Hydroelectricity

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government would have to assume a major share in their construction. Motivated by the search for the multiple use of water resources, including navigation, flood control, and irrigation, in addition to power production, the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, started government participation in large-scale waterpower development in 1933.
Most major installations depend on a large water-storage reservoir upstream of the dam where water flow can be controlled and a nearly constant water level can be assured. In contrast to storage-type plants, which depend on the impounding of large amounts of water, a few examples exist where both the water drop and the steady flow rate are high enough to permit so-called run-of-the-river installations; one such is the joint U.S.-Canadian Niagara Falls power project.
Although hydroelectric-power generation in the U.S. has increased from about 16 billion kWh in 1920 to about 280 billion kWh annually in the 1990, the percentage of electricity generated ...

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