What are the pros and cons of water power?

Answer 1

Electricity

• Electricity is beneficial because it is clean, cheap, safe and a convenient source of energy.

• An advantageous use of electricity is restarting a person's heart.

• Its the most expensive to use for heating of any kind.

* most of technology is based or needs electricity.

AnswerOne advantage of electricity is that we have a more convenient way of life - light, power to our house, etc.

Another disadvantage is the risk for injury because of shock.

Electricity has a good and bad side,

Some of the advantages of electricity are it can give you lighting, heat, and computers wouldn't work without it. The disadvantages are if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, it could give you an electric shock (which can reduce your physical energy and also have lasting mental damage).

Answer 2

Advantages

1) The major advantage is that it can provide so many devices with power, including such important things as refrigerators, air conditioners, heaters, water heaters, stoves, microwaves. It provides nearly 100% of lighting. It also powers other modern conveniences: washers, dryers, radios, TV's, CD players, and computers. Other than running some on batteries, there is no other energy source to operate most of them.

2) Electricity is clean, mostly dependable, and can be distributed from generating plants hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Disadvatages

1) For the vast majority of users, there is no way to substitute for it, and no alternate supply. If there is an outage, refrigerated and frozen foods may be spoiled. Many people have alternate sources for heating, especially natural gas, but not for air conditioning or home power. Generators have limited power and require gasoline or diesel fuel, which may not always be available.

2) The generation of electricity is inherently wasteful, because the conversion of fossil fuels is not very efficient, and some power from other sources is lost or wasted in distribution (especially as waste heat).

3) Another disadvantage is that power lines, appliances, and electrical receptacles present a shock hazard if not maintained in good order, or if overloaded.

Answer 3

ADVANTAGES:1. Once a dam is constructed, electricity can be produced at a constant rate.

2. If electricity is not needed, the sluice gates can be shut, stopping electricity generation. The water can be saved for use another time when electricity demand is high.

3. Dams are designed to last many decades and so can contribute to the generation of electricity for many years / decades.

4. The lake that forms behind the dam can be used for water sports and leisure / pleasure activities. Often large dams become tourist attractions in their own right.

5. The lake's water can be used for irrigation purposes.

6. The build up of water in the lake means that energy can be stored until needed, when the water is released to produce electricity.

7. When in use, electricity produced by dam systems do not produce green house gases. They do not pollute the atmosphere.

DISADVANATGES:1. Dams are extremely expensive to build and must be built to a very high standard.

2. The high cost of dam construction means that they must operate for many decades to become profitable.

3. The flooding of large areas of land means that the natural environment is destroyed.

4. People living in villages and towns that are in the valley to be flooded, must move out. This means that they lose their farms and businesses. In some countries, people are forcibly removed so that hydro-power schemes can go ahead.

5. The building of large dams can cause serious geological damage. For example, the building of the Hoover Dam in the USA triggered a number of earth quakes and has depressed the earth's surface at its location.

6. Although modern planning and design of dams is good, in the past old dams have been known to be breached (the dam gives under the weight of water in the lake). This has led to deaths and flooding.

7. Dams built blocking the progress of a river in one country usually means that the water supply from the same river in the following country is out of their control. This can lead to serious problems between neighbouring countries.

8. Building a large dam alters the natural water table level. For example, the building of the Aswan Dam in Egypt has altered the level of the water table. This is slowly leading to damage of many of its ancient monuments as salts and destructive minerals are deposited in the stone work from 'rising damp' caused by the changing water table level.

Answer 4

Some of the pros of using water for power are that it is a renewable energy source, the hydroelectric plants do not produce an pollution, and it's a safe way to make power. Some of the cons for using water power are that it can affect the environment by changing water flow, building the hydroelectric plant is very expensive to build, and droughts could affect the production of power.