Title: Hydropower
Course: Critical Infrastructure: An Overview > Section: Course Content

Click here for a downloadable version of this document: Hydropower

Hydropower is a method of harnessing the energy in water and using it to create electricity. The electricity created from the energy in water is called hydroelectricity. There are many forms of water energy to use. Water from the ocean can be used and in some case the power of the tides is utilized. Rivers can be used to glean this energy. Hydrokinetic energy is used to describe energy that comes from moving water [5]. Often times a dam is used as part of the hydropower process. A dam is a structure designed to hold back water. “Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity” [6]. Dams have their own sector in the sixteen Critical Infrastructure Sectors identified by the Department of Homeland Security. (If your instructor chose to use the complete version of this course, dams will be covered in a later subunit.)