why not usehuge cleated belt behind waterfalls to generate electricity?
463026
while it would be possible to use this method to generate energy from a fall, it would by so vastly inefficient that it would be impractical.  you would only be able to turn the wheel at a rate determined by the speed of the falling water, and while the water does have significant energy, most of that energy is disappated by the water changing direction during an impact.  this means that the energy captured by the wheel would only be a small fraction of the total energy of the water, compared with a much higher ammount for a turbine
121402
Yes. It is just not possible to generate more electricity than that motor consumes.
547583
Water + Electricity = Bad News\n\nSealing electronics and connectors is difficult and expensive.
334381
http://www.karun3.com/technical/?item=7\nhttp://www.karun3.com/related%5Finfo/about%5Fhydro/hydropower%5Fmachinery/
227733
There is already a device that can collect electrical discharges, made earlier in the turn of the century, they are called leyden jars, Modern day terminology call these devices Capacitors or battery. The innovation from the leyden jars to the rechargeable battery took centuries to develop. The reason why they do not build massive structures for the purpose you described is because simply that lightning is an uncontrollable energy source. its random unexpected occurrence, its unstable and erratic voltage potentials makes it very dangerous and an inefficient source of stable energy. Perhaps why electromagnetic generators are built and are still being used as of today to supply a more controllable source of electrical energy. Its flexibility of use with hydro-electrical plants, wind farms, and fossil fuel plant, make the electrostatic generators more advantageous to deal with than lightning alone in producing electricity.\n\nOther alternative energy to consider are nuclear, solar, hydrgen fuel cells, and geo-thermal energy.\n~meow
175649
It will need some kind of electric source, or it won't do anything. They are really cool, though.
948165
There have been proposals and designs for wave-generated electricity.  It is not the same as dams and is more difficult because of the variability of the wave motion.  I think the reason it hasn't  been done is that the mechanisms are expensive for the amount of power that can be obtained.
423132
It all depends on the area where you live. Like people in Florida would benefit most from Solar energy. People living near dams would benefit more form water energy. Wind energy would benefit people who live in the mountains. It all has to do with the geography of the land. But dealing with fuel options... I'm stumped!
524577
Water which can be used to irrigate fields and genrate electricity if dammed up.
341206
To harness the electricity usefully would be huge, but exceedingly difficult.\n\nYou could fly a kite with a wire string in a thunderstorm. \n\nDON"T TRY THIS UNLESS YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 100,000,000 VOLTS DOES WHEN TRAVELING THROUGH ANYTHING IN ITS PATH!
409013
Lets see, hmmm, the mountains block our wind mills; it's cloudy more often than sunny so there goes solar being workible, and god forbid u build a dam on a river, what else do u suggest?
801669
There is a lot of possibilities starting from the simplest one which is wind generator.  More complicated would be water generation where a usually dam is build and potential energy of the water accumulated behind the dam moves water through turbines and generates power. Some other may include thermal energy of the earth. If you drill deep enough you will get to the earth crust zone where temperature is high to produce steam and this steam is converted (generated) into the electric power. Ocean waves are also source to generate energy.
663003
You want to capture the gravitational potential energy of the water and make it do mechanical work, which is converted to electricity.\n\nIn principle this does not require a dam - any natural flow of water can be turned into motion (as with a millwheel, for example).  A dam does this in a more efficient way.\n\n  First the dam raises the water level, increasing the energy available at that site.  Then the water is channelled to a device to turn its motion into spin (often the channels to the turbines are not in the dam itself but in the bedrock surounding the dam) - usually a bank of turbines, which extact the maximum energy from a stream of fluid by having each turbine take a little bit.  The spin drives a generator.
496498
Dunno bout UK...  Some states actually do not have any laws regarding that, and those that do. . .  well you would have to comply with the laws for a "mobile home". Also you have have trouble getting electricity installed to it. May require you to install a pole similar to those at camp grounds..... Where I live (Alabama) You only have to have it 2' off the ground. (concrete blocks) you must have it restrained with tie downs, (not difficult) and Have more than 1 entrance way (back door) - That is if your electricity is on a camping pole. (easiest way) Dunno bout plumbing specs, I don't see a problem though. But hey, if you have alot of land with trees, and if you don't tell anyone and don't attempt to get a registered address. . . .  who'll ever know you're there?
1124971
No. If you could, you'd have solved the energy crisis with your perpetual motion machine. The gas engine only provides 5hp so the most you can get out of it is 5hp. The engine is a 120hp so it will need 120hp to run at full power, so your generator will need to deliver at least 120hp. If this would work, you could feed the electric motor back to the generator and use 5hp to drive the generator and leave an excess of 115hp to use as you wish.\n\nIn Reality:\nElectric motors and generators are about 90% efficient.\nCombined cycle electricity generation as used in power stations from natural gas and fossil fuels can give overall 60-65% efficiency and this will probably be more efficient than your motor driving a generator.\n\nSo, you will theoretically get from the shaft of the electric motor 5hp(shaft power from IC engine) *90%(generator efficiency)*90%(motor efficiency) =4.05hp at effectively 80% efficiency.\n\nAlternatively, to run your electric motor at full power you would need an IC motor of 150hp to allow for the 80% efficiency of the generator-motor  combination.
76279
dont see why not. just some simple energy conversions. theoretically it would work, but maybe slow down due to energy lost as heat due to friction and such... but it should work.
348093
Electricity may be generated directly from solar panels (using the photo-electric effect) or from providing rotational force to an electric generator (just  wires moving across a magnetic field). \n\nAny form of energy that creates movement can be used for the generator -\n1. Apply heat to water to make steam to turn a turbine to turn a generator). The heat could be provided by fossil fuels, nuclear power, geothermal sources (eg hot springs), solar radiation.\n2. Use wind or water power to turn the generator (windmills & hydroelectric dams) \n3. Tidal power again to rotate a generator.\n\nAll these forms of electrcity generation require major capital expenditure that perhaps would be difficult for Ghana to afford. However, the windmills & solar panels are probably the easiest to implement since they could be implemented by an incremental approach. The disadvantage is the inability to match supply to demand.