Hydroelectric dams (generation, cost, program, Arizona)

[Boffking]

Environmentalism runs in my family and this is one of the only things we tend to argue about.
Every kilowatt hour that is produced by clean hydro is one kilowatt hour that doesn't need to be produced by burning fossil fuels.
There are issues with the dams stopping the migration of fish, but there has been great progress in building fish ladders.

[Always Needmore]

I find the debate interesting in the case of the western drought where you have competing interests of power generation, domestic supply, and commercial crop irrigation.

Debate usually driven by an unspoken reality that revenue from power generation was a key factor in justifying the upfront cost of the dam construction.

Here locally, they dammed the three rivers running through my town about a hundred years ago as part of a river bank beautification program. And decided that since they were building a dam anyway, it made sense to install turbines, and get "free" power, as a bonus.

Trouble is, typically in the summer, the inflow reduces to the point where power generation is not practical.

[North Beach Person]

It's not just fish ladders but how the construction of a dam changes the ecology/environment of the area upstream of it, not to mention the flooded areas.

Dams are indeed environmentally destructive, just "different".

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by Boffking

Environmentalism runs in my family and this is one of the only things we tend to argue about.
Every kilowatt hour that is produced by clean hydro is one kilowatt hour that doesn't need to be produced by burning fossil fuels.
There are issues with the dams stopping the migration of fish, but there has been great progress in building fish ladders.

Dams highlight for me that there is no free ride when it comes to producing electric power. Its true, that producing hydroelectric power does not pollute the air or release dangerous green house gases. However, it does destroy the land flooded by the dam. Many regret the flooding of Glen Canyon in Arizona by damming it in the late 1950's. There was actually a plan to build dams throughout the Grand Canyon in the 1960's that fortunately was shot down due to intervention of environmental groups. The other major issue is that there is little potential to increase hydroelectric power very much because almost all the good sites for dams have already been taken.

I think in the future we are going to have to focus a lot more on things like smart power grids and electrical infrastructure that is efficient and does not waste power. There are not many other good options. Solar is one, but I don't think its quite here yet. Its going to require more development to meet a large percentage of power needs.