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Hydroelectric power requires water. That means you can't put it just anywhere; you need a river. That's issue one. Issue two: you need a river with a suitable dam site. A river flowing through a deep narrow valley is ideal; a river meandering through a broad flat plain is less so. Issue three: you need to not care too much about the land upstream from the dam, since some of it is going to get flooded. Issue four: a dam large enough to generate a significant amount of power costs a lot of money. Buying the land you're going to flood may not be all that cheap either, since it's near a river; historically speaking, people tend to settle near rivers. So hydroelectric power has a fairly large upfront cost. Issue five: environmentalists are going to oppose it. You'd think they'd love hydro power since it produces no greenhouse gases, but it always turns out it's going to flood the habitat of the snail darter or the speckled pestilence fly or something and we certainly can't have THAT.

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Q: What is keeping hydroelectric energy from widespread use?
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