hydro+power

Hydro Power "Hydro" means "water" in Latin - so "hydro power" is water power pretty well. It is odd that we can use water to make electricity - usually they don't go well together. Actually, the water never comes in contact with the electricity. The water going down a river is what's used to spin the turbines that are in the generator.

People have had access to water power over 2,000 years. Ancient Egyptians used water wheels for grinding grain, and long ago Americans learned how to saw woodwith them.

In the 1880s, scientists learned how to use a flowing river to spin the turbines of a generator. The first hydroelectric power plant in the U.S.A. opened on the Fox River close to Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1882.

By the 1940s, almost half of the electricity in the United States of America, came from hydro power. After World War II, people started to use coal power plants more.

Hydro power isn't very common in the Midwest because most of the rivers there are short, skinny and slow. Alliant Energy has two hydro power plants, one is in Kilbourn, Wisconsin, it has been making electricity for more than 100 years!

Alot of the big hydroelectric power plants in the United States of America are in California, Oregon and in Washington.

People built dams to control the power of the big, chopy mountain rivers. Workers could change the amount of water flowing through the dam, according to the weather and how much electricity people need.

The biggest hydroelectric dam in the United States of America is the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. It was started in 1933 and it was completed in 1942, it is the largest concrete structure ever built. It is 5,233 feet long and 550 feet high!It has four power plants with 33 generators, which is making enough electricity for more than two million homes.