Chile Forum

Every human activity has some kind of enviromental impact, nothing is zero impact and even solar cells requires a lot of energy to be build and may be unefficient in a serious energy-balance analisys. So, the question is not if but how much impact we are willing to accept, and this vary hugely depending how much this affect us PERSONALLY.

Ok, hydroelectric plants inundates certain areas and kill wildlife, but lack of electricity is also a kind of damage, for those not involved personally in the energy need is easy to worry about wildlife and viceversa. It is not a simple matter of smart or wrong choices.

Of course. Hydro doesn't have to be so destructive though, it's a great solution for this area on a smaller scale.

I think there is a lazy cheap hydro (just flood the valley hydro), and then there is environmentally sound hydro like with flow pipes.

They are blowing up Hydro dams in the States and Europe anytime they can figure out how to do it without causing more environmental damage. They did not turn out to be that cheap to operate or build, relative to the amount of juice the put out.