Hydropower Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Hydropower involves capturing the ability of moving water to generate power. This power may be generated in a variety of ways, including the driving of waterwheels and the powering of hydroelectric turbines. The technology has been used for many centuries and has helped to concentrate the settling of populations close to river systems and increased people’s reliance on the rivers’ predictability. In recent years, new developments have made it more possible to harness the power of tidal streams and of the waves of the open sea.

Waterwheels have been built according to a number of different designs in most civilizations of the world. The basic principle is to use the moving water to drive the buckets or panels that are used to create the wheel so as to power a revolving spindle, which then transfers the power to grinding flour or similar activities. The power provides a cost advantage over other forms of production and is used to replace human or animal labor, which remained in operation well into the industrial age. Waterwheels with a capacity of up to 100 horsepower have been developed.

Although superior to many other types of power production, waterwheels are limited in terms of their location, which may not always be convenient for coordination with other production activities. Even so, the use of water power to drive engines was sufficiently flexible to power iron-casting factories in ancient China, while tidal water wheels in medieval Europe were used to power grain mills. Europe saw the rise in development of the water wheel to its highest extent, perhaps because of numerous suitable locations and because of the rapid decreases of manpower caused by such disasters as the outbreak of Black Death. A single mill, if properly placed and employing the most advanced technology, is estimated to have provided milling capacity sufficient to feed many tens of thousands of people. Water wheels were also used to pump water from deep mines, while the wheels employed in some monasteries were in effect the power sources for very efficient and diversified factories. The potential for a large-scale revival of the use of water wheels and similarly powered turbines is likely to increase as the need for environmentally sustainable energy comes into sharper focus.

Modern Hydropower

Hydroelectric power uses the power of moving water to drive turbines, which then convert the energy into electricity. Commonly, hydroelectric plants are placed in large dams, which create substantial reservoirs that regulate the flow of water. This requires extensive areas of land, which may force resettlement and large-scale changes in agricultural patterns. Rivers flowing through borders raises issues of ownership of the river and its power, because income and protein supplies of people living downriver may be negatively affected by upriver hydroelectric power plants. The River Mekong, for example, originates in Tibet and China and passes through or along the borders of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Chinese authorities are putting into place a series of dams and hydroelectric power plants on the energetic upstream river, which deny the downriver people of many of the resources of the river. There are many examples of the overextensive use of river water, such that even quite large rivers often cannot reach the sea for extensive periods of the year. These developments have stimulated the creation of large-scale protests against dam building and forcible movements of people.

Another area of concern is some governments’ pursuit of hydroelectric power projects without adequate consultation with local people and evaluation of the impact on them and their livelihoods. Some commentators have argued that inadequate attention has been paid to the social and environmental impact of those projects. The accounting systems of these projects are complex and difficult to manage because of vast unknown or unpredictable factors, including future demand for electricity, future rainfall patterns, and the ability of people to adjust themselves to alternative forms of lifestyle.

The ability of dams to regulate water flow on rivers where the seasonal flow varies significantly and can lead to flooding or droughts is clearly beneficial. Even so, it does lead to changes in the lifestyles of river-dwelling people and may also affect a river’s ecosystem in unpredicted ways. For example, preventing fish or other creatures from following their usual movement patterns can interrupt their breeding customs and interfere with the river food cycles.

Alternative energy sources include the creation of electricity via wave and tidal power, which also have the benefit of not emitting greenhouse gases or the other negative effects of hydrocarbon fuels. Unfortunately, it has yet to be demonstrated that they can be profitable without significant levels of government subsidy. Even so, future demands for nondamaging energy production may require such subsidies as a necessary investment. Small-scale energy production of this type can focus on local provision and meeting neighborhood demand rather than being distributed long distances or even across borders. New accounting methods may be required to take account of the opportunity costs associated with enhanced water management. An additional issue to consider is that of aesthetics, since a number of people complain about the impact of wind or water mills on the landscape and related issues concerning the value of their own property.

Bibliography:

Patrick McCully, Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams (International Rivers Network, 2001);
Anthony D. Owen, “Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Renewable Energy Technologies” The Australian Economic Review (v.39/2, 2006);
Terry S. Reynolds, Stronger than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003);
Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology Management (SKAT), “The Role of the Private Sector in the Small-Scale Hydropower Field” (SKAT, 2002).