Hydroelectric

1. Hydroelectric • Pros • Flood control. • Electricity wo/ghg or pollutants. • Reservoir for drinking water & irrigation. • Cons • Reservoir floods terrestrial areas = loss of habitat & re-location of people. • Anadromous & catandromous fish migrations are blocked. • Sediment collects behind the dam instead of downstream for nutrients. • Loss of white water, cool water and sediment downstream.

2. Wind • Wind is free wo/ghg/polution. • Land underneath can be used for farming etc. • Can be scaled upward for more power. • Cons • Requires adequate wind speed. • Some people object to their looks. • Bird kills • Noise sometimes. • Wind doesn’t always blow & at present time it is too expensive to store the power. • Sometime located away from the grid.

3. Geothermal • Pros • Free heat from the earth’s hot rocks that heats ground water. • Cons • Only certain areas of heat are easy to access. • Some gas pollutants. • If sited near National Parks it can destroy geysers etc.

4. Solar • Pros • Free, clean energy. • Can use existing rooftops or land in deserts to install the panels. • Simple to use passive heating. • Cons • Sun doesn’t always shine; battery or other storage mechanisms are not fully developed or too expensive. • High priced.

5. Biomass • Pros • Can be sustainable if re-planted as fast as it is used. • Potential to provide energy for ½ the planet. • CO2 given off is equal to what is taken in by photosynthesis. • Cons • Currently is unsustainable. • Deforestation • Flooding/landslides/soil erosion. • Inefficient when turned into fuel; both the process and the mileage.

6. Sun connection Solar • Passive: Sun shine warms room or rock structures. • Active: sun’s energy is used to produce electrons directly • OR solar energy is circulated by pumps throughout homes/businesses.

7. Sun connection Biomass • Plants take in light energy either directly through the sun or indirectly through electric energy created by burning plants or fossil fuels. • Plants use the sun’s energy in the process of photosynthesis to build biomass which stores the energy in a chemical form.

8. Sun connection Wind energy • Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the earth causes pressure differences. • High pressure flows toward low pressure creating winds.

9. Sun connection Hydroelectricity • Sun warms bodies of water for evaporation. • Water is moved by the wind (explanation on previous slide** you must include this**) onto land and to areas when gravity then moves it downhill.

10. Nuclear Power • Uranium 238 is split (nuclear fission) by high speed neutrons. • The fission causes heat & more neutrons to be released. • To control the reaction, neutron absorbing rods called control rods are lowered into the nuclear core area. These rods are made of Boron or other neutron absorbing materials. • Nuclear waste is first stored in pools of circulating water for at least 10 years. • Then the rods are placed into casks for storage on site. This is because we still do not have an approved waste storage site. • Yucca Mtn. was built for this purpose but politically has been a non-starter.