The surge in hydroelectric dams is driving massive biodiversity loss
The surge in hydroelectric dams is driving massive biodiversity loss
Migratory fish populations are down 81% since 1970, says a new report.
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Water is a living space. It harbors all kinds of life. It's not good that we try to industrialize rivers. Not good at all. We should use only wind and solar as renewable energy sources. And batteries for storage.
You gotta have reliable baseload energy. Traditionally, that has been hydro in blessed regions, coal and gas in other regions, and nuclear if your country has the funds to do so.
The key is to always have baseload power for dark winter months, weeks of bad weather, or heat domes and forest fires, where you may find yourself not having sun or wind for extended periods of time with incredibly high demand on the grid (for AC!).
My two cents is that nuclear energy is worth it for clean, reliable energy that doesn't hose all of your rivers. We will need some hydro for water reserves and power, but a diverse energy mix that doesn't rely on hydrocarbons is the way forward, imo.
Baseload of hydro, nuclear, geothermal. Solar and wind with battery storage, pumped storage, green hydrogen. Rooftop solar. Greenscapes in cities to keep heat down and absorb rainwater so it doesn't mess up combined sewage pipes.
Heat pumps and proper insulation for homes and buildings. Ebikes for short range commutes of 1-45 miles. Puts a lot less strain on the grid than EV cars, too.
Combined sewer pipes really all should be replaced at this point. Stormwater and waste water require significantly different treatment processes.
We need hydro power with renewables, even more than we need it with fossil fuels. Hydro allows us to store eenrgy (through pumping water back into the lake as potential energy), which is required when peak usage hours don't match peak production hours. Since we can't control when solar or wind will produce power, energy storage is even more of a necessity for those sources than it is for fossil sources.
Maybe a dumb question but would hydro on top of a large waterfall work without impacting biodiversity? I ask because maybe there isn’t wildlife that goes down large waterfalls, so no impact.
I think we should harness the power of rivers, but we need to learn to do in a non disruptive way. Dams are terrible, we should definitely find better way to harness the power of waterways.