The United States of America is the fourth largest hydropower producer in the world. While the hydropower provides 16.6% of the global electricity, it is the biggest renewable energy provider. And if the overall production of hydropower by the US was 250,148 GWh, which state is the biggest hydropower provider?
To cut right to the chase, according to Insider Monkey, the state that produces the most hydropower is Washington. According to their research, the State of Washington produces almost the quarter of the overall hydropower in the US and owns the seventh largest hydropower station in the world – Grand Coulee. It is estimated that Washington uses between two-thirds and four-fifths of the electricity from the hydropower facilities. The rest is, of course, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power. But as the net hydroelectricity generation expressed in thousands MWh in 2015 was calculated 73,405, the State of Washington found the great way to cash their energy – by exploitation. Besides Canada, Washington supplies the rest of the US as well with the electricity.
And why is this important? While the natural gas is said to vanish one day because of the unlimited exploitation, hydropower is the renewable energy source, which we can never run out of. This way, with building more hydropower facilities and other ways of using the most of the renewable sources, such as solar panels, we will never have to be worried if we would live in the dark someday. But here a little problem pops up. Ok, maybe a bit bigger problem pops up. To be exact, between 500$/kw and 3,500$/kw big problem. To produce a hydropower, the government of every country has to build a hydropower plant, which is rather expensive by itself, and not to mention in compare to building a natural gas or petroleum liquids generators. Besides being too expensive, building a hydropower plant can also be environmentally destructive. In order to build big enough hydropower plant, sometimes many areas have to be flooded, which impacts the wildlife the most but also destroys green surfaces and forests. And not to mention aquatic ecosystem that can be changed due to the water changes in volume, temperature, and oxygen level. And is this the reasonable price for less pollution and savings of the ozone layer and the Earth in general? These 15 top producing hydropower states in America think it is! And what about you?
