"Dan Espen" wrote in message
...
Red writes:

On Dec 23, 4:40 pm, "Pete C." wrote:
Mark wrote:

It takes just as much water to turn the turbine
whether the generator is producing 1 megawatt or 150 megawatts.

NOT TRUE wherever did you get that idea?

Mark

I think he was trying to say that the water flowing through a
hydroelectric generating facility has the same available energy whether
you utilize it or not, so you may as well utilize all that is available.

I specified hydroelectric and that is indeed what I meant.

But that isn't what you said.
The volume and head (height) of the water determine how much
energy can be produced at the turbine.

It takes a lot more water or much greater height
to turn a 150 megawatt turbine than
it takes to turn a 1 megawatt turbine.


True, he wasn't talking about two different turbines. He was talking about
one piece of machinery operating at varying capacities.