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Hydel or hydroelectric power is the next most important renewable source of energy after solar energy. Electricity is produced from generators driven by water turbines that convert the potential energy in falling or fast-flowing water to mechanical energy.

Converting the energy is moving water to electricity has been a long-standing technology. Yet, hydroelectric power plants are estimated to provide only about 2 percent of the world’s energy requirements. The technology involved is simple enough: hydraulic turbines change the energy of fast-flowing or falling water into mechanical energy that drives power generators, which produce electricity. Hydroelectric power plants, however, generally require the building of costly dams. Another factor that limits any significant increase in hydroelectric power production is the scarcity of suitable sites for additional installations except in certain regions of the world.

In the generation of hydroelectric power, water is collected or stored at a higher elevation and led downward through large pipes or tunnels to a lower elevation. In the course of its passage down the steep pipes, the falling water rotates the turbines. The turbines, in turn, drive generators which convert the turbines mechanical energy into electricity.

Hydroelectric power plants are usually emplaced in dams that impound rivers, thereby, raising the level of the water behind the dam and creating a relatively high head.

This energy can be used for many purposes like irrigation in the industries or for domestic purposes etc. As no fuel is used in producing electricity by these thermal power stations, money is invested only in the beginning. Hydroelectric power is utilized on a relatively large scale by various countries including the United States, Russia, China, India and Brazil, but it contributes a much smaller proportion of these nations total electric-power production.

Advantages of hydroelectric power: 1] It is renewable in nature, due to the recurring nature of the hydrological cycle.

2] It is pollution free – producing neither thermal nor particulate pollution.

Tidal energy is another technique by which energy can be extracted from the sea. The energy possessed by the rising and falling water tides is known as tidal energy. Ocean energy or tidal energy can also be converted into electric energy. A dam is constructed across a bay to trap tidal energy. Water then moves in and out of the opening in the dam during high and low tides of the ocean. Then the collected water is allowed to run through the turbines, which generates electricity.

The advantage of tidal energy is: 1] it is abundantly available 2] it is pollution-free 3] is cheap to produce.

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