Hydropower - Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy - page 109

TABLE 4.1
History of Hydropower

Date Hydropower Event

BCE Hydropower was used by the Greeks more than 2000 years ago to turn water wheels for

grinding wheat into flour.

Mid-1770s French hydraulic and military engineer Bernard Forest de Belidor wrote a four-volume

work describing vertical- and horizontal-axis machines.

1775 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was founded, with establishment of a Chief Engineer for

the Continental Army.

1880 Michigan's Grand Rapids Electric Light and Power Company, generating electricity by

dynamo belted to a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory, lit up 16 Brush-arc
lamps.

1881 Niagara Falls city street lamps were powered by hydropower.

1882 World's first hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton,

Wisconsin.

1886 About 45 water-powered electric plants were operating in the United States and Canada.

1887 First hydroelectric plant in the west was opened in San Bernardino, California.

1889 Two hundred electric plants in the United States used water power for some or all of

their power generation.

1901 First Federal Water Power Act was passed.

1902 Bureau of Reclamation was established.

1907 Hydropower provided 15% of U.S. electrical generation.

1920 Hydropower provided 25% of U.S. electrical generation. The Federal Power Act

established the Federal Power Commission with authority to issue licenses for hydro
development on public lands.

1933 Tennessee Valley Authority was established.

1935 Federal Power Commission authority was extended to all hydroelectric projects built by

utilities engaged in interstate commerce.

1937 Bonneville Dam, the first federal dam, began operation on the Columbia River in

Oregon and Washington. The federal Bonneville Power Administration was established
in the Pacific Northwest.

1940 Hydropower provided 40% of electrical generation. Conventional capacity had tripled

in the United States since 1920.

1980 Conventional capacity had nearly tripled in the United States since 1900.

2003 About 10% of U.S. electricity came from hydropower. Capacity was about 80,000 MW

of conventional capacity and 18,000 MW of pumped storage.

Source: EERE, History of Hydropower , Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of
Energy, Washington, DC, 2008 (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/hydro_history.
html).

to perform work. The power of falling water has been used in industry for thousands
of years (see Table 4.1). The Greeks used water wheels to grind wheat into flour more
than 2000 years ago. In addition to grinding flour, the power of water has been used
to saw wood and power textile mills and manufacturing plants.