Tackling Climate Change with Falling Water
This year, millions of people in over 150 countries marched for the climate.
They striked against the lack of work being done to bring down carbon emissions, the lack of corporate interest being put into sustainable living, and the lack of progress we’ve made internationally into slowing down climate change.
🚨 Controversial Opinion Alert 🚨
The problem is, when it comes to issues that are more scientific, activism doesn’t really work. If there is a social issue, then strikes and rallies are great, but, not so much for a technical problem like this 😔.
You see, when it comes to climate change, the problem isn’t that we aren’t aware. It’s that we’re not doing anything about it. People are more focused on striking than actually creating things that help the Earth. Pretty much everyone has heard about global sea level or temperature rise, and we’ve known about it for a long time. But not a lot of people are in the field of working with technology to actually fix or stop these problems.
Another thing → Every day people aren’t the biggest stakeholders in this space. Companies are. But, for big corporations, which don’t get any short-medium term benefits from being more eco friendly, spending money on fixing their emissions doesn’t make sense.
Just 100 companies create 71% of the world’s carbon emissions.
But why do they create so much? It’s not because they’re sitting at their desks saying: “Gee… I wonder how much I can pollute the Earth before I get called out on it”.
It’s because right now, for them, it’s cheaper to not be environmentally friendly. Cheap = 😍. Not cheap = 🤮
They only way to make change is by providing economic incentive to switch to more environmentally-beneficial products/methodologies.
But how would we achieve something like this?
80% of the world’s energy usage still comes from fossil fuels (I mean, come on, leave the coal to santa and move on to something better 🤦♀️)
Now, these sources are non-renewable, unsafe (i.e. oil spills), and non-sustainable. It doesn’t make sense to keep using them.
Thing is, they’re developed and cheap, so it’s still our main source of power. In developing countries, it’s easier to access then things like solar or wind energy, which require grids and wiring to be installed, which just isn’t possible in places like the slums of Mumbai.
But fear not! Water is here to save the day!
Wait… How can water help us solve the climate crisis???
Water is such a dope element! Not only is it an absolute delight to drink, but it’s found virtually everywhere on Earth. Literally 70% of the Earth is water.
Now, you might have seen one of these before:
This is a waterfall. Not only is it absolutely gorgeous, but it’s SUPER powerful💪. Boyoma Falls, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is referred to as the world’s most powerful waterfall, with approximately 600 000 cubic feet of water flowing EVERY SECOND.
This provides a really good opportunity for clean energy generation. After all, water is renewable.
You might have heard of hydroelectric energy before. This is what water can help generate. Before we can get into why hydroelectricity is SUPER great, I think we need to understand how it works.
Understanding Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the conversion of falling water into electricity.
Now obviously, easier said than done. But how exactly does this work?
Hydroelectric plants can convert water into electricity, and are traditionally placed of rivers or places with consistent water flow. Most conventional hydroelectric dams have four main components: A dam, turbine, transmission lines, and a generator. Through the power of teamwork, we can turn 🌊 →⚡️
Since most plants are placed on rivers, dams are used to change water level and flow. This creates reservoirs (collection of fluids in one area) and allows for artificial waterfalls to be generated.
Note*: There are two types of hydroelectric plants → Run of river and dams. Run of river focuses on using the natural flow of water and therefore, skips the step of using a dam. Since the water flow matches the durability of the turbine, a dam isn’t needed in this case. Dam-based hydroelectric plants keep the dam as a primary part.
Damn… The dam created falling water 🙌!!!!
The force generated by this puts pressure on the blades of a turbine, causing it to spin (and create mechanical energy). But, let’s get a bit more specific.
The water from above the dam enters the turbine through pipes called “penstocks”, which wrap around the turbine like a snail (#biomimicry 🐌)
At the end of the penstock is an important device called the scroll case. This creates consistent water pressure around all sides of the turbine, preventing damage from intense water weight. Basically, they control how water flows into the turbine. Devices called wicket gates will change how wide their opening is depending on the signals that the scroll case sends forward.
Once we pass these gates, we see the turbine blades. The blades and shaft connected to them is called a runner. At the top of the shaft, we see a device called the exciter (Wow, exciting… I know 😂), which helps connect the device to the generator (more on this in just a bit), and supplies a small direct current (DC).
Inside the actual turbine, we have our rotor, which is the actual turning device. This is water causes energy to be generated, and is transferred upwards through the exciter.
Okay… that was a lot of information. Let’s make it a little more clear. Imagine you’re about enter a very luxurious mansion. The penstock is the road you take to get to the house. The scroll cases and wicket gates are basically the security guards. Moving past security, we get the actual mansion, where the exciters are like telephones and wifi, which connect people to information, and the rotors, which are the hired workers which work hard to make life easier for the home owner 🏠.
This process converts the falling water into mechanical energy 😎
Now here is where the generators come in. The generator is connected to the turbine through the runner, shafts and occasionally gears. This means that when the turbine spins, the generator also spins, taking that mechanical energy, and converting it into electrical energy 🔧 → ⚡️
The final step in outputting energy from this lovely plant of ours is by using transmission lines. These are wires that enable the transfer of energy (as electricity can flow through them) to different places.
Another note*: There are different sizes of hydroelectric plants. Microhydro produces less than 100 KW, small hydro produces around 100 KW-30 MW, and large hydro produces more than 30 MW of energy.
And bam! We’ve generated usable energy from water 😁
“But… why is this better than fossil fuels?”
Well, let me tell you.
Energy Efficiency
One of the most important things in considering whether or not to invest in energy is efficiency, and this is where hydro excels 💫
Modern turbines can convert up to 90% of available energy into electricity. LIKE WHAT???? THE BEST FOSSIL FUELS PLANTS CAN ONLY REACH AROUND 50% EFFICIENCY!!!!
Other renewables cannnot compare to the efficiency of hydro right now either. For example, most commercial solar cells are 15–20% efficient, and the best solar cell out there only reached around 40% efficiency 😕
But why should we care if something is efficient or not?
A) It’s cheaper. Would you rather build ten plants with 10% efficiency or ten plants with 100% efficiency? You’ll get more energy (and drive down the cost further) if the energy generation method you’re using is efficient. And you won’t have to pay more for less energy.
B) It’s more environmentally friendly. There is less energy lost in conversion to electricity, and so, less resources have to be wasted in order to generate energy.
Economic Advantages 🤑
Now, unfortunately for us, as of right now, the world revolves around money.
Most dams are paid off in an average of 4–7 years and although that number seems daunting at first, as more research is put into hydroelectrics, this cost will go down further.
Another fun tidbit: Dams are built to last 50–100 years, so in comparison, 4–7 years isn’t that much, and after the break-even point these plants can generate a lot of money 💰💰💰. Although it has a high upfront cost, it gets paid off fast enough so that this isn’t that big of a problem.
This is key 🔑 because if switching to hydroelectric energy is able to generate more money, then fossil fuel plants could eventually be phased out (for the majority) and we could have cleaner energy → AAAAND… A cleaner planet. Bringing me to my next point.
Environmental Advantages 🌎
Hydroelectricity has a bunch of dope environmental benefits! Here are a couple:
- The energy generated through hydropower relies on the water cycle, which is driven by the sun ☀️, making it a renewable power source. We don’t have to worry about suddenly running out of it and having no energy generation. This is sustainable 💦
- It’s also a clean fuel source, meaning it won’t pollute the atmosphere like fossil fuels do 🙌
- Hydropower plants can generate power to the grid immediately. In case of emergency, they can provide essential back-up power. This helps ensure that even in emergency situations, we are not sacrificing our environment as much 🔌
- Hydropower efforts are able to provide flood control, irrigation, and water supply 👷♀️
- Reservoirs offer a variety of recreational opportunities, such fishing, swimming, and boating. We no longer have to focus on building swimming pools or artificial lakes and can just use the resevoir! 🌅
Disadvantages
As with anything, hydroelectricity is not perfect. I don’t think it would be justified to write an article about hydropower without talking about the negative side. Here are the main points:
- Hydropower plants can impact fish. These animals rely on certain flow levels and water levels, which these plants can change. Fish may not know how to adapt, and draining of the dams would be deadly 🐠
- If a drought occurs, it is no longer viable to produce hydroelectricity 🏜
- Building the power plants requires a high upfront cost. However, it does pay off and there are not a lot of workers/maintenance costs 😁
In Conclusion…
Hydroelectricity is already making waves 🌊 (pun intended 😎). In 2015, it accounted for 16.6% of the world’s total electricity, and 70% of the electricity that comes from renewables. The numbers are expected to go up by 3.1% per year.
There’s really no reason to ignore hydroelectrical energy. It’s proven it’s worth and is a super great and efficient source of energy. By changing over from fossil fuels to hydro energy, we can stop the climate crisis from becoming worse than it already is, and optimize our current approach to energy, which is SUPER important.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Hydroelectricity converts falling water into electricity ⚡️
- There are different types and sizes of hydroelectric dams 📈
- Hydroelectricity is super efficient, at around 90%, 40% higher than fossil fuels 💪
- Hydroelectricity offers a ton of advantages, such as environmental efficiency and help with irrigation, with few disadvantages, such as the impact it has on fish 🌎
- Hydro has a high upfront cost, however, is paid off within 4–7 years 💰
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