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Can Hydropower replace Fossil Fuels?
Our society relies on energy pretty much today because electricity is needed to power activities such as: work, eat, travel, production, play, stay warm, and many others.
Mankind consumes about 150,000 TWh of power every day, and most of this power is produced from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
The large consumption of fossil fuels leads to air, water and soil pollution, which changes the climate and kills a large number of species by destroying their habitats.
Fossil fuels are used on a global scale for energy and heating production
We are using fossil fuels for energy and residential heating production because they represent a reliable source of power.
In comparison, renewables such as solar and wind power are not reliable because they work only when the Sun is up or when the wind blows with enough speed to spin the turbines.
As a result of this, fossil fuels are still used on a global scale, while renewables such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, tidal biomass, etc. are underdeveloped.
Being limited resources, new reserves of fossil fuels are hard to find, and this only means that even of we want, fossil fuels will no longer be a reliable source of power for the future.
Hydropower is a reliable source of energy
From the definition of hydroelectric energy itself, we find that hydropower is a clean and fress source of electricity that uses the kinetic energy of the water flow to spin a turbine and generate electricity.
Giving the fact fossil fuels are both limited and harmful for the environment, the only option that remains viable is to rely renewable energy for power production in the future.
Hydropower is a renewable energy source because is produced by gravity and water movement.
Until we have water on the planet, and Earth rotates around its axis, hydropower will remain a reliable source of clean electricity for us.
Creating electricity from water
Hydropower is basically potential energy in the water that is turned into kinetic energy used to spin a turbine and produce electricity being connected to a generator.
Today, we are harnessing the kinetic power of the flowing water using large dams that store a large volume of water, which is released only when energy production is requested in the grid.
This form of renewable energy is also very practical because by using a dam, hydropower is produced only when needed.
Once water released, the production of power starts righ away. Being such a practical source of renewable energy, hydropower is often paired with other forms of energy that are less reliable (solar and wind).
Hydropower is the most developed form of renewable energy on the planet today because hydro accounts for about 16 percent in the energy mix of the planet.
Hydroelectric power plants on the planet
Hydroelectricity is well developed in countries like Norway, Canada and Brazil, but lately, countries in Asia have started to create a new engine room to increase the generation capacity of the water power on the planet.
The energy demand on planet Earth grows every year and the additional power required must be produced from fossil fuels or renewables.
Fossil fuels being limited, should be better for us to improve the generation capacity for renewable energy such as hydropower because increasing the consumption of fossil fuels is unacceptable for the sake of the environment on planet Earth.
· Environment,Energy
