When was hydroelectricity developed

The first known instance of a civilisation constructing a dam dates to B. C in Egypt. The dam was thought to have been built to divert a river to irrigate crops. The dam was a failure however as due to a design flaw the water quickly eroded it. The dam was a failure and the Egyptians never attempted to build another dam until modern times.

The use of hydropower increased rapidly across Europe and Asia during the Medieval period as technology improved. Medieval England used watermills extensively as in the Domesday Book over 5, watermills were recorded. Italy and the south of France were also extensive users of the technology.

The Bazacle, a dam and mill complex on the River Garonne in southern France, was likely the largest dam in Europe and possibly the world at the time it was built. The use of hydro technology in the Middle Ages was not confined to Europe. In the Islamic world, during the Islamic Golden Age hydropower was in wide use and even early tidal power technology was used to operate large hydraulic factory complexes.

Sawmills, paper mills, tide mills, steel mills and sugar mills were all used extensively during this time. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation. Muslim engineers also used water turbines, employed gears in watermills and water-raising machines, and pioneered the use of dams as a source of waterpower, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines.

The industrial revolution is the time when Hydropower took off. In , a dynamo driven by a water turbine was used to provide arc lighting —a technique where an electric spark in the air between two conductors produces a light—to a theatre and storefront in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In , a dynamo connected to a turbine in a flour mill provided street lighting at Niagara Falls, New York.

Both of these used direct current technology. The breakthrough in alternating current, the method used today, allowed power to be transmitted longer distances and ushered in the first U. The Redlands Power Plant utilized Pelton water wheels powered by water from the nearby Mill Creek and a three-phase generator that ensured consistent power delivery.

In the past century, a number of innovations have enabled hydropower to become an integral part of the renewable energy mix in the United States. By , 10 percent of American homes had electricity. Just days after the Pearl Street Station went online, H.

Rogers, a businessman in Appleton, Wisconsin, connected an Edison dynamo to a waterwheel on the Fox River. By August , 40 to 50 hydroelectric powerplants were online or under construction in the United States and Canada. Finding a way to send electricity traveling across the miles to outlying areas and places without a ready water source was an obstacle that, once overcome, would lead to great expansion of the electric light and power industry. DC, on the other hand, could not be so easily converted from one voltage to another, making it more expensive and less efficient to transmit over longer distances.

George Westinghouse, using a complete AC system developed by Tesla motors combined with generators and transformers , won the AC-DC battle in when he harnessed the power of Niagara Falls to transmit electric power to Buffalo, New York — 26 miles distant.

By , AC powerplants powered by Niagara Falls were producing one-fifth of all electricity generated in the United States. The Niagara power was transmitted to cities and industries in the East and upper Midwest. The ability to transmit electricity over long distances would prove especially important in the American West, where dams and hydroelectric plants often were located far from population centers.

Explore This Park. The Origins of Hydroelectric Power. Pawtucket Falls in Lowell, Massachusetts. The waters of the Merrimack River, controlled by the dam shown here, flow through the famous industrial town. Image by Cyark. Thomas Edison's inventions helped to commercialize electricity and create a popular demand for it. Photo shows him in his New Jersey laboratory.