The advantages and disadvantages of hydro-electric power:

Advantages of hydro-electric power include:

• A hydro-electric power scheme uses a renewable source of energy and therefore does not consume limited fossil fuels or pollute the atmosphere with combustion gases.
  
  
• Unlike conventional coal-fired power stations, which take hours to start up, hydro-electric power stations can begin generating electricity very speedily. So hydro-electric plants are particularly useful for responding to sudden increases in the demand for electricity by customers.
  
  
• These stations need only a small staff to operate and maintain them and are not subject to fluctuations in fuel prices.

Disadvantages of hydro-electric power include:

• Hydro-electric generation often requires the construction of dams, which may result in serious environmental damage. It may involve the serious inundation of large areas of land and the loss of wildlife habitat; an impact on fish breeding; changes in water flow and the river eco-system; changes in sediment and salt contents; and so on.
  
  
• Water storage schemes are very costly to build.

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