Water water everywhere!

Electricity is integral to almost every aspect of modern life – from lighting our homes & schools, charging our mobiles and tablets, to keeping the food we keep in our fridges and freezers fresh. In this series of blogs, the Pinkie team at KISC will investigate the different ways in which we can generate electricity and power our world.

Water is one of the most important substances in our world. Here are some key facts to get you started:
• 71 % of the Earth’s surface is water
• Up to 75% of your body is water
• The average person in Switzerland consumes 162 litres of water every single day

Humans have used water not only for drinking and washing but also in a wide number of technologies; for example water mills have been in existence since 250BC! However it is only recently that we have started to use the incredible natural power of water to generate electricity.

There are numerous ways in which this can be done, with a common theme that they all use water falling under gravity to turn a turbine:
• Dams – storing water behind a barrier and using it's energy as it flows downhill
• Tidal – using the natural twice-daily tidal power of rivers and seas
• Wave – using the natural constant power of waves in the seas

Globally, electricity generated through one of the above mentioned methods accounts for just 16% of the total electricity generated, with the vast majority of the rest made up by fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas, nuclear etc). However, Switzerland is a noticeable exception to this, with their electricity being generated by:
• 56% hydro
• 39% nuclear
• Approx. 5% - All other forms

Why is hydro so popular you ask?
One of the main reasons is also one of the main things that makes KISC so special – the Alps! The natural rivers and streams that start from the highest mountain peaks must make their way to the ground eventually, and so not only do they supply water to us (the water from KISC’s Ueschinenhutte comes directly from a mountain stream) but we can also capture the energy stored in the water and generate the electricity required by us.

How does it work?
Imagine being at a swimming pool with one of those dunk buckets that slowly fills with water and, once full enough, tips over and dumps a whole load of water on your head. As you may be able to guess, the further off the ground the bucket is, the faster the water will be travelling when it hits you and the greater the energy contained within the water. It is a similar principle in hydro-electricity generation:
1. Big powerful rivers high up in the mountains flow down and pick up speed
2. This water is directed down pipes containing turbines
3. The water flowing past the turbines causes them to spin
4. This spinning motion is used to generate electricity

Kandersteg has its very own hydro-electricity plant, which is fed by the river Kander. For more info on this plant please visit our blog page. When you are at KISC, try and take a hike from the centre up to Gasterntal: on this hike you can see the normally gentle looking Kander crashing down the mountain with tremendous force, and really understand the incredible power that is stored within the water.
As a renewable energy source (i.e. it is not a finite resource which may run out), electricity generated by hydro-generation fits in with many of KISC’s and Scouting ethos – including our membership in the SCENES group (Read more about them here). Keep your eyes open for the next blog in which we’ll discuss other renewable energy sources and how they impact KISC.


By Andrew Pridding (UK)
Summer 2015