Hydroelectricity: The Versatile Renewable

摘要

As one of the earliest and most elementary forms of power generation, hydropower remains by far the largest source of renewable energy in the world, including in North America. In the early 1900s, hydropower was the dominant source of U.S. electric generation and as recently as the 1940s accounted for more than 40 percent of electricity production. By the 1950s, developers had tapped the hydro potential of the most mountainous regions in the U.S. -many in the Northwest-where steep inclines supply the strongest river flows and permit the most cost-efficient projects.