HOW DOES A DAM WORK?

Through the intake gates, the water flows from the reservoir into the penstock (the white sluice to the left of the intake) and descends into the powerhouse. There it enters the turbines, which are driven by the falling water. The mechanical energy from the rotating turbine shafts is transferred to the generator, which transforms the mechanical energy into electricity. In 2014 the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze River in the Hubei

Province of China set a world record for hydroelectric power generation. The dam has a potential generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts (MW), although the seasonal availability of water limits its output during several months of the year. Still, this dam has more than three times the generating capacity of the largest hydroelectric power plant in the United States, the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in the state of Washington.