Best link!!http://www.eon-uk.com/EnergyExperience/356.htm

Different ways of using water to generate electricityhttp://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=hydropower_home-basics

Hydroelectric dam picturehttp://www.madphysics.com/ask/dam/Hydroelectric_dam.gif

The water in the reservoir is considered stored energy. When the gates open, the water flowing through the penstock becomes kinetic energy because it's in motion.

The gravitational energy of the water is used to turn the turbine directly.

Gravitational Mechanical Electrical

Coal Fire Power Plant

Let's look at a typical coal fired power plant.

The coal is burned in a boiler which produces steam. The steam is run through a turbine which turns a generator which produces electricity. A turbine is like a fan in reverse, with many vanes or blades, where the steam is used to make the turbine turn or rotate rapidly. A generator is a huge magnet that is turned by the turbine. As the magnet turns inside a coil of wire, electricity is produced. So, the energy chain for this power plant would look like this:

Chemical Heat Mechanical Electrical

Home made electricity generator video (8 min)http://amasci.com/coilgen/generator_2.html

Hydroelectricity generation (short video)http://www.howstuffworks.com/hydropower-plant.htm

Hydroelectric dam facts ppt (copied to a new ppt)http://leeds-faculty.colorado.edu/lawrence/syst6820/Lectures/Hydropower.ppt#1