Hydropower industry
Hydropower industry is the sphere of human domestic and economic activity, aggregate of large natural and man-made subsystems that serve to transform the water flow energy into electric power. Most often, the power of falling water is harnessed in its hydropower plants.
Advantages:
- use of renewable energy;
- very low-cost electric power;
- its generation related work is not attended by emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere;
- quick (in comparison with combined heat and power plants/thermal power plants) starting operation in the operating power generation mode after running the hydropower plant.
Disadvantages:
- flooding irrigated lands;
- hydropower plants are built where the are great water energy stores;
- it is dangerous to built hydropower plants on mountain rivers because of high seismicity in such areas;
- reduced and uncontrolled water releases from reservoirs for 10-15 days cause unique floodplain ecosystems along the entire river channel to restructure and, as a consequence, leads to contamination of rivers, shortening of trophic (food) chains, decrease in fish population, elimination of invertebrate aquatic animals, rise of the aggression of blood-sucking insects (midges) components because of they do not eat enough during their larval stage, extinction of breeding grounds of many types of migrating birds, insufficient moistening of floodplain soil, negative plant succession (depletion of phytomass), and decrease in the biogenic substances inflow to oceans.
Source: Wikipedia
