Hydropower is a type of renewable energy. Hydropower uses water movement to make energy, and unlike major energy generators it does not destroy, or lessen the source of power in anyway during the process. With low operating and maintenance costs, and high reliability, it seems to be an excellent choice of an energy source. However, the costs associated with the planning and construction of hydro projects are extremely high, and also along with these projects come many fears. Fears, such as public worry, economical impacts, and major environmental impacts. Because of these concerns, new major dam projects, such as the hoover dam, have been pushed to the side.((http://www.planete-energies.com/en/the-energy-of-tomorrow/the-future-for-current-energy-sources/renewable-energy/the-hydropower-of-tomorrow-274.html)) Currently a wide variety of new possible ways to make Hydroelectricity are in development.
The future of hydro energy can be described in four major areas. Those areas include tidal power, marine current power, wave power, and osmotic power. While these are currently the four major areas that could be the future of hydro, they have many obstacles to still overcome. The Department of Energy several times mentioned how, “every tidal and marine current project faces a cost efficiency issue and the cemetery of inventions is full of projects technically viable but economically bound to death.”((http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/hydro-energy-future1.htm))
The first type, tidal power, is very similar to a dam system. At the entrance to an inlet a dam, or barrages are built, these have gates that water flows through as the tide rises and then lowers. During this process, the flowing water moves turbines to create energy. This, however, can be very disrupting to marine life as the dam and barrages create barriers, which disrupt their movements. There is also the option for a tidal fence. A tidal fence has vertical turbines that are embedded into the sea floor. The oceans currents cause the turbines to move and thus create energy. The tidal fence system is much cheaper than a system of barrages, or a construction of an entire dam. The challenge with this system though is being able to effectively and economically getting turbines into the seabed, or on underwater platforms.
Marine Current is another one of the possible futures of hydropower. The Department of the Interior once noted, “capturing just .1 percent of the Gulf Stream’s energy could meet 35 percent of Florida’s annual electricity needs.”((http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/hydro-energy-future4.htm)) Also, according to that same source, the Department says there is more than 21,000 times more energy in the Gulf than in Niagara Falls.((id.))
The final two options for the future are wave power, and osmotic power. Wave conversion is by far the most advanced of the four. Currently a company has a prototype of a design off the shores of Scotland that they launched in 2010.((http://www.scotsman.com/news/600ft_sea_snake_to_harness_power_of_scotland_1_804740)) This 600-foot long machine is a link of cylindrical sections that float on the oceans surface. As the ocean waves flex and bend the cylinders it generates power, which is then transferred back to land and to a power distribution center. Currently the companies are also trying to incorporate solar energy into this design.((id.)) Osmotic is the most complicated and least developed. This is the process of harvesting kinetic energy from the process of osmosis that naturally occurs when seawater and river water pulls together.
While the future of hydropower is still not 100 percent certain, but there are many options that leave hope that hydropower will continue to grow and become a major player in the renewable energy field.