Hydroelectric Energy

As recently as two years ago, the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi suffered the daily ignominy of crippling power shortages that hobbled industry and left residents to sit in the dark most nights of the week. The power outages are now just a distant memory, thanks to a massive $1-billion project in Hoa Binh--a two-hour drive southwest of the capital--that was built by an army of 30,000 workers guided by 1,000 experts from the old Soviet Union.

Off the western coast of Scotland, on the Isle of Islay, science teacher Ray Husthwaite turns on the light in his classroom. The electricity comes from a power cable that runs to the mainland. But it also comes from the ocean. A few miles from the school, wave action compresses and decompresses air in a chamber. The moving air powers a turbine, which generates electricity.

"It's tougher than weather, clear as crystal, flexible as paper and can even transform baby breaths or speeding stardust into tiny electrical signals that you can keep an eye on." That's what engineer Victor Chatigny of Penwalt Corp. in Valley Forge, Pa., might say if he made a television ad for a seemingly does-it-all plastic that his company sells as Kynar Piezo Film.

Federal energy officials have endorsed a controversial proposal to build a reservoir, dam and hydroelectric facility in the Santa Ana Mountains to provide power during periods of peak energy use, a project some environmental groups say will destroy pristine wilderness favored by hikers and hang gliders. The decision also shifts the planned site from Morrell Canyon to nearby Decker Canyon.

Water has always been a crucial resource. In almost everything we do, water plays a significant role. It is an essential element in food production--both in growing plants and sustaining livestock. It is also a source of hydroelectric energy. And as communities grow, so does the need for water. The greater the growth, the more complicated becomes the task of obtaining water. Since not everyone lives next to rivers or lakes, dams were built to help collect and distribute it.

Four-fifths of the female salmon spawning in the last free-flowing reach of the Columbia River apparently began life as males, raising troubling new questions about the survival of the Pacific Northwest's signature fish species.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a defeat Monday to state regulators and environmentalists, ruling unanimously that federal officials alone control the flow of water from rivers and streams into hydroelectric power plants. The case, brought by the state of California, involved a small, privately owned plant along a tributary of the American River near Placerville.

Off the western coast of Scotland, on the Isle of Islay, science teacher Ray Husthwaite turns on the light in his classroom. The electricity comes from a power cable that runs to the mainland. But it also comes from the ocean. A few miles from the school, wave action compresses and decompresses air in a chamber. The moving air powers a turbine, which generates electricity.

The Turkish hydraulic engineer swept his hand toward the Middle East's storied Fertile Crescent and then to the brown waters flowing sluggishly toward it, the first fruit of Turkey's grand project to harness the headwaters of the mighty Tigris-Euphrates river basin. "Just think," Lutfi Solakoglu proudly told the latest group of dignitaries to visit the site since the sluice gates opened April 11, sending a stream of water down an irrigation canal to the fields beyond.

A federal environmental report analyzing the effects of a proposed 500-megawatt hydroelectric plant near Lake Elsinore gave local officials insufficient information, the Board of Supervisors declared by vote Tuesday. The board urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which prepared the document, to further investigate the 2,400-acre project's effect on transportation, water quality, views and recreation, including hang gliding in the Santa Ana Mountains.

A federal environmental report analyzing the effects of a proposed 500-megawatt hydroelectric plant near Lake Elsinore gave local officials insufficient information, the Board of Supervisors declared by vote Tuesday. The board urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which prepared the document, to further investigate the 2,400-acre project's effect on transportation, water quality, views and recreation, including hang gliding in the Santa Ana Mountains.

In 1941, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a paean to the Columbia River's Grand Coulee Dam, enthusing that power generated by the New Deal monument "is turning our darkness to dawn." But this summer, the Pacific Northwest's mightiest river could leave California in the dark. A stubborn drought has reduced water levels behind the Columbia's network of power-producing dams by a third, leaving less electricity available for export to the south.

To the long list of Enron Corp.'s victims, add Northwest salmon. A fresh round of evidence released Wednesday suggested that Enron traders shipped emergency power out of California, even as hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest -- struggling to ease the energy crisis -- were running full tilt. That's where the salmon, an icon of the Northwest, come in.

When engineers for the Tennessee Valley Authority decided to replace the aging flume that carried water to hydroelectric Power House No. 2 on the Ocoee River some years ago, they expected technical challenges. They didn't expect someone to kidnap their river. But that's essentially what happened. And the TVA's experience on the Ocoee, which flows through a mountain gorge near Chattanooga, Tenn.

A year earlier than initially planned, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will begin producing electricity today at its mammoth reservoir near Hemet in Riverside County. Four turbines at MWD's Diamond Valley Lake reservoir will produce about 13 megawatts of electricity--enough for about 9,750 homes. The move comes as the state approaches a summer for which energy officials have predicted rolling blackouts.

Rep. Duncan Hunter isn't well known outside of his El Cajon district. But the conservative Republican hopes to help California out of its electricity crisis by persuading a reluctant Congress and President Bush to support temporary price caps on wholesale power supplies. Hunter is trying to bring together the state's famously fractious 52-member House delegation to support federal legislation that would empower the U.S. energy secretary to impose the caps.

Most electric power is produced by burning fuel to boil water into steam, which turns the fan-like blades of a turbine, generating electricity. The steam is then condensed back into water for reuse in what is known as a thermodynamic cycle. Traditional power generation relies on the Rankine cycle, which uses ordinary water. But the proposed new Kalina cycle appears to be much more efficient, thanks to a mixture that starts out in the boiler as 70% ammonia, 30% water.

California would become one of the largest owners of hydroelectric power in the nation and use profit from those plants to borrow as much as $12 billion to buy electricity, under a plan to be unveiled today by Assembly Democrats.

Four-fifths of the female salmon spawning in the last free-flowing reach of the Columbia River apparently began life as males, raising troubling new questions about the survival of the Pacific Northwest's signature fish species.