So what do you think of hydropower? Be sure to check out Terra Mater for more detail on how hydropower is impacting the environment in surprising ways: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jsx6l7d00tHTkXU.html And get 15% off your 2046 Print Shop order: bit.ly/2046-Undecided

Hey Matt, your channel and your audience are awesome and it has been a great pleasure working with you! Thanks for the collaboration! 🤗

7:15 "Water is not subject to market fluctuation." Nestle: Challenge accepted.

The swedish tidal power company Minesto is using underwater kites that swims in loops against the current, thus producing a lot more power than conventional turbines. The company has since this week successfully started to deliver power to the grid in the faroe island. :) GO TIDAL POWER

Tidal energy is cool because you're harnessing the moon.

Being a surfer, I haven't met something that the sea will not destroy.

Why is new nuclear ignored? We have technology which can use the irradiated waste fuel to feed their reactors. They solve the long term storage issue and they get 20x as much power per kg of fuel as the original plants were able to take. The resultant waste has a short half life. These plants are intrinsically safe so why don’t we have them?

I read "tidal power" and I'm instantly transported to the 1970s reading a Popular Science magazine.

Yes, hydro has a huge impact to rivers and fish living there because it floods and blocks a huge area but you also forgot how amazing they are for avoiding floods because their mentioned storage capacity can also be used as buffer to avoid floods or to store water to be used during droughts. In my country we have almost iliminated the problem of floods using dams, increased agriculture efficiency and made rivers be easily navigable and return a lot of money with touristic cruises. We had huge success with hydro.

It's curious that whenever people talk about nuclear energy they mention Chernobyl, but people rarely mention the Banqiao Dam when they talk about hydro power despite the fact it killed far more people.

8:55 finally tidal energy.

those low speed water paddle things that sat at the bottom of rivers or maybe even a creek seem pretty neat

"Water is the driving force of all Nature" has never been wrong also if we do not learn to eliminate waste and to be more productive and more efficient in the ways we use energy, then we will fall short of this goal [for the Nation to derive 20 percent of all the energy we use from the Sun, by 2000]. But if we use our technological imagination, if we can work together to harness the light of the Sun, the power of the wind, and the strength of rushing streams, then we will succeed.

Wow wow wow. Half way through this video and I am impressed. It is awesome to see someone who doesn’t just call renewable useless but also doesn’t skim over the downsides

A little disappointed, since tidal enegry had little coverage I was wondering by the title that the content had more focus on that...

It's looks like the slow flow of discarded water is of posible application. Considering that all options are on the table.

Oh, cool pump hydroplant you showed as example is in Lithuania, Kruonis.

Well presented and very informative. Living in south east England makes me wonder if all the off shore windfarms are missing a trick. The infa structure is already there surely the addition of hydro power turbines could work in Tandem and increase effiency and output,Food for thought indeed!. Great Work.

Given the valid concerns about hydro power's impact on the surrounding landscape, I've often wondered if it would be worthwhile to install smaller hydro generators like the ones from Turbulent along urban waterways. These are often /usually already artificially buttressed with concrete, steel, etc to prevent erosion. Wonder how viable/cost effective it would be, especially combined with water-based heat pump for district heating.

Good job Matt. I've been a hydro engineer for over 40 years. I say all turbo (rotating machinery) electrical generation is dead, at least I hope it is. This includes hydro, wind and steam. Nothing can compete with solar and battery storage. Lastly I'm not a big believer in "new" hydro technology. Hydro turbines have been 85-90% efficient for well over 100 years, not a lot of room for improvement. I've seen so many high-tech turbines come and go, most getting 3-5% more efficiency only to fly apart after a few years. Tidal and river flow turbines are simply a waste of time and money. Too much machinery for too little power. None of this will ever be economically viable.

Love your videos man!! I feel super inspired every time I watch. Greetings from Salt Lake City, Utah.

So just wondering, why doesn't the Hoover Dam surround itself with solar panels and some big Tesla Megapacks, to help with the intermittent power drain?

Hi Matt, How feasible do you think it is to have offshore wind turbine, and on the same structure, a couple of tidal turbines under water. It might save infrastructure cost. Structurally, I think it will increase vibrations, but making the whole structure bottom heavy will make it more stable. The structure would look like O----8 (but vertical, with 8 underwater). 40m wind and 2x 16 m tidal= 3 times energy on the same structure.

Nova Scotia has the highest ice-free tidal fluctuations in the world (appx. 50ft of water level difference between low and high tide). Two different organizations tried to harvest energy from our tides but their turbines failed because they were pummeled by giant hurtling boulders moved by the intense current. All future attempts are abandoned.

Ever thought about doing a deep dive into home micro hydro power generation? My favorite is The Vortex by Turbulent . It can easily power 60 homes in the USA with just a 4 foot drop in elevation. Anyways, good video from you.

Im 72. When I was a youngster, I remember Popular Science cover with ocean turbines. What happened?

I remember seeing a documentary or something on tidal energy. Where they tryed to place a prototype turbine at the bottom of the Hudson River. It placement failed several times as the current of the river was too strong to do it safely.

Major environmental impact of windmills occurs after they fail. In most cases they are abandoned because the cost to take them down

Tell us ... The truth about marine growth. Barnacle growth make systems like this impractical in most true tidal areas. All your success stories were fresh water and there are few big fast rivers worldwide.

Once again, a thought-provoking piece. Thank you.

The data on this video end up being missleading. Hydropower is WAY cheaper than solar or eolic on long term. No one accounts only 5 years when we talk about energy.

I’m a great advocate for hydropower. It is true that there are environmental impacts but they don’t come close to the dangers of fossil fuel or nuclear. They work day or night and without impact from the weather. The new designs will reduce the environmental impacts even more. We have used rivers for a very long time but the power of the oceans represent the largest source of power on earth. It is long past time to start to use it. I remember Jacques Cousteau talking about this in the 1960’s. Check out the power station at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. It is quite remarkable, it is a dam across a tidal river which uses temporary impoundment of the the tide. The dam closes at low tide, allowing seawater to impound outside the dam. It then opens up allowing the water to flow in and make power. Once the water is up in the river it closes and waits for the tide to go out and then makes power again as the water flows out. I watched it work one day while fishing nearby. The ecosystem is strong, there were tons of mussels and striped bass around. It seems to be a great system. It supplies almost all of the power for Atlantic Canada.

You are more than halfway through the video and haven't even mentioned tidal energy.

Matt, You forgot Nuclear Reactors and Micro Nreactor Reactors as a green source of energy.

I live 5 miles from the ocean. I always wondered why the government hasn't invested in hydropower. The ocean waves are a perfect energy source.

Hydro power potential is limitless but wind is showing signs of it's costs being out of control. Maintenance, damage to blades and total failures has taken the shine off of that tech. Damage to birds and the visual effects, eyesore all leads me back to to water. Water is a great source of energy.

Hydropower is one of the greatest sources of energy. Wind and solar are *not* gaining ground. Wind turbines have been around for *1,000 years* and wind power still sucks as the wind is inherently unreliable and grid scale storage is a joke (unless you have a reservoir).

If you’re going through rough times, please don’t give up. Better times are coming ❤️

Tidal energy is an important part of our answer to global warming. It is one of the few sources which is a source of renewable energy with 1. low environmental impact 2. Minimum impact on local ecosystems 3. Capable of delivering base load. Additionally, the turbines method of harnessing tidal power, can be couple with off-shire wind to further reduce the impact of these systems.

The "construction phase" of almost anything generally creates the highest environmental impact. People often focus on disposal and forget construction, like when comparing paper vs. plastic bags. Plastic bags are worse for disposal, but for construction and shipping, paper bags are far worse. Some of the laws that prohibit plastic bags but permit paper bags seem blind to this - or perhaps their only goal is to reduce lasting litter.

I think hydro is the second most promising zero carbon energy source, after nuclear.

where are you getting all your footage!?! Looks like you've got a production team with assets now

My distant ancestor John Adolphus Etzler in his 1830 book "A paradise with in the reach of all men" proposed the use of tidal, wind and solar energy to allow for an industrial society. Oil and natural gas is not mentions as they were not yet discovered. In Ontario, Canada electricity is often referred to as hydro.

Yay, Turbulent Hydro mentioned! I think every village and town which has a suitable water flow should have one or better, more!

you should do a video on geothermal heating and cooling and passive houses. from cost to construction.

I am concerned about the turbines killing or injuring wildlife.

We need all three wind water sun power combined

*Builds a litteral under water blender* "It's eco friendly"

Has anyone studied what happens when you extract energy from the undersea currents? At one stage CO2 did not seem to be a problem either.

we are energy of future, so get on a bike..

Please consider doing s video on Liquid Air/Cryogenic Storage tech. It compares favorably with Li-ion battery storage and addresses a number of it's limitations.

1. Disilting the river beds of existing hydorpower sites. 2. Increasing the efficiency of existing hydroelectric power plants with upgraded turbines. 3. Increasing the height of existing dams is less harmful than constructing new sites.

Carbon emissions should not be the driving force of energy production.

FYI, plenty of people like me will NEVER watch any video titled "The Truth About..."

one issue not spoken about is the harsh environment, water and the other environmental elements in it causes severe corrosion and fouling, hopefully they have found solutions to this

Fantastic! - Seen as we are chopping up birds we can now chop up fish too! As if the fisheries of the world aren't doing enough damage already. Freshly prepared 'meals for the seals' who are lucky enough to avoid those blades.. -And better still, just think, we can link this with underwater 'Sushi restaurants' -Turdburg and friends would be so happy! Great for 'Fish & Chop' shops too! -The future is fish that's been fingered!

Hey, I'm early;

Thanks for another informative and well researched video, Matt. You missed details on the Griswold impact on the Hoover Dam, though. Hydro is a really big thing for us Canadians, eh? ☺️

I had this idea for energy generation 20 years ago. Biggest problem to me is transporting the electricity very long distances without significant losses.

Consider designing pumped storage from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, around Niagara Falls. 42 cm level change in Lake Ontario could backup the entire east coast for 4 hours.

The problem with tidal or submerged water turbines is that it removes energy out of the water. For example, if you were to use such a system in the Mississippi River near New Orleans, salt water starts flowing upriver contaminating New Orleans fresh water intakes. Same thing with tidal. You just cannot get past the problem of thermodynamics. Wind turbines when properly investigated that as they remove energy from these "wild rivers" of air we may discover these systems may be altering our weather systems in ways that may be very detrimental.

Energy storage and green energy generation are certainly important, but the fastest way to reduce emissions is by rapidly cutting energy use across the planet, and there are loads of simple things we could do to accomplish that. Specifically with regards to transportation: 1) Move to a 4 day work week from 5 reduces commuter based emissions by 20% overnight. ALL commuter based emissions. 2) Enfoce a mandatory work from home policy 1-2 days per week for office workers would reduce office commute emissions by an additional 20-40% overnight. 3) Push for more bike friendly commuter policies and infrastructure, and for every day per week a person choose to bike to work instead of drive could further reduce commuter based emissions by 20% . Biking can apply to office and non-office workers alike. 4) Improve public transportation in suburban areas which due to low population density has a serious public transit use problem. These areas require too many routes and too many stops, making the system prohibitively slow, complex, and expensive. They're so unusable that people just choose to bypass public transit altogether and buy cars, resulting in unsustainably low volumes utilizing the public transit system. However, using a combination of buses and electric bikes / scooters / ride sharing could increase distances between routes and stops by 3-4x. In effect, the bus stops can be further apart because once you're off the train, you can utilize the bike / scooter to travel the last 1-3 miles at a speed 5x faster than walking. 3 miles walking would take about an hour. 3 miles on a 16 mph e-bike/scooter would take 10 minutes. Older / disabled people that couldn't utilize bikes / scooters could have utilize ride sharing at a subsidized rate at each main bus "hub". It reduces the number of buses running, reduces the complexity of the routes, and increases per bus density. Make those buses electric, and now you've not only removed gas tailpipe emissions, but drastically reducing overall bus miles driven and total energy use. 5) One idea someone put out there was the government giving every person an electric moped style scooter for free. A scooter takes significantly less resources than building an EV, uses significantly less energy to travel than an EV. Instead of 10 kWh for the average 32 mile r/t commute, a scooter may only use 1-2 kWh. An e-bike uses less than 1 kWh for the same distance. That's an 80-90% decrease in commute energy use versus an EV. .... EVs are great, and are the future, but they still use a lot of energy which will require more power plants, whether renewable or fossil. Renewables and EVs will eventually take over, but if we want a rapid reduction of emissions today, the ideas I've outlined above could be implemented this year. They don't require the 30+ years we'll need to replace all ICE vehicles, or to accomplish the massive renewable energy and energy storage build out.

Speaking of hydro power my bathroom speaker is powered by hydropower. Every time I turn on the shower I get free power and I get to play music with it

At this point, Do your own research on the basis of feasibility and accessbility. One thing for sure, we want larger and reliable battery. Thanks for collaborating all the factors.

A huge issue is maintenance and reliability. Salt water is highly corrosive and thus requires much more effort and expensive engineering to maintain. As well lots stuff grows on surfaces in the ocean. These would need to be cleaned often to maintain energy production. These ideas aren't new, they have simply proven to be less practical and dilute ways to obtain energy. It doesn't hurt to examine and see if our modern manufacturing technology is cable of making it practical but it doesn't really look like it.

I have wanted to calculate the use of a blind bay were the bay opens up inland and has a narrow passage to the sea. By restricting the passage way the water speed could be increased significantly and get past high and low tides. Tidal time shifting could get past the lows. Consideration for using peak power production to pump into same or separate bay to increase the head for low production times. Thus level power output for a base power plant.

I have an invention. Picture something like a truck scale on busy road(s). Every time a vehicle goes over it it is slightly offset and a turbine is engaged.

There is one technology that i have for many years wondered why we don't see or hear much about, and that is geothermal. We are literally sitting on a vast reserve of energy, surely,, this has a much greater potential for long term scalable and sustainability than wind or solar.

You glossed over the massive issue with hydroelectric dams regarding salmon runs. You acknowledged that they have “wildlife impact issues”, but the impact they’ve had on salmon species intinction and population depletion is huge. We will need food to eat while we have our clean energy too, and salmon is a big food source.

We are learning the terrible long term problems of damming up big rivers - the forests and other landscapes in the areas around the headwaters - are literally dying due to the lack of salmon. The salmon *used* to return all the way up to the start of the rivers and streams that feed the big rivers - and now that they don't (in any significant numbers), the nutrients from their bodies after they die - is leading to the land itself now dying. This is HUGE. We need to fix the problem we are causing. And no, salmon hatcheries is not a viable solution, sadly. There are no easy fixes.

One thing I thought of when you were talking about the cost of hydroelectric power is that dams are expensive, but there are more uses than just power. People recreate in and around the lake, and water is used for irrigation and drinking. Also, another cost is silt build-up in the reservoirs behind the dams.

The big problem with tidal energy is that the turbines are extremely maintenance heavy in an environment difficult and costly to access. Compare them to conventional hydro power plants which are extremely easy to shut down and maintain with very low cost. Sea bed turbines will fail or shut down exactly when the weather makes it impossible to get to them, sometimes for months and the infrastructure to maintain them is specialised and costly. Due to the water density the lateral forces on turbines are staggering, in addition the marine environment is extremely corrosive. The question goes far beyond the promise of capturing the enormous quantity of energy in the sea. We simply are unable to currently build underwater versions of wind turbines which can survive the maritime conditions for any length of time. Low speed river bottom devices and low speed turbines mentioned in the video offer a far more realistic and achievable addition to the renewable energy mix and the fish friendly nature of them is to be commended. They require to survive much more predictable forces, are inherently less sophisticated, operate in a less hostile environment and especially with good design are much easier to access for maintenance. Unfortunately they are inherently small scale projects as are all distributed energy generation programs, hence they will never attract the attention, nor be as news worthy as energy generation on the multi billion dollars scale. I believe that marine hydro turbines (and also wave power) will offer promises very similar to fusion power and continue to be just a few years away for many decades and probably never achieve the success claimed by it's proponents. Of course I would be delighted to be wrong.

While you did actually mention the diff between Tidal Turbines and all other hydropower, those 10 seconds are actually the entire nut. Sorry for the length of this comment, but somebody's got to say it. Nobody ever defines the various types of power generation by the two most salient categories governing electricity, precharged battery or uncharged battery; batteries included or batteries sold separately. The former is provided by the planet itself, the latter we must build/provide. Topping the list of precharged batteries are coal, nat gas, and petroleum. All 3 are just batteries sitting there waiting for us to tap; they came included with the planet. Need more electricity? Just dial up the fire to produce more steam to turn the turbine faster. Need less electricity, just dial down the fire. Easy peasy. Trouble is you people are all afraid of the CO2. Next is traditional hydropower in the form of storage, diversion, and now various instream submersibles as you highlighted. Need more electricity, just dial open the valve for more water flow to turn the turbine faster. In the case of submersibles the turbine/wheel speed is fixed so you just dial up how much you need of the electricity constantly being generated. Traditional hydropower is the only "renewable" with this dial-ability feature, the only one that is a precharged battery. Trouble is you can run out of water. Next is Nuclear Power. Need more electricity? Just lower the rods to make more heat to make more steam to turn the turbine faster. Trouble is the radiation, duh. All these power "sources" are de facto precharged batteries that came with the planet; "batteries included." That's why we use them and that's why they're cheap compared to all other types of power generation, which we label "renewable energy". For "renewables" to be effective we must build a battery for them to charge so that we can then draw the electricity when we need it; infamously stated as "solar power doesn't work at night, nor wind power if the wind won't blow." And when it comes to "Tidal Energy", it doesn't work at slack tide, and when the tide is running the speed varies widely throughout its cycle. It starts slowly from slack tide, builds speed to its max, then tapers off to slack tide again. All you people who want to see "renewables" become viable (and I'm all for that), STOP pouring time, money, resources and effort into better generation (better solar panels etc), it's utterly pointless. Pour everything into a battery technology breakthrough. The person who does this will make Jeff Bezos look like a beggar. Tidal Turbines are a total and complete waste of time until we have a major major breakthrough in battery technology.

A combination of pumped storage using tidal rivers seems like it would be a great option? Remove the need for pumps by using the tide to refil reservoirs. Turbine design seems very basic from the images here. I'm excited to see the progress of hydro in the future. Side note: Nikola Tesla's "One Way Valve" seems like it would be a perfect way of allowing tidal rivers to refil reservoirs with little to no impact on marine life. Would love someone smarter than me to comment on this :) Thanks for the video

Minesto is worth a look. Kite under water now being deployed.

Would love to see this work out, but it is just not there yet, cost to plant operations it will change the cost too much, one day hopefully

The first person I see who talks pros and cons not just all pro or all con

DISCLAIMER:. I work in the hydro industry for an OEM of hydropower equipment Most of the dams in the US were originally intended for flood control. In some areas there is a push to return the water ways to their original condition before dams. This is dangerous due to flood control being removed as a consequence. Hydro power is the most power dense of all alternative/renewable power sources and can be scheduled much better than wind of solar. It is an integral part of balancing our power systems and enables wider adoption of wine and solar which are difficult to schedule and are intermittent and spikey in their output. Hydro definitely has a bigger environmental impact compared to wind and solar, but nowhere near that of legacy carbon based power generation and the impact is very low concerning carbon emissions. Combined with the flood control benefits, hydropower should continue to be a key component of power generation IMHO.

The submerged rotary turbine in Indonesia should have a grid over it to prevent people falling in. An open turbine is a little dangerous.

Distributed/modular energy generation is freedom! That water rotor looks like a very promising product. Hopefully it gets the funding it needs for mass production.

A balanced assessment and good to see intermittency as the key challenge for renewables. With no cheep storage options it critical we recognise the importance of fossil fuels and adopt realistic tradition timeliness rather then net zero fantasy.

Would love to see anyone, ever cover the concept of storing solar heat into rock (as a thermal battery) then using a reverse AC unit (an O.R.C. turns heat into power) to generate dispatchable power. Seriously green and minimal environmental impact.

The under-construction, large hydro dam 'Site C' in the Canadian province of BC has been very controversial. A study done by the provincial government just before they started on the project showed that it would be cheaper to go with solar or wind. But they chose to go ahead with it anyway. Once it's done, it'll destroy a large area of farmland on unceded indigenous land. Now they are finding the land in the vicinity of the dam is not stable, causing delays and large cost over-runs.

I appreciate the collaboration with Terra mater, however it would’ve been nice to have also included some of the major and surprising downsides of Hydro power in this video directly. leaving terra mater to go more in depth. I feel like I didn’t get all the information needed because of this split format. While one of the reasons I love this channel is the well-rounded complete view you strive to provide.

A problem with wind power has recently come up: wear of the blades. As it turns out the fibreglass gets worn out by things like hail and different types of debris carried by the wind, mainly due to the high velocity of the blades. This adds to the maintenance costs of wind power facilities.

I was surprised that they used rotating blades. I thought just a horizontal rod with some flat thin donut that moved back and forth with the tide pressure. Fewer parts. Like a two-way air pump but with electricity. Never stops. 24/7 generation.

Miami / gulf stream . They have a consistant strong current right in front of there door. Ofcause Florida also doesn't use enough sun so im not surprised.

it still surprises me, that small hydro is not being used, there are millions of small streams and rivers, that could generate power and link up to the grid

Hello You should check out the company Minesto's technology deep green. A tidal power plant that can produce up to 1200kw of electricity. In the future, they also want to run the power plant in offshore currents. They have installed their first power plant in the Faroe Islands this week.

We seem to always count the environmental costs of building and disposing of renewable energy plant, but how does it compare to fossil fuel plant costs - not only the building and disposal of the power plant itself, but the mining and transportation of the fuel? I've not seen that explicitly discussed anywhere. EDIT: I realised after posting this that this video is comparing hydro with other renewables, but I'm just leaving it here anyway, as it's something that seems to get glossed over a lot of the time.

1 important topic of debate which is not done is about the capacity factor of these sources

Why did they stop research on the tidal generator? The system consisted of air filled and sealed tubs on arms that spun gears by the waves raising and lowering the tubs.

I think every wind turbine off the coast should also have a hydro turbine at the base

An amazing video. Well researched and explained. Thank you!

I am hoping to install a micro hyropower generator in a stream next to my off grid house in Portugal anything more than 10W will do fine. You say that there is no storage with run of the river. There is a way to get this. If you protect the forest and general landscape that becomes your storage system. It's an environmental win win.

Hi, I'm currently invested in ILI Hydro Energy Storage & Atlantic Orbital Marine Power; both in Scotland. It's a way for micro-investors to put their small amounts of money where their mouths are. I would really like to see far more research projects & small scale commercial projects in the tidal energy arena. It's such a shame that the Welsh government pulled the plug on a large lagoon tidal project; short-sighted in my opinion. It would have benefitted the local environment, been a safe fish spawning area to renew the massively depleted fish stocks & been an excellent alternative to fossil fuel alternatives. I would have been interested in the $$$ per MWH of generation of the different methods of generation of both various renewable & the fossil / conventional powered. with the total build & maintenance costs included. Also to see the progress in cost reductions over the last 10 - 20 years of each & where it might be heading in the next decade. Regards to all, JohnnyK from the UK.

The sheer amount of water the moon moves is astonishing. I feel that where we should be focusing efforts. Testing, development ect. We can send boxes with antennas billions of miles in space but we aren't taking advantage of the natural tides?

While I am not a fan of either solar or wind energy due to the intermittent availability, high cost and limited return on energy, I do believe that hydro energy has great potential. All one has to do is watch the tide come in any pass or inlet to see the tremendous amount of energy involved. The amount of energy flowing in a river is tremendous. If industry can develop ways to harness that power in an environmental and effective manner, it could go a long ways towards providing stable energy sources.

Anybody else remember the Salter Duck? A floating breakwater that turned the destructive energy of waves into electricity. Tried in Scotland, bought by British Nuclear Fuels and never heard of again.

My question is what about the stuff in the water , to further elaborate the wind turbines cost tons of money for upkeep from the particles in the air , I couldn't imagine the blades on these turbines being cheaper as far as upkeep goes for the blades themselves.