Did You Know...

... that dams contribute significantly to reducing air pollution? As we are all well aware, one of the major benefits of dams is the production of hydroelectric energy. Hydropower is the most plentiful and most efficient renewable energy resource, contributing more than 90 percent of all renewable electric energy produced in the United States. The efficiency of a modern hydropower plant exceeds 90 percent, which is more than twice the efficiency of a thermal plant. The original hydropower facility, built more than 100 years ago in Wisconsin, is still operating, and its efficiency is about twice that of a coal-fired plant.

The conventional installed hydropower capacity in the U.S. is about 73,500 MW, and is capable of producing over 300 billion kWh annually. To generate the equivalent amount of energy from a fossil-fueled generating plant fired by oil, coal, or natural gas would require 520 million barrels of oil, 129 million tons of coal, or 3.16 trillion cubic feet of gas. If, for instance, hydropower generation were completely replaced with coal-fired generation, there would be an increase of pollutants emitted to the atmosphere, including 7.7 million tons of particulates and 296 million tons of carbon dioxide. Stated in other terms, if all the energy produced by hydropower were instead produced by coal, pollutants from coal would increase by 16 percent.

This article is based on information from the slide presentation on the benefits of dams to society, developed by the USCOLD Committee on Public Awareness (COPA).

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, July 1996, page 3)