Hydro energy’s potential may be overlooked because; it is “old” renewable energy, or because like nuclear energy, some hydro electric schemes have been criticized by environmental groups, but most importantly a perception by many, that most hydro electric potential in North America has already been exploited. Hydro electricity deserves more scrutiny because;
1) North America has significant undeveloped potential,
2) the technology is well understood, although technical improvements continue to be made, especially for low head and small hydro,
3) hydro has a very high energy return on energy investment (ERoEI),
4) additional hydro can enable more wind and solar energy capacity to be absorbed by the grid,
5) hydro potential is more geographically dispersed than wind and solar, and finally,
6) the cost of developing additional hydro capacity is moderately low and has very low technical and financial risk.
Jeff Johnson on 16 Jul 08What [the survey] found was that while respondents expressed concern about their environmental impact, few were willing to smother those concerns with cash. And, in fact, the numbers willing to take a hit to their wallets or to their server performance in order to reduce their carbon footprints were actually lower this year than when the survey was first conducted in 2007.
