So why use hydroelectric energy/power?

Question

I have this IP thing. Please give reasons why to use hydroelectric power, I really need your help. :)) Please?? :>

Answer 1

With hydro-electric power, we are harnessing energy already existing in the environment and converting it to electricity for human use in a sustainable way -- as long as there is water to flow through, we can generate power from it.  It also can be fairly predictable, except perhaps during a very long drought -- the water remains pooled behind the dam, ready to use as needed.  

Other major sources of power require us to actually consume the source in order to use it, meaning that the source itself is depleted. Coal and petroleum are extremely useful for generating power, but we deplete them in using them -- we have to keep getting more coal and more oil (which means mining the land and transforming the landscape [esp. for coal], transporting the coal/oil we find, cleaning up the inevitable leaks and accidents that occur in moving the sources, and then processing them into energy) -- and in burning them, we release their by-products into the air, creating pollution.   There is also nuclear power, but the by-products from that process are far more toxic (i.e., deadly), requiring more resources and land to dispose of such by-product, and an accident at a nuclear plant is more dangerous and scary than with any other source -- nobody wants to live near either a nuclear power plant or near the place where the radioactive nuclear by-products are disposed of.

Using water (or wind) power is appealing because we don't have to actually deplete the resource to use them -- we convert the kinetic energy into power and the water and air keep flowing.  The big problems, though, with these is that the infrastructure is expensive and also changes the landscape.  Building dams means flooding some areas upstream and depriving areas downstream to some extent, and it is expensive and uses a lot of resources to build and maintain them.  But hydro-electric power is more predictable and manageable than wind energy.   Wind power requires a lot of windmills and a lot of land exposed to the wind to get a significant amount of power, and it is more sporadic-- if there's no wind, we can't manufacture it.

Answer 2

Some positives are it is basically pollution free, dams are used for flood control, water supply reservoirs, recreation, as well as power production.

Negative is high initial construction cost, and environmental impact.

Answer 3

The main thing is it is renewable as long as there is water in the dam.

Building dams can cause its own problems and a dam doesn't work for ever - in the end they silt up.  So you have to weigh up the benefits of the cheap electricity against the environmental impact of flooding large areas of land.