Water Turbine - Environmental Impact

Environmental Impact

Water turbines are generally considered a clean power producer, as the turbine causes essentially no change to the water. They use a renewable energy source and are designed to operate for decades. They produce significant amounts of the world's electrical supply.

Historically there have also been negative consequences, mostly associated with the dams normally required for power production. Dams alter the natural ecology of rivers, potentially killing fish, stopping migrations, and disrupting peoples' livelihoods. For example, American Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest had livelihoods built around salmon fishing, but aggressive dam-building destroyed their way of life. Dams also cause less obvious, but potentially serious consequences, including increased evaporation of water (especially in arid regions), build up of silt behind the dam, and changes to water temperature and flow patterns. Some people believe that it is possible to construct hydropower systems that divert fish and other organisms away from turbine intakes without significant damage or loss of power; historical performance of diversion structures have been poor. In the United States, it is now illegal to block the migration of fish, for example the endangered great white sturgeon in North America, so fish ladders must be provided by dam builders. The actual performance of fish ladders is often poor.