subject: Benefits of hydroelectric power depending upon the source [print this page] Benefits of hydroelectric power depending upon the source
These power plants don't require any fuel for generation of electricity and donot cause any air-pollution, help in irrigation of the agricultural lands, utilize kinetic and potential energy of the water flowing in the river and convert it into electricity. With a wide number of Hydroelectric power plants, there are some countries in the world that rely heavily on the electricity produced from the hydroelectric power plants as it is one of the best options after thermal power plants to produce electricity on large scale basis.The advantages of these power plants is: The cost of electricity is constant as no fuel is requires, so electricity produced remains constant. There is no fuel importance in this for producing electricity as only water is used which is a renewable resource.
They donot produce any harmful gases, hence no pollution is created keeping the atmosphere clean and tidy. They are used in irrigation of farms. In that, water from the dams can also be used for the irrigation outputs throughout the year where there is scanty or no rainfall thus saving lots of local currency and helps in preventing floods. They can easily work during high peak daily loads, these plants can be easily started and stopped without consuming much time. Water can be collected in the dam throughout the day which can be used to generate electricity during peak periods. They have a long life more than 100 years and are still running. They also facilitates dams in which the water from reservoir can be utilized to develop public recreational facilities like water parks for water sports and gardens. Using this energy to generate electricity is not dependent upon the price of uranium, oil, or other types of fuel which makes electricity costs lower and more stable. The pollution created by hydroelectric energy generation is quite minimal. There is some pollution involved in initially constructing the power stations, but this is true of all power plants. It also does not produce radioactive waste or involve the environmental impact of fuel.
For the setup of station, it doesnot require meny employees as they are automated and donot need much maintainance once the power station is built up. They can be built up in any size seeing the size of the source which includes the river or the stream. It can serve a small house and lead upto a big industry, a town to a large city. It is well suited for poor as well as rich people as it is formed from the water which is easily availble at many sites and is a renewable source of enery which means it can be replenished. Hydroelectric power is a renewable form of energy, like wind and solar; it does not rely upon finite resources like natural gas or coal to generate power and can work upto many years once they are built. Their economic benefits doesnot depend upon the size of the plant as small plants many times generate large amount of energy than big plants.
