Henry Borden Hydroelecrtic Plant

Henry Borden is a hydroelectric plant that has been around since around 1926 and harnesses both above ground and cave water for energy. This visit was really interesting because all of what we saw had been around for nearly 90 years which makes it even more interesting. That being said our guide did tell us that Brazil has a plant that creates more energy in one turbine than that plant does via all 16 so although it was not the most efficient, it still works well and it is almost all natural so it does not disrupt the environment as much.

While on this visit I learned a great deal about how hydroelectric plants function. The use the potential energy and focus it through a conical valve towards the turbines in order to spin them which then creates a magnetic field thus providing energy. The overall effectiveness of hydroelectric power in Brazil is relatively high as it results in 90% of Brazil's electricity production however when there is a drought this causes massive price jumps so although effective, it is highly volatile.
 The major difference between the US and Brazil is that Brazil uses rivers and waterfalls and other things to produce hydro power where as the US utilizes only dams. Thus, if the US were to follow Brazil's lead and use natural flow of things to provide hydro power it would be a huge improvement. The major thing that stands in the way though is that by doing this, the fish population is damaged severely as they are not able to swim up river and the rivers often become polluted so they would need to figure out a way to prevent this before implementation in the states. As for policies that regulate hydro power, the US has virtually abandoned using hydro power and has been destroying more hydro plants than it has built over the years. Meanwhile Brazil is trying to build yet another plant in the Amazon however there is a great deal of controversy over it due to the damage that would be done to the environment and to the indigenous people as a result of it. During our visit the environment was only briefly mentioned as having an impact in this technology through trying to use the natural flow of the rivers in their construction. The economic factors on the other hand were not even touched on.