Hydropower and Windpower

In a short podcast video, Mikayla Platt discusses the pros and cons of hydropower and wind power as renewable energy sources. Hydropower generates electricity through flowing water and is considered renewable because of the constant movement of water in the water cycle. It is cost-effective, clean, and produces low greenhouse gas emissions. However, hydropower facilities can damage the environment and require specific locations with sufficient flowing water. Wind power relies on wind turbines to generate energy and is renewable and environmentally friendly. However, it is not always reliable due to varying wind speeds and requires large areas with consistent wind flow. Despite their drawbacks, both hydropower and wind power are better alternatives to non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. It is ideal to use multiple renewable resources together to ensure a more reliable and sustainable energy supply. Hello, my name is Mikayla Platt, and for my ninth course assignment this week, I am making a short podcast video about two renewable energy sources, hydropower and wind power. There are many different pros and cons of using both hydropower as a renewable energy source and wind power as well. Hydropower is defined as a renewable energy source that generates electricity through the energy of flowing water. It is defined as a renewable source because the water cycle is constantly moving water through many different stages, and saltwater especially makes up 97.5% of the Earth, so we aren't going to run out of flowing water any time soon. We also know that the ocean's waves are created by the gravitational pull of the moon, and the moon will likely continue to orbit the Earth for many more centuries. Hydropower is the longest-used form of a renewable energy source and has been used in many different shapes and sizes. Today, hydropower comes from a machine that has a turbine and a generator. The water will spin the turbine, and the generator will produce energy because of the spinning. One amazing example of hydropower is that in 2020, about 66% of the state of Washington's electricity came from hydropower rather than a different unrenewable source. The history of hydropower dates back thousands of years. The Greeks used water wheels to grind wheat into flour more than 2,000 years ago, and the evolution of the modern hydropower turbine began in the mid-1700s. Only more recently in history has the technology been updated and been used in a bigger way. There are two different types of hydropower that we use. Dam and run-of-river. Dams are used in what was described before, where the flowing water through the dam will cause the turbines to spin, and the generator will produce energy. Run-of-river uses the same turbine and generator, but depends on the natural run of river rather than forcing the water down through gravity in a dam to create a higher amount of water flow. Hydropower has a longer lifespan than other energy sources because the equipment used can function for longer periods of time without needing replacements or repairs, saving money in the long term. There are many pros to using hydropower. It is a cost-effective and clean source of energy. Hydropower plants, like dams, can also immediately get power to the grid just in case there is a major electricity outage. It also produces a very low amount of greenhouse gas emissions, which has a very positive impact on the environment. In addition to this, hydropower facilities don't cost much to maintain and run after they are initially built, making them very sustainable. However, there are also a lot of cons to hydropower. The biggest one being that hydropower facilities, such as dams and reservoirs, can damage the environment around them because they take up a lot of space that wildlife has been using. Hydropower facilities also have to be built in very specific locations with enough flowing water and a high elevation. Because of this, hydropower could not ever account for 100% of the energy production on Earth, or even in America, because we don't have enough natural rivers or flowing water to build on, and even if we did, we could be negatively impacting the environment around the building area. In addition to this, since hydropower relies on flowing water, if there is ever a drought or heavy climate change, the hydropower facilities would not be able to properly function and we wouldn't have the energy we needed for various things. The initial cost of hydropower facilities can also be very expensive compared to alternative energy sources, which makes it hard to choose once different companies or individuals might not have enough money. There is also a concern that if a dam somehow breaks, that the damage on the surrounding area could be very catastrophic to the environment and could potentially end up harming or killing people that live downstream. Moving on, wind power usually encompasses large wind turbines that get turned by the wind, and that turns a generator that creates energy. Wind power is a renewable energy source and has a much more impact on the environment compared to burning fossil fuels or other energy sources. Wind turbines can also be onshore or offshore, which basically means that offshore is in a body of water and onshore is on land. There can be benefits for both, but offshore wind power has the advantage of a stronger and more consistent wind resource, as well as the potential to minimize visual and noise impacts on land. Wind turbines on land or onshore are usually in groups together called wind farms. Some advantages of wind power are that as long as the wind keeps blowing, it is a renewable source and very sustainable. It is also very environmentally friendly because it produces no air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. Wind power is also obtainable in many different places all around the world because all it requires is a turbine and wind. Here are some cons of wind power. The major concern of wind power is that, because it heavily depends on the wind, it is not very reliable. The wind can be slow or fast depending on the day, and some days there might even be no wind at all. This means that we can't get the energy that we need just from wind power. Wind turbines also require a large amount of land to be built on, and also a good area where there is a heavier amount of wind flow, and areas like that can be difficult to find. Another concern is that people who live by the wind turbines might find the sounds to be too loud. While there are cons for both hydropower and wind power, I believe that the pros outweigh the negatives, especially when compared to the damage that fossil fuels can do to the environment. Fossil fuels are the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions because when they are burned for energy, they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat, leading to the greenhouse effects and global warming. This can not only lead to air pollution, but water pollution as well. It is also non-renewable, which means that once you run out of it, you're never going to be able to use it again. Because of these reasons, compared to the cons of wind power and hydropower, I believe that wind power and hydropower are the best choices for renewable energy sources. In the end, both wind power and hydropower can be great sources of renewable energy, but are sources that should be used together. I don't think there's a single solution for finding a renewable energy source. The greatest outcome would be to use multiple different renewable resources so that one can pick up the slack where the other one falls behind. Neither of these sources are perfect because of the potential impacts on the environment, but there are much better alternatives to energy sources, such as fossil fuels or nuclear energy, that are non-renewable. The sources I used were Hydropower Basics from the Office of Renewable Energy, Why Aren't We Looking at More Hydropower from Climate Portal, the Wind Power Wiki, and Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy from the Office of Renewable Energy. Thank you.