Did you know?
Some people across Canada use “hydro” to refer to their energy bill or energy company because hydroelectricity was the main source of power when a lot of major energy companies were founded.
The facilities that generate hydropower can range in size from very small to very large.
Newfoundland and Labrador has many hydro facilities (98% of electricity generated in the province in 2022 was generated from hydropower), which range from 0.4 MW capacity (Roddinckton Hydro Plant) to 5,428 MW capacity (Churchill Falls Hydroelectric Generating Facility).
What makes hydroelectricity so great?
- It’s a renewable source of electricity generation.
- Hydropower is a controlled form of electricity that we can use when we really need it (unlike intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar).
- Once a hydro facility is built, it’s easy and inexpensive to run for a long time!
What are some of the downsides?
- We need to be very environmentally aware when looking at new hydro facilities to ensure we’re reducing the impacts on wildlife.
- Hydro facilities are kind of expensive and complex to build (but like I said earlier, they’re easy and inexpensive to run).
- There are only so many places you can build new hydro projects because the geography needs to be just right.