• Hydro electricity is energy which is obtained from hydropower. Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water, which flows down a hill and drives a water turbine.

• The turbine then turns, and generates the electricity.

Hydroelectric power supplies around 20% of the worlds

electricity needs. The main users are:

• Norway: 95% of its electricity needs

• Iceland: 83%

• Austria: 67%

I don’t like it here!

• When one thinks of HEP, they see great dams and such, but small scale HEP is very different. Small scale HEP would normally be put in place just to cater for individual villages, and very small towns, and would perhaps look something like this:

This means that this type of power is ideal to LEDC’s, and many of their poor villages which are dotted around the country. They provide a sustainable means of producing electricity, and the villages could operate it themselves. I love HEP!!!

• The elimination of the cost of fuel. Many other sources of energy, such as burning coal, require a large amount of raw materials to be purchased, which could not be possible in an LEDC.

• Very sustainable ones, particular in LEDC’s, produce very little amounts of greenhouse gases. This benefits the environment, and the health of the whole world!

• Relatively cheap and easy to run and maintain. The plants are often automated, and particularly in LEDC designs, there is very little that can go wrong with them.

Just look at all those

advantages!!!

• Water is needed to generate the electricity. As is the case in many LEDC’s which are to be found in Africa, water is very scarce, so this scheme simply wouldn’t be able to implemented. Ironic, as this is the type of place which needs it most.

• Can leave a scar on the surrounding landscape when small dams have to be built. But is it worth it?

• These people who live in the poor villages simply cant afford to implement the scheme in the first place. This would meant that they would have to rely on foreign aid to help them start the scheme, which can be very hard to gain.

I just cant afford it!!!