Question

The world’s largest hydroelectric power plant is the 22.5 gigawatt ( GW ) Three Gorges Dam in China. It produces about 90TWh of electricity each year. If a hydroelectric plant with the same capacity as the Three Gorges Dam was built in the United States, calculate how many houses such a plant would be able to provide the electricity for in a year. Show your work.

Answer 1

An equivalent hydroelectric plant can provide up to 8.2 million homes in the United States.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a typical U.S. home has an average yearly consumption of
`10972\,kWh` in 2018. The quantity of house that can be provided is:

`n = ((90\,TWh)\cdot \left(10^(9)\,(kWh)/(TWh)\right))/(10972\,kWh)`

`n = 8202697.776\,houses`

An equivalent hydroelectric plant can provide up to 8.2 million homes in the United States.