hydrothermic energy

Question 1

Srisailam Dam (1998) - poor construction caused the underground powerhouse to become completely flooded
Oroville Dam- severe erosion to the foundation of the dam caused construction issues and evacuating around 180,000 people
Taum Sauk Power Station (2003) → transformer caught on fire causing the upper reservoir to overfill and fail, losing over a billion gallons of water
Sayano-Shushensaya (2009) → failed, flooding the building with 75 casualties
Uri-II Power Station (2013) → a fire heavily damaged one of the transformers
The Brazil Blackout (2009) → a power outage that impacted around 60 million people, interrupting voltage transmission lines and halting the Itaipu Dam as well as automatically losing energy
Brumadinho Dam & Marianna Dam (2019) - the dams burst, damaging the wildlife and forcing people to relocate
Hidroituango dam → the dam was breached, affecting around 120,000 colombians as it hit areas in the “river basin”
Saddle Dam D→ dam collapsed, releasing round 5 billion m3 of water and caused massive injury, casualties, and for 131 villages to go missing

Answer 1

• poor construction
• erosion
• fire
• flooding
• power outage
• dam bursting
• emphasize brazilian blackout (impacted over 60 million people because of the loss of energy and stopped the dam from functioning without “voltage transmission”
• taum sauk power station- transformer caught on fire, resourvoir fille with water & failed, over 1 billion gallons of water lose

saddle dam d- dam collapsed in laos, releasing 5 billion m3 of water–> many casualties, injuries, and about 131 villages went missing from it

Question 2

Hydroelectric power is credited for being more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels and does not directly emit pollutants into the air. Still, dams created to generate electricity have numerous environmental impacts, including displacing wild/marine life and creating reservoirs and ponds from rivers. Dams are needed to redirect water from its natural flow in a river into a hydropower plant to produce electricity. Thus, this disrupts physical characteristics of the river, cover significant natural areas/agricultural land, and archaeological sites, as well as the water’s natural temperature, chemistry, and silt loads.
Hydroelectric power also releases carbon emissions into the environment through producing concrete and steel used, as well as carbon dioxide and methane formed in “aerobic and anaerobic decomposition of biomass in the reservoirs” created from the dams.

Answer 2

negative impacts:
- displacement
- reservoirs and ponds created from rivers
- characteristics of the river are disrupted (chemistry, silt load, natural temp.)
- dams–> redirect water from natural flow into plant to produce electricity (spins turbine)
- carbon emissions in used steel & concrete for the plants and co2 & nh4 created from the dams

Question 3

• emphasize brazilian blackout (impacted over 60 million people because of the loss of energy and stopped the dam from functioning without “voltage transmission”

-brumadinho dam and marianna dam

saddle dam d- dam collapsed in laos, releasing 5 billion m3 of water–> many casualties, injuries, and about 131 villages went missing from it