Hydropower

Hydropower worked by catching the energy from falling water and is by far the most heavily used of the renewable energy sources. However many argue if it really is a renewable resource and by definition I would say yes it is a renewable energy source.  This does not mean that I am completely behind hydropower, due to the fact that in most cases you have to destroy surrounding ecosystems to harvest this energy.  Rivers need to be damned up and thus valleys are flooded and people are displaced in some cases. It may be emission free but this energy is not without damage.

In the past Rhode Island has been free of hydropower but things are trying to change.  There is tons of research being done on the potential hydropower in Rhode Island. Mostly people have been looking into converting the hundreds of damns, which are spread through out Rhode Island, into hydroelectric damns.  They wanted to see how much energy could be produced from each of these damns and how much it would cost to convert these old almost pointless damns into something that can be used to produce electricity.  However recently I have spoken with one of the major researchers and it appears that Rhode Island will remain hydropower free. 

I’ve included a video below about some of the negative affects of hydro dams in China.