Hydroelectric Power
Hydroelectric plants have the advantage of being long-lived and many existing plants have operated for more than 100 years. Hydropower is also an extremely flexible technology from the perspective of power grid operation. Large hydropower provides one of the lowest cost options in today’s energy market, even compared to fossil fuels and there are no harmful emissions associated with plant operation.
Hydroelectric power is currently the world’s largest installed renewable source of electricity, supplying about 17% of total electricity in 2005. China is the world's largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, followed by Canada.
However, there are several significant social and environmental disadvantages of large-scale hydroelectric power systems: dislocation of people living where the reservoirs are planned, release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane during construction and flooding of the reservoir, and disruption of aquatic ecosystems and birdlife. There is a strong consensus now that countries should adopt an integrated approach towards managing water resources, which would involve planning hydropower development in co-operation with other water-using sectors.
Read more about this topic: Low-carbon Power, Examples of Low Carbon Technology
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