As people discovered centuries ago, the flow of water represents a huge
supply of kinetic energy that can be put to work. Water wheels are useful
for generating motion energy to grind grain or saw wood, but they are not
practical for generating electricity. Water wheels are too bulky and slow.
Hydroelectric plants are different. They use modern turbine generators to
produce electricity, just as thermal (coal, natural gas, nuclear) power
plants do, except they do not produce heat to spin the turbines.
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