Thursday, April 9, 2009

Hydroelectric Plant at Arizona Falls

Here is the hydroelectric plant a the Arizona Falls park I told you about yesterday. You can see the twin waterfalls on either side and in the center is the “water room” with water flowing over the back wall made up of gears and machinery. There are boulders positioned around the water room so you can sit and enjoy the cool breezes and the calming rush of the water on all sides.

Arizona Falls generates 750 kilowatts of clean, renewable energy and can power up to 150 homes. The roof of the building contains solar panels that power the ceiling fans in the facility. All power generated here from both the solar panels and the hydroelectric plant goes into the Salt River Project’s electricity grid.

7 comments:

Julie ScottsdaleDailyPhoto.com said...

the solar panels are great to see used in Arizona. i like Arizona Falls and find it to be a very interesting place.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

The concept of using small hydroelectric plants to generate small amounts of electricity is one thing that is being looked at for energy independence. I seem to recall that this is of particular interest in New England, where the same streams whose water powered the mills that began the industrial revolution in the US could be used for small hydro power.

In Costa Rica, 70% of our electricity comes from hydroelectric power.

glenda said...

Nice shot Sharon.

Judy said...

A nice place to take a walk or just sit. Water is such an important subject in Arizona.

Gunga Dean said...

This is also an excellent way to oxyginate the water for our scaly aquatic friends. They do this in downtown Chicago with the water arch on the former sewer known as the Chicago River and with a water fall on the former sewer known as the Cal-Sag Channel in Blue Island (southside Chitown).

These types of ecological booster shots have brought these waterways back to life in such a way that people actually fish there (catch and release, nobody's ready to eat this stuff yet, though with this economy...).

Mo said...

Are there lots of ducks around here

Hilda said...

Oh! It's still a working plant! And I thought that it had been decommissioned already. I think it's great that they've set it up so well for visitors then — a perfect learning environment. Looks fantastic too.