Energy from Water: Hydroelectric, Tidal, and Wave Power

Energy from Water: Hydroelectric, Tidal, and Wave Power — page 3
Moving Water The water on Earth's surface is rarely still Rivers flow from high ground to lower ground and wind pushes water into currents and waves that sweep across the world's oceans Rain falls from the sky to the ground All this shows that water has a lot of kinetic energy Thousands of years ago the ancient Greeks harnessed the power of moving water to turn waterwheels People also used moving water for transportation sending ships and barges loaded with goods from city to city on rivers This allowed them to transport loads that would be too heavy for horses or oxen to pull In the early 1800s engineers worked on ways to make waterwheels more efficient They could use waterwheels to power machines such as weaving looms in factories The first use of moving water to generate electricity was in a house called Cragside in northern England The house s owner developed his own hydroelectric factory that powered electric lighting The first commercial hydroelectric factory opened in Wisconsin in 1882 but it produced only a small amount of electricity Long ago waterwheels were often used to turn the heavy stones that ground grain into