Hydro Dams

In one of my previous posts I talked about free flow energy technology that captures the energy from rivers or currents and converts it to useable energy with little impact on the environment. In the process of doing so I did a lot of comparison to hydro dam technology and talked about why free flow technology is better. I feel as though I must defend for hydro dams now after essentially dissing them in my previous post. While I still believe that general free flow technology is more beneficiary than hydroelectric dams there are certain instances where these dams work very well.

One such example is the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The Hoover Dam produces about 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year and provides energy for nearly 1.3 million people a year. The way hydro dams, such as the Hoover Dam, work are rivers with large drops in elevation are stopped via a dam. At the bottom of the dam is a water intake that funnels the water through a pipe to a turbine. Because of the drop in elevation and the water intake being at the bottom, gravity propels the water forward. For example, the water that goes through the Hoover dam moves at close to 85 miles per hour. This force turns the turbine that powers a generator, which then provides energy to the power grid. After the water goes through the turbine it is released on the opposite side of the dam into an outflow river.

On many levels this technology is great such as the zero carbon emissions and the nearly limitless supply of water. However, there are some downsides to dam building such as stopping the flow of wildlife and in many cases the destroying of rivers. In my opinion hydro dams can work in certain cases but not all. For example, it would not make much sense to build a hydro dam on the Mississippi river because of the transit that takes place on it and the many towns that sit and rely on the Mississippi. When all the pros and cons are weighed I still believe hydro dams are a better source of energy than coal firing plants and other current production methods. The environmental impact is limited to a specific area rather than carbon emissions that can potentially affect the entire planet.