Wind Power versus Hydro Power Essay

The global market for offshore wind energy is rooted in Europe but market trends indicate a shift toward an increasingly wider global distribution of development in the coming years. Several Asian markets, including China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are taking steps to stimulate domestic offshore wind industries and accelerate deployment. Some of the past trends are as follows:

In a growing world, electricity production is becoming a problem due to coal fired electrical plants releasing millions of gallons of greenhouse gases, ecological problems with pollution in water, and health risks concerning workers and people living nearby. But with new technology and advances in renewable energy sources, wind energy is becoming one of the most popular energy sources for many states.

One of the fastest growing energy sources in the world, wind power is a globally advantageous renewable resource.

In this paper I will be discussing the renewable technology Hydropower and the pros and cons of it. I will be using three separate articles from GREENR focusing on hydropower as a whole and some of the possible downsides of this technology in addition to the very noticeable positive effects from hydropower. The three articles mentioned are "Building BRIC: Carrieann Stocks takes a look at recent developments in hydropower across Brazil, Russia, India and China." (International Water Power & Dam Construction) (Jan. 2015), "Electricity Production from Hydroelectric Sources, Top Ten Countries, 2003/4." (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Online Collection), and "Green streak." (Earth Island Journal) (Jun. 22, 2015). I will be discussing the possible reasoning behind some people not wanting to focus on this possibly very beneficial alternative and try to explain why “If Hydropower is available why don’t we use it?” Keywords: dams, turbine, hydroelectric, renewable resource, nonrenewable resource

One of the great parts about wind energy is that it has a large amount of positives to the environment and hardly any negative effects. Because wind energy uses the wind for the energy there is no emissions generated from the energy produced. It is estimated that the use of one million kWh of wind power can save around 600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (Saidur, Rahim, Islam, & Solangi, 2011). Therefore, it is easy to see that the widespread use of wind power can help mitigate climate change. This is critical to help stop climate change and the United States is uniquely positioned to be the leader in curbing climate. When the United States starts heavily investing in alternative energy sources other countries will likely follow suit, which will be key to reducing global emissions.

Hydroelectric power plant is one of the major power plants all over the world in order to create electricity. It is also one of the best renewable energy sources on the planet earth. In ranking, Canada is the third largest country to produce hydroelectricity power. The efficiency of this power source is 90% and this is very impressive as the percentage of efficiency is very high. Hydro power plants generate 24% of the world’s electricity. More than 1 billion people are associated with hydro power plants as they use the power supply from hydro power plants.

The second major negative effect is on wildlife. Although wind turbines are effect alternative energy that used to generated electricity, the hidden threat is a devastating wildlife such as bird and bat collision with the turbine. Bird and bat fly through space at a low pressure; therefore, make birds and bats lose balance in flight. A study analysis shows that 20-40 birds are exterminated by the wind turbines each year (Rosenbloom, 2006). The construction of wind turbines resulted in the diversity and population of the birds and bats decrease, it never come back again after start to use the wind turbine. Though wind turbine is not located directly on the food. Notwithstanding the impact of wind turbines is not a major problem, if neglected

There has been much controversy over changes in the environment due to the placement of hydroelectric dams, and also due to the pollution caused by other power plants which use non-renewable sources of energy. The arguments which come from certain groups against both sides seem rather strange. The purpose of this paper is to explore the environmental and other effects from both energy sources, and the arguments which are presented by different groups who lobby for and against the two sources of power. It appears in many opinions; a group will only access one issue, actually separating two topics which go hand in hand. The focus for examples in this paper with mainly rely on

“A wind turbine is a machine for converting the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical energy”. (1) The inventor of the first electric wind turbine was Clevelander Charles Brush, who ran his entire Euclid Avenue mansion off of one for 20 years, which later made the cover of Scientific American in 1888. (2) Although the use of alternate energy didn't rise a great deal afterward, this event did open the eyes for many environmentalists. Wind power is only one of our several “energy source[s] whose ‘fuel’ is free and will never be exhausted” (3) with the pros and cons not completely weighed out as to whether it will be truly beneficial or not. The two main issues regarding wind turbines are the environmental effects that they have and the

We are facing an energy crisis on Earth. Burning fossil fuels are harming the atmosphere; this global warming and affects produces chemicals that hurt our body. People are starting to think about using alternative energy. Wind power would be our first choice, because it’s clean, inexhaustible and renewable. Today, wind power is mainly used in Europe. We believed wind power would be the main source of alternative energy for world use.

In 1986, the National Renewable Energy Laboratories developed a wind resource assessment for the U.S. Department of Energy. The assessment consisted of surface wind data and upper-air data. The results of this project help today’s developers determine the best location for a wind farm, as shown in

Deal, 2010, ‘Wind Power: An Emerging Energy Resource’, Technology and Engineering Teacher, pp. 9-15, viewed on September 12, 2011, retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/853062621/fulltextPDF/13255EC175479D10C7A/1?accountid=42518

sources produce, namely pollution, through the formation of CO2, heat, and other waste materials. Once factors such as health problems, global warming, destruction of wilderness and such come into play, wind energy becomes a very

Generally, hydropower is a form of energy which is called renewable energy source where power is comes from the energy of water flowing through from higher to lower elevations (Bureau Reclamation, 2005). Renewable energy is defined as the energy that is produced from sources that are result from the natural movements and mechanisms of the Earth as well as quickly replenished by it (Thoughtful Education Press, 2008). The examples of the sources of renewable energy are the sun, wind, and water (Thoughtful Education Press, 2008). In order to produce electricity for the use of consumer, solar cells, wind farms, and hydroelectric power have been used effectively (Thoughtful Education Press, 2008). According to Thoughtful Education Press (2008), in general,

Hydroelectric power is the oldest energy source. From a small water-wheel to a massive dam, humans have been used many of them for a long time. Since the principles of the technology in hydroelectric plant are relatively simple and using flowing water, it is one of the most widely used, as key energy source worldwide, and supplying electricity much like at the national scale in many counties. While many large-scale hydroelectric dams continue to be built in many parts of the world, it is unlikely U.S. will add more of them in the future. One of the reasons is the arising consensus of its environmental impacts to the natures. Unlike a small-scale hydroelectric dam, a