How Hydroelectric Energy Works

[Narrator] Water from the lake comes into the turbine, around  in a circle, then drops through the turbine blades causing the turbines to spin; then the water flows back into the lake.

Have you ever wondered how we get energy from rivers? Let’s take a closer look at the Hydroelectric Turbine Animation to see how energy comes from moving water.

(When the animation first starts, we see two cylinders stacked on top of each other. The smaller cylinder is acting like a pedestal to hold the larger cylinder up. There is a large square opening on the right side of the top, larger cylinder. The animation moves to show the top of the hydroelectric turbine. As we look down from the top of the turbine, we can clearly see that the turbine has taken on the shape of a gym coach’s whistle. The square opening that was on the top right of the larger cylinder is now in the top right of the screen and looks like the mouthpiece of the whistle. As we look down into the cylinder, we see blades like on a ceiling fan in the center. Just above the blades running along the wall of the cylinder are yellow rectangles. As we are viewing the center of the turbine, we have to look around a dark, black rod that looks like a toilet bowl plunger. This rod sits in the center of the turbine and is above the yellow rectangles which are above the fan. Just before the narrator speaks, we see a large, light blue arrow moving in from the right side of the screen through the mouthpiece of the whistle end of the turbine.)

[Narrator] Water from the lake comes into the turbine,

(As the narrator speaks, we see the arrow move through the mouthpiece end of the turbine around the smaller cylinder, counter-clockwise.)

[Narrator] around in a circle,

(As the arrow moves, the blades on the fan inside the smaller cylinder move in the same direction as the arrow, counter-clockwise. When the arrow stops at the wall that makes up the cylinder part of the whistle, the yellow rectangles pivot out so they are almost perpendicular to the cylinder wall almost like they are an extension of the fans that are in the center of the turbine.)

[Narrator] then drops through the turbine blades causing the turbines to spin;

(Once the yellow rectangles pivot out from the wall, the large blue arrow becomes many arrows that flow through the yellow rectangles down past the fan blades and out of the turbine.)

[Narrator] then the water flows back into the lake.

(text on the screen FIND Iowa)

(text on screen Iowa PBS Education)