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Hydroelectricity is often presented as a green energy source, but how true is this? Hydro has several environmental and aesthetic drawbacks that make it less than ideal compared to the clean energy provided by sources such as wind and sun.

The most visible environmental aspect of Hydroelectricity is its impact on the environment, as it requires the damming of rivers. This causes the flooding of low lying land behind the dam and while this is often not desirable, the reality is that it is just an alteration to the environment. If the dam was to remain filled with water all the time, this would have no environmental effect outside the dam area.

Why is it then that Hydroelectric installations are associated with high levels of methane production? When organic matter from plants and animals breaks down without oxygen present, methane is formed. This anaerobic process is very similar to the ones that resulted in the formation of the fossil fuels we use today.

Consider the following chain of events that unfold once the dam has been constructed.

First the land is submerged and the vegetation with it. The vegetation drowns and begins to rot. Since there is very little available oxygen, the plant material breaks down to form, among other things, methane that is absorbed by the water.

This is all normal so far, as this would occur with any permanent flooding. But a Hydroelectricity dam is usually both a power supply and an urban water source and so the water levels in the dam tend to rise and fall a great deal. In dry times the water level will drop to its lowest levels which will expose land around the edges of the water and possibly at the bottom of the dam itself.

This exposed land is ideal for growing plants and so it blooms with new life. As most dams are shallow, the amount of land exposed at the edges as the water drops can be very large. The shallower the dam, the more land is exposed annually.

After a time the rains return and the dam fills up again. The new vegetation is then also covered with water and so rots anaerobically and so more methane enters the water of the dam.

This continues year after year, resulting in a slow but steady increase in the amount of methane absorbed in the water of the dam. This is a problem because methane is not very soluble in water. When the water passes through the dam’s turbines it escapes the water and enters the atmosphere.

Methane is a dangerous greenhouse gas. It is approximately 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than Carbon Dioxide. This means that electricity from a Hydroelectric plant can be up to three times more polluting per energy unit than the same power from a coal or oil fired plant. This figure depends on the climate and geography the Hydro plant is located in, as these factors determining the amount of vegetation added to the dam each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognized this issue and now includes methane from Hydroelectricity in national emissions totals.

Hydroelectricity may be a renewable power source but it is not an environmentally friendly one. When looking at whether a new Hydro plant is warranted, methane emissions must be taken into account. A cleaner and greener solution is to build solar and wind energy stations as once constructed these have no emissions associated with them at all.
For more information on electricity generation and its issues, visit the Fossil Fuels section of Roger Vanderlely’s website. There you can also find out about getting a good deal on cheap solar panels to become more energy independent and do your bit for the environment.

This article is brought to you by George Zalcman. George Zalcman has always had a passion for green technologies, and believes that we should all get on the boat before natural resources become limited. George Zalcman is part of an air to water technology hoping that this will eventually bring an end to the water crisis as well.

It is estimated that the normal family home spends a lot of money on hot water or rather the fuel that is required to heat water. This has traditionally been done by utility companies that use coal or other fossil fuels (or even nuclear energy) to energy a hot water element or boiler in your home.

There are various methods and devices that make this system as efficient as possible but the bottom line is that fossil fuels are getting more complex to find and will get harder to find in the future. Consequently the costs are rising and will continue to rise. Alternatives are being looked for by utility companies, governments and the individual consumer.

One alternative is to use solar power to heat your water. This article will discuss how a solar power water boiler works and how it could be the alternative to high power bills whilst being an environmentally friendly option too.

Using the sun to heat water has been used for thousands of years. It is still one of the more popular ways to use solar energy even today and the basic principle remains the same. It is simply a matter of placing water in a location where it can be exposed to the suns thermal rays. There are two common approaches to doing this. They are called the flat plate collector and batch collector systems.

Flat plate collectors are simply a series of pipes that are placed in a part of the home where there is direct sunlight (generally a south facing roof). Water is passed through the pipes and is heated by the sun in the process. The pipes are designed to take maximum advantage of the thermal heat.

A batch collector system is a specially made water tank that will absorb the thermal heating provided by the sun and thus heat the water stored in the tank. This water can then be used in the home. The tank is placed in a position where it can get maximum exposure to sunlight.

The water supplied by either of these systems can then be used in the regular plumbing system of the house where it can be used for everyday usage such as showers, washing up the dishes and cooking. Even though the home will still be connected to the electricity or gas that normally heats the water, the solar heated water will require a lot less power to heat it than ordinary cooler water. This will help to save on energy bills.

Purchasing and installing each system will cost a bit of cash but the maintenance cost is low and the system will last anywhere from 10 to 25 years. Depending on how much hot water you’ll use and how efficient your home is in terms of storing hot water, you could pay off the purchase and installation costs within 5 to 7 years. After that you would be saving money. You would also be doing your bit in decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases pushed into the atmosphere.

This article is brought to you by George Zalcman. George Zalcman has always had a passion for green technologies, and believes that we should all get on the boat before natural resources become limited. George Zalcman is part of an air to water technology hoping that this will eventually bring an end to the water crisis as well.

It seems that fuel costs for the home rise above inflation each and every year. I’m not completely sure why this is the case. There have been many changes in the way utility companies are run in many countries. The biggest change is that many companies have become privatized. This means that they are responsible to their shareholders and their aim is to make a profit. This may explain why prices have been going up from a cynical perspective.

However, the companies themselves are at pains to point out that the real reason for increases is that the fuel used is becoming scarce. Coal, oil and gas are resources that are used by power stations to create electricity or are supplied directly to homes. All of these resources are finite and the more they get used the harder they become to find and extract. All these extra costs have to be passed on to the consumer by the utility companies.

Within this context and partly because fossil fuels are thought to contribute to environmental change, people are keen to find alternatives to traditional energy resources. Solar power has been around for many years and is becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels for generating power to the home. This article will cover how to run a house on solar energy.

So, you can run a house using the sun’s thermal energy. The best application of this is to heat water that can be used in the home (or even a swimming pool).

The principle behind this idea is that if you expose a flat metal plate to sunlight it will become hot. If the plate is painted black then more of the heat power is absorbed. If you put insulation on the underside of the plate then less of the heat is lost back to the environment.

Once you have a hot plate you can allow water to come in contact with it and the result is heated water. This can be piped into the home to be used however it is needed. The solar heated water can also be connected to the standard water heater thus saving grid supplied power on making the water hot. Energy used to heat household water is one of the most expensive items on most utility bills. This could be reduced if a solar water heating system is installed.

Sunlight can also be used to create electricity. The technology that utilizes sunlight is known as photovoltaics (PV). A PV cell is made from a silicon based semi conductor. The PV cell reacts with sunlight to displace an electron. The flow of an electron from a negative to a positive terminal is the creation of electric current. By increasing the number of PV cells connected in series you can increase the voltage between the positive and negative terminals and the current of the electricity.

This is direct current (DC) which can be stored in batteries or converted to alternating current (AC). Using an power inverter. AC is used in homes to power lights, and most appliances that plug into wall electrical sockets.

The solar panels that you may have seen on the roofs of many a home are a number of PV cells formed together in a series or parallel configuration to optimize the production of electricity. Installing a solar panel in your home has become easier as the energy industries focus more attention on solar power. The cost and installation of solar panels has also come down in recent years

Solar panels have become easier to install as utility companies become more conducive to solar energy. Many states have agreements whereby the electricity company must buy electricity from the household at retail price. This can make installation and viability of solar power more acceptable.

The advantages of this is that the utility company will install the system and the home is still attached to the grid as a safeguard should the sun not shine or a problem occurs with one of the components of the solar energy system.

The next step is to go off the grid completely. This is more responsibility for the individual and more knowledge of the system is needed. They will also need a back up energy generation system should there be any problems.

This article is brought to you by George Zalcman. George Zalcman has always had a passion for green technologies, and believes that we should all get on the boat before natural resources become limited. George Zalcman is part of an air to water technology hoping that this will eventually bring an end to the water crisis as well.