Economics Advantages of hydroelectric
power plant
The major advantage of
hydroelectricity is elimination of the cost of fuel. The cost of
operating a hydroelectric power plant is nearly immune to increases
in the cost of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas or coal, and no imports
are needed.
Hydroelectric power plants also tend to have longer economic lives than
fuel-fired generation, with some plants now in service which were built 50 to
100 years ago. Operating labor cost is also usually low, as plants are
automated and have few personnel on site during normal operation.
Where a dam serves multiple purposes,
a hydroelectric power plant may be added with relatively low
construction cost, providing a useful revenue stream to offset the costs of dam
operation. It has been calculated that the sale of electricity from the Three
Gorges Dam will cover the construction costs after 5 to 8 years of full
generation.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Since hydroelectric dams
do not burn fossil fuels, they do not directly produce carbon dioxide (a
greenhouse gas). This is another advantage of hydroelectricity.
While some carbon dioxide is produced during manufacture and construction of
the project, this is a tiny fraction of the operating emissions of equivalent
fossil-fuel electricity generation. One measurement of greenhouse gas related
and other externality comparison between energy sources can be found in the
ExternE project by the Paul Scherrer Institut and the University of Stuttgart
which was funded by the European Commission. According to this project,
hydroelectricity produces the least amount of greenhouse gases and externality
of any energy source. Coming in second place was wind, third was nuclear
energy, and fourth was solar photovoltaic. The extremely positive greenhouse
gas impact of hydroelectricity is found especially in temperate climates. The
above study was for local energy in Europe; presumably similar conditions
prevail in North America and Northern Asia, which all see a regular, natural
freeze/thaw cycle (with associated seasonal plant decay and regrowth).
Another Advantages or added value of
hydroelectric power plant
Reservoirs created by hydroelectric schemes
often provide facilities for water sports, and become tourist attractions in
themselves. In some countries, aquaculture in reservoirs is common. Multi-use
dams installed for irrigation support agriculture with a relatively constant
water supply. Large hydro dams can control floods, which would otherwise affect
people living downstream of the project.
Several Advantages of hydroelectric
power plant
● Hydroelectricity is a renewable energy source that does
not produce greenhouse gases.
● Hydroelectricity generating plants have a long life.
● When a hydroelectricity water storage dam is built,
the water in the dam can be used as a source of drinking water and for
recreational purposes such as boating and fishing.
● To meet any changes in demand for electricity,
hydroelectricity generators can be stopped and started in minutes. A fossil
fuel power station can take up to eight hours to shut down or restart and a
nuclear power station can take up to several days.
● Although dams prevent the natural flushing out of a
river during a flood, they also control flooding downstream in times of high
rainfall and snow melt.
● The pollution created by hydroelectric energy
generation is quite minimal. There is some pollution involved in initially
constructing the power stations, but this is true of all power plants. It also
does not produce radioactive waste or involve the environmental impact of fuel
being transported to it.
● Hydroelectric power stations can be set up in almost
any size, depending upon the river or stream used to operate them; big enough
to power a single home, factory, small town, or large city.
● Another of its advantages is that hydroelectric is a
renewable form of energy, like wind and solar; it does not rely upon finite
resources like natural gas or coal to generate power.