WEBVTT - How Hydropower Works 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.600 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.040 and there's Charles w. Chuck Bryan over there, and Jerry's 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:22.800 here too, somewhere not just in spirit, but like digitally virtually. 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:32.120 She's like, um, Johnny depp in uh um no that oh, 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.920 Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, that's what Jerry's like. I've 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.560 been singing Judas Priests all day because of this. Instead 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:46.480 of Turbo Lover, I'm singing hydro power. Oh that's pretty cool, man. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.880 Can you give us a little couple of verses? Um 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:55.080 me drove power? M what comes? And failed to mention 0:00:55.080 --> 0:01:00.200 I'm wearing my leathers okay, just the leather of us 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.640 did no shared underneath? Yeah? And and nothing else but boots? 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.240 Some buttless chaps, that's awesome. Really, are there any is 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.880 there any need to make any other kind of chaps? 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.840 I mean, I think they usually don't have a butt, right, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.800 You're just expected to wear something underneath. Maybe that's what 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.520 it is, But then the whole thing just calling them 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:24.119 buttless chaps is superfluous. Yeah, it's redundant, right Yeah. Um, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.520 So since we started talking about buttless chaps. Since we 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.080 coined a new term, buttless chaps. I think we're the 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.400 first people to ever use those two words together. Yeah, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.920 people usually say the A word, right exactly. Uh, we're 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.600 clearly talking about hydro power, not just hydro electric power. Friends. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.400 Hydro power. There's a lot of energy and that their water, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.800 and we humans have have gotten pretty clever at figure 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.080 out how to extract it. Yeah, and this is something 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.320 that we used to use a lot more of in 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.120 this country. Um. Up until about the mid twentieth century, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.840 we were using lots of hydro power, and it peaked 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.000 in about nineteen sixty. Now we're down to just about 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.440 six percent of our power being created through the use 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.160 of water. But there's still a lot of you know, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.640 hydro power plants in the US about the US has 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.800 a bunch, but we're also tearing them down along with 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.840 Europe at a rated about like one per week, these dams, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.640 right yeah, Yeah, and we're tearing we're removing dams, demolishing 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.720 them faster than we're building them these days, which puts 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:33.440 hydro power, UM, specifically hydro electric power in a really 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.320 weird place in its history. But from all the research 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.800 that I'm I've done. I don't think it's going anywhere. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.000 What I think is going on is that it's at 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.400 like this fork in the road, and it's trying to 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.919 figure out what the best way to go is to 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.720 to to be sustainable and be as green as everybody 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.840 likes to think it is, even though spoiler alertic actually 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.560 not that green. Does everyone just standing around look at 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.560 each other, going kind of you, what do you want 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.600 to do something? Yeah, it's like trying to figure out 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.919 a restaurant as a group. Oh god, that's the worst. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.399 The best thing to do is to have a millennial 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.680 friend or two in your group, because they usually are 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.440 really good about tackling that stuff. Oh I thought you're 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.840 gonna say they're they're usually really bossy. No. But whenever 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.760 it's like a a sketch fest or something where there's 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.520 just a bunch of disparate people, I usually try and 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.200 get a millennial in the group decision making so I 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.520 can just go I'm an old gen x er. I'm 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.040 happy to go anywhere. So get on your yelp or 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.320 get out your Michelin Guide or whatever your kid to 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.960 do these days. Yeah, they all carry that that paperback 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:48.200 Michelin Guide with them the Penguin Classics version of it. Right. So, 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.480 hydro power around the world, though, is pretty popular, um, 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.560 some places more than others. I think Paraguay they are 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.040 far and away the leader if you're talking about anywhere, 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:04.040 because they're a Norway no surprise there at about nine 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:09.760 five along with Nepal and uh Tajiki stand and I 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.520 wanted to ask you this. You haven't here that China, 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.680 Brazil in the US lead major countries, and the US 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.760 is down to six percent, so the top three. I 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:23.760 assume we're third at six uh yeah, which just goes 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.000 to show how much energy we put out only six 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.040 percent of his hydro and yet we um we're the 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.680 third in line of of um hydro electric production in 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.000 the world. China one or two uh one I believe, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.800 and then Brazil. So Brazil and then it goes down 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.119 to six. Yeah. An't that crazy? Yeah, it's a big drop. Yeah, 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.080 But I mean that just goes to show like we 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.440 we've produced a lot, a lot of electricity and it's 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.480 just some of it is is um from hydro which 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.000 really boggles the mind that at one point, like you 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.000 were saying a third of our power came from hydro 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.040 electri production plants. It's just crazy, you know. Yeah, I 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:09.680 think it's down to about sixteen worldwide, right, yeah, five 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.960 years ago. Yeah, and then that actually represents a really 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.600 precipitous drop. UM. I think in too, like the mid 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.280 two thousands of the odds it was at like and 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:25.240 it dropped down to sixteent within maybe ten years or less. UM. 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.640 And the reason for that it's not necessarily that people 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.599 have stopped producing as much hydro power. UM, they've stopped 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.080 building as many new projects around the world and have 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.880 started opting instead, unfortunately for what's called thermal which is 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.359 usually UM using a fossil fuel like coal, oil, natural 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.360 gas to heat some water to produce steam to make 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:52.640 a turbine spin to UM to run a generator basically, 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.279 and UM, it's just cheaper, it's much more understandable. UM. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.680 There's a lot of drawbacks to it, but it just 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.880 requires far less of an investment up front than building 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.719 a traditional hydro electric plant. Yeah, and we'll we'll get 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.080 you know, detail all those pros and cons later. But 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.919 you know, if you wonder why people look to water 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:17.400 to begin with, you need only look at water. Uh, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.720 you know, stand beside any river, especially when this's got 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.800 some rapids. When you see those rapids funneling through a 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:27.320 small channel, it gets pretty intense, you know, uh, some 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.760 serious force going through there. And at some point someone said, 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.360 maybe we can harness that. We're not exactly sure who 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.039 the first people were, but um, of course some people 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.480 think the Chinese, the Han dynasty, they're always a good 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.600 bet for for leading the way. Maybe the Persians or 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.320 maybe they actually do. Have writings from the third century 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.400 BC from Philo of Byzantium, may he made a great 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.919 dough by the way he did. He was also the 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.320 guy who first um named the seven wonders of the 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:03.240 ancient world. Well, his dough one of them, right, He's like, 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.160 you gotta try it. It's the flakiest, it's so good 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:09.640 and flakey. But yeah, there's a i think a description 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.480 of a water wheel from from old Philo. Yeah, from 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.320 twenty three hundred or so years ago. So yeah, we've 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.440 figured out that, like you can, you can put water 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.520 to work. Um, we've known for a long time it 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:28.440 was using water as um basically a way to produce 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.880 mechanical energy, not electricity. Put a pin in that because 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:33.800 we're gonna get to it in like thirty five seconds. 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.680 But first we used water to um push water wheels, 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.440 like those charming things you've seen like a Thomas Kincaid painting. 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.640 It's one of my favorite things. They're really wonderful. I 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.080 love them. They're about as coins as anything ever has 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.080 been in the history of the world. There's just something 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.800 so tranquil about it. But if you always loved them. 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.760 When I was a kid, I remember going to Stone 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:57.640 Mountain Park and they had the old grist mill there, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.280 and I think I even kind of understood that. The 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:06.320 purpose and just how I think it's simplicity always really 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.160 just hit me right where in the in the fields 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.120 it is. It's one of those things Chuck that it was. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.560 It is a very simple idea, but it was like 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.440 it's a home run right out of the gate. Like 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.560 basically what we do to produce hydroelectricity is almost an 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.640 unchanged version of you know, the water wheel. Yeah, I 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.680 mean it's got fancier over the years, but it's like, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.920 and you know, we've talked about this with any type 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.880 of power show that we've done, whether it was nuclear power. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.000 I feel like we've done a lot of these. It 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.480 all comes down to producing that mechanical energy to spin something, 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.000 to spin a turbine. Yeah, so, um, you spin this 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.360 water wheel or turbine as we'll see. Um, and there's 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.640 a that spins on an axis. Well, if you insert 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.280 an axle into that axis, it will spin the axle, 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.480 and you can attach all sorts of cool stuff to 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.040 that axle to make them spin too. Like you can 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.320 you can insert more wheels and have them pressed down 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.040 on stone as they rotate, so you can grind things 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.679 or put turn turn. Yeah, you can mill flour. You 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.840 can grind paper into or wood into pulp and make paper. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.400 You can change the rotation, the direction of the rotation 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.040 to like up and down. So now all of a 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.319 sudden you have pistons that can pump bellows or pump water, 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.360 or do all sorts of cool stuff. So that was 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.280 a huge, huge advancement in the history of the world, 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.319 and that's how things stayed for a couple of thousand years, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:42.360 basically until the nineteenth century when we started to develop electricity. 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.679 Somebody said, very quickly, oh, you know what, actually we 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.440 could apply that age old water wheel idea to this 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.400 electrical generation. And that's exactly what they did. And actually 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:59.600 the first guy, the first hydro electric power provided power 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:05.040 to a lamp at a house called called the Craigside 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:10.520 like lamp, Yeah, yeah, you love lamp lamp. It's in 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:17.200 a town called Rothbury in Northumberland. And if I mispronounced Northumberland, 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:19.880 I am not to blame on that. You cannot spell 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.120 a word Northumberland and expect anyone to pronounce it any 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.120 other way. I'm trying to decipher how it's really probably 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:32.520 pronounced like probably christer Shire or something yeah, or like 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.760 nothing rum Bland or something like that I just inserted 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.719 to be, So, however you pronounce it. A guy named 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.120 William Armstrong. He was like this amazing inventor who powered 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.439 basically his whole house using water power. But one of 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.199 the things he did was generate electricity too, that's right. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.120 And then Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Michigan said, you know what, 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.200 I'm gonna one up you there because we have a 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.280 hydro generator at the Wolverine Chair Company factory and we 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.240 have sixteen street lights that we want to power. And 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.320 I imagine all the criminals in town were like, oh, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.439 it's so much harder to commit crime with light at night, now, 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:16.280 I know, especially dropped crime a little bit, I would guess. So, 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.959 I mean, I'm sure they had like I'm sure yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.240 I'm sure they had like the gas lights already, but 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:25.480 the electricals is true. Yeah, those gas lights, I think, Chuck. 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.600 So we You know, we talked a lot about hydro 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.280 electric power in our Hoover Damn two parter, if I 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.840 remember correctly, Yes, but I think we also might have 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.199 talked about in our Electric Chair episode. But I feel 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.800 like we may have misspoken and said that, Um, either Buffalo, 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.280 New York or Niagara Falls, New York was the first 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.800 city to use hydro electric power to power it's street lights. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.839 And that's just not true. It's actually Grand Rapids Michigan. Yeah, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.600 they were a few years later. I love how you 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.720 know a picture like this, The sketch version of this 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.480 is two engineers with the Niagara Falls behind them, reading 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.920 a newspaper going, hey, he says he had Grand Rapids 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.560 are using water to make light if only we had 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.959 such a means to do so, and Niagara Falls behind him. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:20.160 It is just like look at me. Yeah, so um, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.080 that was just an excellent nineteenth century sketch that you 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.720 just made. By the way, that's when sketch was at 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.120 its best. So I don't know, I would say the 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.760 seventies seventies sketches would be they're they're pretty tough to 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.400 to contain with. By the way, I watched that John 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:40.280 Belushi documentary last night, very good, and it's amazing when 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.920 you look at the speaking of seventies sketch, to look 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.959 at these archival photos of the like house parties and 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:53.400 apartment hangs where it's like Belushi and Bill Murray and 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:58.839 Harold Ramos and Lorraine Newman, and I mean just like 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.040 all the comedy heroes just sitting around like drinking and 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:07.160 smoking weed. Now that I endorsed that thing, but I'd 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.240 like to be at that party, yeah, man, I mean, 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.600 like I I loved seeing pictures like that for that 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.520 magic funny that party was and probably pretty great. Great 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.240 either that or else I'd just be like I, I'd 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.080 just be too nervous and socially anxious to talk to 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.760 anybody and wouldn't have a good time at all. Well, 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.079 the first, um, since we're on the sidetrack, the first 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.960 kind of really famous hang I had like that was 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.440 I think one of my first Max Fun cons when 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.959 I was sitting in a room with basically the original 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.240 Upright Citizen's Brigade songs Amy Poehler and Andy Richter and 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.040 Andy Daily and all these comedy heroes, and I just 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.280 I was so afraid to even speak, but I was 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.200 saying jokes in my head. And then two times I 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.600 said a joke in my head and Andy Richter said 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.240 one of them, and another I think it was Matt 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.360 Waltz said another that was basically my joke. And I 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.880 was like, I'm gonna start talking nice and I did, 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.679 and you did. Did you get applause? No? But they 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:07.160 didn't all turn around and look at me and go 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.880 who's this guy like I thought they would, just like, Oh, 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.360 we're all just people. And did they make you an 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.800 honorary a member of the Upright Citizens per game? No? 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.760 Did you get a T shirt? I did get a 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.880 T shirt? Okay, I stole a T shirt. That's good. 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:25.840 Should we take a break? I think we should take 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:27.600 a break. All right, we need to get back on track, 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:29.080 and we're going to take a break and talk about 0:14:29.120 --> 0:15:02.880 the types of modern hydro power right after this. Okay, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.360 Chuck so Um like you said a minute ago that 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.160 like flowing water has a lot of energy to it. 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.440 I found a couple of stats that I've just got 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.080 to share with everybody. Okay, let's let's hear it. Water 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:21.160 flowing at four miles an hour, just four. It is 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.080 very slow, like you you yawn basically when you see that, 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.120 it's like a walking pace. It can move a five 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:36.120 foot diameter boulder. Okay, Okay, seven miles prior has the 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:41.320 same force as an e F five tornado. And water 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.560 water flowing at twenty five miles prior has a pressure 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.600 equivalent of wind that's blowing at seven hundred and ninety 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.200 miles per hour, faster than the speed of sound. So 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.480 there's a tremendous amount of kinetic energy and flowing water UM. 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.960 And we have figured out over time how to maximize 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:06.520 that um. Like you said, the water wheel design is 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.880 basically like what we're what we're working with still today, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.720 but we've refined it so much that now we're producing 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.800 these amazing turbines that spin super fast, and they're designed 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.280 to like to to direct water and just the right way, 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:22.760 or water is supposed to go around them just the 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.360 right way, or drop on them. Or shoot from the 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.520 side and slosh around like it's on a slip in 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.760 side or something. And um, we've come up with a 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.000 lot of turbine designs basically, I guess is what I'm 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.440 trying to say that that have really improved on the 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.160 water wheel. Yeah, those bulb types are pretty cool. Uh. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.560 That's those are watertight and it's basically an aerodynamic chamber 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.040 that's gonna you know, I talked earlier about when that 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.440 water channel narrows, how much more forceful it gets, And 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.560 that's what they do in this case. They focus and 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.640 narrow the water column and then put it to the turbine, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.440 obviously at a at a much higher rate, right, Um. 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.000 And I think that is an example of an axial 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.480 flow where the flow of the water is parallel to 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.159 the spin of the turbine. Or no, maybe that'd be radio. 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.479 I can't remember. But basically there's axial radio and mixed 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.040 and most things are mixed. And a really good example 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.600 of a mixed turbine is the most widely used one 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.400 called the Francis turbine, which was invented by a guy 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.920 named James Francis back in the nineteenth century, and it's 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.879 um it's fan blades basically are adjusted to that the 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:34.359 water spills down from above onto it, but as it 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:38.520 hits it, the fan blades directed downward into the side, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.919 so the water ends up actually slashing around parallel to 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.040 the spin of the turbine and spinning it real good, 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:51.200 spens it real good, good Old Francis. Uh. If you're 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.560 talking about hydro electricity these days, Um, you're gonna spin 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.760 that turbine. Axl's gonna spin the turbine, and it's attached 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.520 to a set of super powerful magnets that are turning 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.000 inside a copper coil, and that movement of the magnets 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.680 is going to knock those electrons loose and get those 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.200 electrons flowing, and then all of a sudden, those electrons 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.000 flowing through the copper is a current. It's electrical current, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.119 and then they pressurize that into a really densely packed 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.480 a C current that's really slow moving. And we talked about, 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.679 you know, the invention of a C current, how that 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.160 means you can just take it really really far away 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.440 and still use it without losing a lot of energy, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.960 which is great because you can dump it into the 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.960 electrical grid and say you were once water, now you 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.119 are electricity, yeah, which is which is pretty cool. Like 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.760 a lot of our power actually started out as flowing water. 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.800 I'd love that idea to me to um, but it 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.359 goes to show like we really haven't changed that water 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.320 wheel designed very much. Instead of a grinding wheel or 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.560 a bellows, we now just have some magnets that are 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.119 attached to the turbine and they spin around inside of 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.960 that that coil. And that's that's that. I mean, like 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.320 it's I know we talked about it in our episode 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.000 on electricity, UM, but I'm still to this day amazed 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.639 that that's it's just so primitive, but it will. It works, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.960 So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Basically is 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.160 the big motto of the electrical production industry and donkeys 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.080 the world over said thank you, because now I don't 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.400 have to be right hooked to a thing and walk 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.400 in a circle all day long unless they're making mes cow. 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.199 As we talked about in our book, you got to 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.239 use the traditional donkey. That's right. I hope they're well 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.080 taken care of. I am sure they are. If you yeah, 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.080 if you have a donkey that makes mes cow for you, 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.600 I'll bet you treat it really nice. Uh So. There 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.359 are four main categories of hydro electric power plants these days. 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.720 The first one, the impoundment, is the one you kind 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.640 of think of when you think of like the Hoover Dam. Um, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.800 this water is impounded. They stop that flow. It's impounded 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.119 in a big reservoir. They release it through these gates, 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.480 through these tunnels called pin stocks that we talked a 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.960 lot about in the Hoover Dam episode. And it's gonna 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.760 just you know, they're using gravity basically to make water 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.639 fall and gain all this turn all that potential energy 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.280 into um whatever. The other kind of energy is the 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.919 energy yeah, yeah, And so empowerment schemes make use of 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.680 what's called the hydraulic head, which is basically the height 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.119 of the drop from say the gates where the water 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.960 enters the pen stock to the point where that water 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.520 hits the turbine. And the higher the head, the higher 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.520 the drop, the more energy you can get out of 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.959 the water, the faster it makes the turbines spin. So 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.159 that's why that's why dams are just so damn high 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.879 and tall, because they have a really high hydraulic head 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.520 and you can just get a lot more electricity a 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.320 lot more kinetic energy out of that falling water. Um. 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.400 But as we'll see, that's actually kind of a problem, 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:58.399 the fact that the high head um hydro power is 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.600 basically the state of the art. We need to advance 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.560 past that just a little, a little taste, a little 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.520 foreshadowing right there. That's right. Then you've got I think 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.920 my favorite one, which is diversion or the run of 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:16.080 river hydro power, which is, um, this is using water 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.679 that's already flowing. You got a river that's flowing, and 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.399 someone came along and said, hey, this river's got some 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.960 good action. Why don't we just divert some of this 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.560 and channel it off to the side and create some 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.400 electricity that way and then just let that water dump 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.479 back in and do its thing on downstream. Yeah, and 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.240 so um, some of them do just divert some of 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.399 the river to produce electrical power. Some like just stick 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.840 a whole plant in the river. But the key here 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.040 is is that they're not like you said, They're not 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.720 like trying to keep the water blocked up behind a dam. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.960 But there's still probably a drop because again, this hydraulic 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.920 head is basically the key to hydroelectric power. Generation right now. 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.480 I think the conduit, which is a subtype of the 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.080 diversion and conduit or canal, is pretty neat too, because 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.440 basically they use these water pipes that may be part 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.560 of a big irrigation system or some other kind of 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:10.960 water project. You know, like we might as well stick 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.840 at turbine in that thing, because we're diverting that water 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.720 through a pipe anyway, right, so it might as well 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.880 just capture some of the energy as it's passing by. 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.199 I think that's a spectacular idea. Um. So those that's like, 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.120 you've got impoundment diversion, and then another type is called 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.480 pump storage, and pump storage is very much like impoundment. 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:32.960 There's like an upper reservoir and pen stocks and you 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.159 let the water flow through past the turbine and you 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:40.160 generate electricity. But unlike impoundment, where when the water exits 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.600 it just goes downstream and keeps flowing. It's like, what 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.200 the hell just happened? Um, you actually capture the water. 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:49.560 I have to say, I've said damn in hell in 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.399 this episode, and I I'm really pushing the envelope. If 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.520 you ask me, I feel like Bart Simpson, Well, you 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:56.960 said damn high. I took it to mean d a 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.360 m high literally, but yeah, you're in trouble. You're saying 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:05.560 thank you, thank you. Um so uh oh. In pump storage, 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.160 rather than letting the water just exit and flow down river, 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:11.240 there's a lower reservoir too that captures the water and 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.639 keeps it from flowing out and then um that's what 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:17.080 you do. You let the water flow from upper to 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.639 lower during peak electricity hours or peak demand, so you 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:25.560 can produce electricity, and then when it's not uh peak demand, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.280 people don't need as much electricity. You can use some 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:31.480 of that electricity that you've generated to pump the water 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:34.520 from the lower reservoir back up to the upper reservoir, 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:36.399 which is pretty awesome. It makes it basically like a 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:40.560 rechargeable battery. It's pretty cool. We um spend a lot 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:43.920 of time on Lake Sinclair here in Georgia, and the 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.480 dam is very close to where we are. There's two damns, 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:48.399