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What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power

What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power

What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power.
The definition of hydroelectricity is the electricity which is generated by hydropower, electrical power generation is got through the gravitational force of flowing or falling water. Hydroelectricity is one form of renewable energy that most widely used.

The Hydropower eliminates gas emissions from combustion of fossil fuel, involving pollutants like dust, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and mercury in the coal. Also, Hydroelectricity prevents the risk of coal mining and indirect health effects of coal emissions. Compared with nuclear energy, hydroelectricity does not generates nuclear waste, there is no dangers associated with nuclear leaks and uranium mining.


The amount of money that must be spent for hydroelectricity is relatively low. Its make hydroelectricity become a competitive renewable electricity source. Hydroelectricity is also a good source of the electricity because the quantity produced by station can be modified up or down quickly to accommodate to changing demands of energy. Meanwhile, damming can harm local ecosystems and interrupts the rivers flow, also building large reservoirs and dams often affects displacing wildlife and people. As soon as a hydroelectric facility is built, it produces no waste directly, and significantly has a lower output level of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in comparison with fossil fuel power plants.

The load factor of hydroelectricity power stations has more predictable than wind farm. The hydroelectric station that has a storage reservoir can produce power when needed. It readily can be adjusted to follow varies power demand.


The hydroelectric power involves small run of the river plants and massive hydroelectric dams. Large-scale of hydroelectric dams remain to be built in many country of the world (including Brazil and China).

What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power


Land Use and Flood Impact

What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power-Land Use
The reservoir size created by hydroelectric power plant can varies, it depend on land’s topography and the size of hydroelectric generators. The flat areas for hydroelectric power plants tend to need more land than in hilly areas or the canyons where deeper reservoirs could hold more water volume a smaller area.

Large reservoirs needed for the process of hydroelectric power stations outcome in submersion of extensive upstream areas of the dams, damaging biologically rich and productive riverine and lowland valley forests, grasslands and marshland. The land loss is often complicated by habitat fragmentation of terrain areas caused by reservoir.

The large Balbina hydroelectric power, generated 250 MW power was made in a brazil’s flat area flooded 2,360 square kilometers. It is an extreme environmental impact in flooding land for hydroelectric reservoir, it damages forest, wildlife habitat, agricultural land, scenic lands. 

Another cons of hydroelectric dams is require to relocate people living where reservoirs are builded. In the Three Gorges Dam in China, the entire communities had to be relocated to create way of reservoirs. The World Commission on Dams estimated in 2000 that dams had physically relocated 40 to 80 million people all around the world.

Wildlife Impacts

What are The Environment Impacts of Hydroelectric Power-wildlife impacts
Dammed reservoirs are utilized for many purposes like recreation, flood control agricultural irrigation, so not every wildlife impact related with dams can be directly attributed to the hydroelectric power. However, the hydroelectric facilities can still have major impact on ecosystems of aquatic. Although there are a many methods applied to minimize the wildlife impact, fish and other aquatic organisms can be killed and injured by turbine blades.

Beside direct contact, it can be wildlife impacts within downstream from the facility and the dammed reservoirs. Normally, the reservoir water is more stagnant compared with normal river water. Because of that, the reservoir will have higher amounts of nutrients and sediments than normal river water, which can grow algae excess and other aquatic. The weeds can crowd out other river plant and animal-life, and they have to be controlled by manual harvesting and by introducing fish which eat these plants.  

Meanwhile, if there much water is stored behind reservoir, the segments of river downstream from reservoir able to dry out. Hence, almost all hydroelectric operators are needed to release a minimum quantity of water at certain times in a year. When water not released appropriately, downstream water levels will drop, plant and animal life can be killed. Normally, the reservoir water is low in dissolved oxygen and it colder compared to normal river water. Whenever it is released, it can have bad impacts on downstream animals and plants. In order to prevent these impacts, aerating turbines should be installed to raise dissolved oxygen and multi level water intakes will help make sure that water from the reservoir comes from all levels of reservoir, instead of just the bottom which has the lowest and coldest dissolved oxygen.
 
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