About This Book: Hydropower is probably the oldest source of energy in the world with roots going back to the 1st to 2nd millennium B.C., when the power of water was known and mechanically used by the advanced civilisations of ancient China, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first inventions that converted mechanical energy into electrical energy by means of reaction turbines date back to the eighteenth century. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, turbines such as Kaplan, Francis and Pelton, generated electricity with already very high efficiency. Most of the inventions in hydropower come from Europe, and even today, Europe supplies the largest share (approximately two-thirds) of hydropower equipment to the world. Electrical energy is one of the prerequisites for industrialisation, which in many countries enabled agricultural societies to develop into modern industrial nations. For many years, society used electricity from hydropower uncritically because the economic advantages of hydropower were considered unbeatable. Hydropower plants and their components, such as turbines, were optimised for profit. The environmental adverse effects of the technology were not of great concern to the society of that time. Since hydropower plants are long-lived—50–100 years—today’s society is confronted with old plants whose adverse effects on the environment are now better understood and also critically addressed. However, mitigation of the negative impacts of existing plants is much more difficult than considering appropriate mitigation strategies in the design and planning of new power plants. Today we know much more about the effects of hydropower on ecology and especially on fish. In particular, we now know quite well—especially with the new knowledge that will be presented in this book—how negative effects can be mitigated. Nevertheless, economic efficiency is still usually a much more important aspect in planning than ecofriendliness. Therefore, the fact that this book shows example turbine hill-charts defining optimal operation with respect to minimising fish harm rather than maximising economic efficiency is an exception rather than standard practice. In 2000, the European Commission enacted the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), which for the first time defined obligatory ecological standards for our water bodies, their fauna and flora. Because of the WFD, new requirements on the operation and design of hydropower plants were imposed, which influenced their economy. …     «

About This Book: Hydropower is probably the oldest source of energy in the world with roots going back to the 1st to 2nd millennium B.C., when the power of water was known and mechanically used by the advanced civilisations of ancient China, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first inventions that converted mechanical energy into electrical energy by means of reaction turbines date back to the eighteenth century. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, turbines such as Kaplan, Francis and Pelton...     »