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Hydro is only source of renewable power that generates >50% of any country's electricity grid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_elec

Hydro is only source of renewable power that generates >50% of any country's electricity grid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_electricity_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable... Wind caps out at 42% with Denmark, solar at 15% in Australia. Many countries have nearly 100% of their electricity coming from hydroelectricity. Besides nuclear power, hydroelectricity is one of the few non-intermittent sources of renewable energy - sure, rainfall does technically make hydro intermittent in a sense, but it's not going to change output on a dime when the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing. Well, you also have geothermal power, but that's even more geographically constrained than hydro.

forrestthewoods 3y ago
That’s a non sequitur. I never said hydro wasn’t renewable. I said it wasn’t clean. Most people think of hydro as renewable and low carbon and clean. Two are true, one is false. Hydro is dirty and, imho, we should phase it out the same way we should phase coal out. Nuclear isn’t renewable by most definitions. But it is low carbon and clean. Nuclear was good 40 years ago. Solar is getting good. Wind I don’t know much about. Hydro is an ok bootstrap but is much dirtier and more problematic than most people realize.
- Manuel_D 3y ago
  Hydro is indeed clean in that it does not emit greenhouse gases. Sure, it disrupts life around the dammed waterway. But that's way less of an impact than climate change.
  - therealdrag0 3y ago
    Hydro emits huge amounts of GHG when flooded organic matter decomposes btw.
    - Manuel_D 3y ago
      This is a one-time overhead emission, and I doubt it's "huge" compared to even a small amount of fossil fuel use.
      - therealdrag0 3y ago
        In comparison to FF it’s small of course. But it’s billions of tons, globally more than Germany’s footprint. Which is larger than most peoples assumptions, hence the “huge”.
preisschild 3y ago
Nuclear is renewable and generates more than 50% of many countries electricity.

forrestthewoods 3y ago

That’s a non sequitur. I never said hydro wasn’t renewable. I said it wasn’t clean. Most people think of hydro as renewable and low carbon and clean. Two are true, one is false. Hydro is dirty and, imho, we should phase it out the same way we should phase coal out. Nuclear isn’t renewable by most definitions. But it is low carbon and clean. Nuclear was good 40 years ago. Solar is getting good. Wind I don’t know much about. Hydro is an ok bootstrap but is much dirtier and more problematic than most people realize.

Manuel_D 3y ago
Hydro is indeed clean in that it does not emit greenhouse gases. Sure, it disrupts life around the dammed waterway. But that's way less of an impact than climate change.
- therealdrag0 3y ago
  Hydro emits huge amounts of GHG when flooded organic matter decomposes btw.
  - Manuel_D 3y ago
    This is a one-time overhead emission, and I doubt it's "huge" compared to even a small amount of fossil fuel use.
    - therealdrag0 3y ago
      In comparison to FF it’s small of course. But it’s billions of tons, globally more than Germany’s footprint. Which is larger than most peoples assumptions, hence the “huge”.

preisschild 3y ago

Nuclear is renewable and generates more than 50% of many countries electricity.