Sustainability

Hydroelectric power is a renewable energy source. There are no harmful pollutants or major safety concerns with hydroelectric power (“Reclamation Managing,” 2005 p.2). It uses water, which is a renewable resource, so the electricity output of the dam is also always about the same. Also, hydroelectric power plants are much more efficient when compared to other types of electricity production method (“Reclamation Managing,” 2005 p.2). Fossil fuels are, on average, 50 percent efficient, while hydroelectric power is 90 percent efficient (“Reclamation Managing,” 2005 p.2). This 40 percent rise is very significant and is a large reason that hydroelectric power is so popular today.

As mentioned above, hydroelectric dams are dependent on the amount of water in the river. As long as there is rain that flows into the waterway there will be plenty of water for the dams to produce electricity (“Reclamation Managing,” 2005). However, there have been serious droughts in the west that have greatly affected the output of electricity.

California is one state that has been in a serious drought. The percentage of hydroelectric power in California reduced from 20 percent to 10 percent in 2014 when compared to 2004 to 2013 as seen by the figure (St. John, 2014 para. 2). These droughts are causing the west to rely more on fossil fuels and other less efficient resources like wind and solar power (St. John, 2014 para. 5). Because of this, the use of natural gas almost doubled and wind and solar power was used (St. John, 2014 para. 6). Therefore, hydroelectric power production is generally stable, but climate changes can affect the sustainability of the dams.

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