GC: n

CT: Hydropower is created by running water through a hydraulic turbine that spins and drives a generator shaft to create electricity. Most small hydro projects, also called micro-hydro, divert a portion of a river or creek’s flow, or are constructed on established channels, such as irrigation ditches.

S: GOVTECH http://www.govtech.com/technology/Colorado-Hydropower-Irrigation-Ditches-030111.html (last access: 12 July 2014)

N: 1. irrigation (n.) “a supplying of water to land,” 1610s, from Latin irrigationem (nominative irrigatio) “a watering,” noun of action from past participle stem of irrigare (see irrigate).
ditch (n.) Old English dic “ditch, dike,” a variant of dike (q.v.).
2. Moving water carries with it an enormous amount of kinetic energy. Wave power technologies all the way down to tiny turbines in city water pipes aim to harness that energy. A new hydropower technology from Seattle start-up company Hydrovolts taps a plentiful but overlooked source of renewable energy from the water currents in irrigation canals and other small channels around the world. The energy output of the turbines depends on the velocity of the water running through it. According to the company’s website, water flowing at 1 m/s would produce 0.4 kW, a flow of 2 m/s would produce 4 kW, and water flowing at 4 m/s would produce 32 kW. Not a tremendous amount of energy, but one placed in a canal could power several homes and also pay for itself in energy savings within five years.
The efficiency of the turbine depends on the type of water source. If it is a canal and most of the flow can go through the turbine, the efficiency can reach 60 per cent, but in more open channels the efficiency would be somewhere between 15 and 30 per cent.
3. Cultural Interrelation: Irrigation has been the single most crucial element in the Walla Walla Valley’s agriculture since 1836, when pioneer missionary Marcus Whitman (1802-1847) dug the first irrigation ditch near his Walla Walla mission (Washington State and Oregon, United States).

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=irrigation+&searchmode=none (last access: 11th September 2014). 2. Turbine – http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/irrigation-canal-hydropower.html (last access: 11th September 2014). 3. http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10660 (last access: 31 March 2015).

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CR: hydroelectric power plant, hydroelectric power, small hydropower plant, [water power].