Is hydroelectricity a clean source of power?
Are we fighting against Climate Change or CO2?
A study from Washington State University has found that methane, which is at least 34 times more potent than another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, makes up 80% of the emissions from water storage reservoirs created by dams.
However, many countries consider hydroelectricity a clean source of power because it doesn’t involve burning dirty fossil fuels. For example: Bhutan feels proud for being a carbon negative country. Unfortunately, the country relies mostly on hydro-power resources and contributes a significant amount of methane in the treasury of GHS.
No there is deposition of biofilm formation in dam area and on generators where no cleaning is done for years
Yes.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/nov/06/hydropower-hydroelectricity-methane-clean-climate-change-study
Apart from the Geothermal energy and the Solar energy, I do not believe any source of energy exploited by man through manipulation of natural resources is clean.
Dear Abhishek Mukherjee Abdul Kuddus Ali mohamed rashed
Satish Narula Thanks a lot for your time and valuable inputsAbdul Kuddus ... you said yes... did you mean that hydroelectricity is a clean source of power?
Abhishek Mukherjee solar energy also has carbon footprint (Most estimates of life-cycle emissions for photovoltaic systems are between 0.07 and 0.18 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour. The value is 0.6-2.0 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour for electricity from natural gas.
dear Rajaa A. Mahmoud thanks
yes, you are right, it doesn't involve burning fuel
However, it does produce methane which is much more powerful than CO2 as a GHG
Shahab Uddin
Solar power plants using photovolataic cells and panels do have enormous carbon footprint but you said "solar energy has carbon footprints" which I think is new to science as I do not know of any energy with carbon footprints. Its the limitation of the human technology that we haven't been able to truly maximize energy input without involving oxygen mediated outputs. That does not mean the energy source itself has limitations.
dear Abhishek Mukherjee you are right :) ..here what i mean is the process of solar energy... solar energy in the context of power is a system consists of not only rays from the sun but also human interventions... hope it is clear now... i am not that genius to introduce a new science :)
- Many countries consider hydroelectricity a clean source of power because it doesn't involve burning dirty fossil fuels. ..
- Hydropower is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions: a new study shows that the world's hydroelectric dams are responsible for as much methane emissions as Canada.
Production of electricity is a method of transformation of energy from one form to another and this is achieved by preparation of some intermediates which are produced by human being either in laboratory or in industry. This human activities must have some sort of carbon foot print directly or indirectly, may be negligible extent in comparison to other.Hence, whatever process may be used , all do have some untoward effect on this environment.
yep unless it is wiped out of the bloods of the innocent landowners.
Compared to the alternative of fossil fuel, definitely hydroelectric power is much cleaner. At the same time one should consider other environmental impacts that accompany building of large dams. This includes flooding of areas upstream, destroying the vegetation and any archaeological artifacts and possibly displacing people from their homes. One should weight this against the benefits achievable.
There is some evidence to suggest that hydropower schemes, especially those located in the tropics, may release large quantities of methane into the atmosphere. If you look at section 2.6 of this report Technical Report Harnessing hydropower: Literature Review
subject it will point you in the direction of some useful references on this. The report also provides a summary of greenhouse gas emissions from hydropower compared to other energy generation methods.
Dear Darren Lumbroso Srini Vasan Fatematuj Jahara Phanibhusan Ghosh Thanks a lot for your valuable contributions
The answer to your question is "No". Dams and reservoirs are a major source of green house gas emissions driving climate change. Please see the below given RG links.
Article Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoir Water Surfaces: A Ne...
Article Global perturbation of organic carbon cycling by river damming
often thought of as “clean energy” because they don't burn fossil fuels to produce electricity. ... Research released within the last year has confirmed that dams and reservoirs are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
https://waterkeeper.org/hydropower-is-not-clean-energy/
IPCC AR5 offers some interesting statistic on life-cycle assessment of various sources of power (chapter 7), I think this could give a broader view of the issue:
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_full.pdf
In the Eu Taxonomy for sustainable growth an economic acrivity is sustainable if it contributes substantialy to a sustainable goal but at the same time it must not harm on other goals