Re: Fuel Cells and "green" energy

["D.V.N.Sarma" <narayana@HD1.VSNL.NET.IN>]

There are two other costs which have to be taken into account.

1. The weight of dammed water causing earthquakes.
    In India Koyna dam has been blamed for earthquakes.

2. Due to flooding a large number of people are displaced, villages
    are flooded, houses are destroyed and their lifestyles and
    livelihoods are violently and permanently altered.
    The compensation that may be paid is usually a pittance.

regards,

Sarma.
On 13 Jun 2001, at 10:20, RAUBER, JOEL wrote:

> I"m curious, could you elaborate more on the environmental costs of
> hydroelectric power.  I've been mostly under the impression that its mostly
> aesthetic (you ruin the hatch-hatchie gorge), or not as renewable as one
> thinks, the reservoir silts up and prevents fish spawning.  And then the
> usual cost of running the power lines everywhere (true of most power
> plants); and the impact of the immediate construction of the dam.
>
> In my mind, while these effects aren't negligible they tend to be smaller
> than many other alternatives; so I'm gathering there are some significant
> effects I haven't thought of.
>
> The largest defect is that it can't satisfy the needs.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael N. Monce [mailto:mnmon@CONNCOLL.EDU]
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 7:56 AM
> > To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> > Subject: Re: Fuel Cells and "green" energy
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Dr. Tom Wayburn wrote:
> >
> > > P.S.   This type of thinking completely eludes the Green
> > Party, for example,
> > > which hung up the phone in my ear whilst I was explaining
> > this spot of
> > > bother.   Hang-the-messenger still applies.
> >    I just recently got hung out to dry by a student group and
> > some faculty
> > after they announced they had convinced our Board to pay 20%
> > more on our
> > electric costs for 30% of our electric needs by buying the
> > electrons from
> > a so-called "green" coop. This coop supposedly supplies the elctricity
> > from only hydro, solar, and wind.  I asked the question as to
> > whether the
> > college had really researched the environmental costs of each of these
> > so-called green sources; citing the impossibility of skirting
> > around the
> > Second Law.  The geophysicist in our department, whose specialty is
> > hydrology, also complained bitterly about the consequences of
> > hydroelectric.  We were chastised quite a bit for pointing out such
> > issues.  There's a lot of physics education to be done with
> > the public in
> > the energy arena.
> >
> >                    Michael Monce
> >                    Connecticut College