high in the hills, water flows down in rivers and falls on its way to the sea. This mass of movement can be used to generate energy to work a machine, with the water falling on to the blades of the wheel, making it turn. This wheel is connected to a machine like a mill wheel, grinding corn.

In ancient times, the use of hydraulic or water energy was not used very much. But from the middle Ages onwards, it increased. As well as grinding cereals, it went on to weaving, paper-making, metal working and so on.

Then came the discovery of electricity and water came to be used to produce electrical energy in hydro-electric stations. Dams were built to create artificial lakes from which water fell on the turbines of a station at the foot of a dam.

Like the old water mills, when the water makes the turbines turn, they set the generator working which produces the electricity.