HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS: ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGINEERING DESIGN

Even though, people have used energy in running water to operate machinery and grind grain and corn, since ancient Egyptian times, hydropower has the greatest influence on people’s lives during the 20th century than at any other time in history. Hydroelectric energy is the energy that relies on exploiting and converting the dynamic energy of lakes’ water and the kinetic energy of river water into electricity.
The capture / storage of quantities of water in natural or artificial lakes, for a Hydroelectric Power Plant, equates to collecting hydroelectric energy. The planned release of these quantities of water and their expansion to hydro turbines leads to a controlled electricity production. Given the availability of adequate water resources and their adequate supply of the necessary rainfall, the hydropower becomes a very important alternative source of renewable energy.
Hydroelectric power is a virtually inexhaustible source of energy, based on the exploitation of rivers and artificial or natural dams, because of this energy diffuses in nature from whirlpools and water currents, as water flows downhill to torrents, streams and rivers until it reaches the sea. In fact, the environmental benefits of a Hydroelectric Plant are varied, even the disadvantage of environmental impacts due to large-scale civil engineering constructions, can be turned into an advantage. The case of Lake Plastira, in Greece, is a characteristic example of it, where the flood of the area from water after the creation of the dam, created a new wetland, which soon turned into a pole of tourist attraction.