Hydroelectric power: The World's Established Renewable Energy Resource For over a century, hydroelectric power has been used to generate electricity from falling water. The capacity to produce this energy is dependent on both the available flow and the height from which it falls. Hydroelectric dams create height for the water to fall and provide storage. In general, the higher the dam, the more potential energy is available. Building up behind a high dam, water accumulates potential energy. The potential energy is then converted to kinetic energy where it can perform work to power a generator. Hydroelectric power can come in many forms, such as utilizing oceanic waves and currents, shoreline waves, and tidal energy. However, I would …show more content…
Industries and product processing are able to utilize the water stored by reservoirs. Reservoirs alls provide for recreational activities, which can boost local economies. Dams can minimize the risk of flooding by reducing the peak flows and providing more time for downstream notification. Conversely, the storage of water in reservoirs can also pose a great risk to nearby communities in the event that the dam integrity fails. The most environmentally damaging aspect of reservoirs is habitat loss. A river habitat is very different from a reservoir habitat. The flooding of a river system to create a reservoir destroys forests, human habitat, spawning routes, and animal habitats. Suspended soils, logs and debris may settle out of the water as it slows down. Shoreline erosion can increase the sediment load and increase turbidity of the water. Sedimentation, if left unchecked, can leave a dam rendered useless. Sedimentation and habitat loss are not nearly the worst result of reservoir production. Methyl mercury levels in aquatic life can be an important potential impact of reservoirs. When soil and vegetation are submerged they decompose. Inorganic mercury may then be converted to methyl mercury where it is more likely to be consumed by organisms where it may concentrate as it moves up the food chain. This affect is not permanent however, and is only due to the initial flooding of the
The article “Down go the dams” by Jane C.Marks aim to provide an informative view on the current pending issue on Dams. The article starts out my mentioning the important nature of dams in our society. For example, Jane C.Marks states that today about 800,000 dams operate worldwide as well as the fact that most were built in the past century, primarily after World War II. Furthermore, the author lays down informative facts about dams such as the fact that dams control flooding and their reservoirs provide a reliable supply of water for irrigation, drinking and recreation which are all very important to society. In an economic standpoint, although it is very high maintenance dams provide jobs for people. The
If they flood the river to make unnatural lakes, it damage the delicate wildlife. The water contains mercury poison so it affects the aquatic animals and those consuming the aquatic animals. If anyone eats it, it can cause health issues to them.
The thirst for water has lead individuals and organizations to build dams across rivers at an alarming rate. During the early 1900s dams were being built so fast it was no longer big news when a dam was completed. These structures provided controlled irrigation water and hydroelectric power to the communities not only close to the reservoirs and dams, but also provided irrigation water and hydroelectric power to communities many miles away from the river. Negatively blocking the flow of the river has impacted fish ecosystems, increased evaporation of water, and flooded intricately important landscapes. These negative impacts, it can be argued, affect the humans living downstream or within the flood plain of the dam site. Dams
Water turbines are near the oldest ways to run power without using fossil fuels. The new age had turned these into hydro turbines that generally reside in dams. These machines take similar shape to wind turbines. Hidden in the base of a dam, there is a very large turbine that, in a simple explanation, when water runs through it spins. With the energy used by the spinning turbo it is turned into different power sources that are stored into power cells. Way back in time, this idea was used in power mills. Those old spinning wheels on the side of houses that rotate with water pressure. The first power plant was constructed in 1879 at Niagara Falls, Canada. In the United States the first plant was in 1882 in Wisconsin. These extravagant machines seemed marvelous, but that is no longer the outcome. The current age hydroelectricity dams are currently being shut down for harmful aspects triggered from the giant production. Causing an environmental failure to marine life and habitats all around. The possible outcomes are: changing the oxygen levels in the water that cause organisms to perish; fluctuating water levels that cause different
Water conservation shows the policies, strategies and activities made to manage freshwater as a sustainable resource to shield the water environment, and to meet current and future human demand.
They also block travel of important nutrients and natural materials which are important for wildlife growth. Another significant impact is the upstream river section becoming a larger slack-water reservoir, which changes in temperature, oxygen levels and physical properties, ultimately modifying the wildlife species habitats.
These effects are perfectly normal when working with a reservoir and as he points out are not permanent. “Sodden garbage strewn about, dead trees, sunken boats, the skeletons of long-forgotten, decomposing water-skiers;”(147) These are all attempts to bring the reservoir in a negative light but these do not come from the reservoir but from careless patrons and the inevitable accidents. If the number of people who visited Lake Powell visited the former Glen Canyon area, the garbage and deaths and other negative aspects would be at the same ratio because some humans are simply careless and draining a reservoir is not going to change that.
Once released into the environment, mercury is free to be taken up by plants and animals but is not toxic unless transformed through bacterial or chemical processes into its organic form, the most famous of which is methylmercury [6], [8], [10] Methylmercury impacts several critical organ systems and particularly toxic to the development of the fetus [11]. It also bioaccumulates in living organisms, which leads to higher levels of methylmercury with each increasing trophic level [10], [12], [13]
Water is the fundamental asset to bolster all shape life on earth. Shockingly it is not equally disseminated over the world via season or area. All through the historical backdrop of the world dams and stores have been developed with a specific end goal to anticipate surges, to supply drinking and
Hydroelectric is a form of energy it is a renewable resource. Hydroelectricity is the most important and widely used renewable source of energy. Hydroelectric relies on water, which is clean and renewable energy source. Renewable energy comes from natural resources. Non-Renewable energy source includes coal, oil and natural gas. Water is renewable because water continually recycles itself. To harness energy from flowing water, the water must be controlled; a large reservoir is created, usually by damming a river to create an artificial lake or reservoir. Water is channeled through tunnels in the dam. The energy of water flowing through the dam causes the turbines to turn and make the
First, the use of hydro energy resource, which is still debatable if it’s renewable or nonrenewable, cannot always be suitable for flat or dry regions and in areas where natural disasters occur. So counties with natural disasters or regions that are not suited is most likely not going to have a hydropower, as mentioned in (Marmulla, 2001, p. 55), dams are unnatural effecting species like fish causing migrations because of habitat loss. This can lead to extinction of species, affecting many ecosystems, since the fish starts to migrate to different areas changing the population balance. For example, Nicola, Elvira,
This causes smaller aquatic fish to die off, and this eventually causes bigger aquatic fish who rely on consuming the smaller aquatic fish to die (Jobin, "Dams and Disease"). Before one knows it, a domino effect has occurred. Aquatic ecosystem services are even affected because they die from too many nutrients. Ecosystems can’t thrive without these ecosystem services because they tend the ecosystem such as caring for plants, et cetera (Newell, "The Globalization and Environment Reader").
According Oraclethinkquest, "Water pollution has the potential to have a harmful effect on all living things including plants and animal species. Chemicals, radioactive waste, industrial waste in the water can affect species and their development. There is no
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects to the ocean's ecosystem, health problems and abnormal conditions.
Hydropower became the source of generating electricity in the late 19th century. Electricity generated by hydro power plants is simply