eli5: the UK is an island but we tend to talk about solar and wind power, how come we don’t seem to push for hydro power?
In: 5
Because wave/tidal power is in its early infancy and barely usable, just some early unreliable prototypes. Years away from anything that could be considered widely deployable.
Classic hydro requires deep valleys and a significant flow volume. UK has some hydro in Wales and Scotland, but most of it is too flat, doesn’t have suitable river volumes in the valleys that do exist, they’re occupied or a combination.
What the UK has a lot of is the extremely windy but quite shallow North Sea coastline, perfect for large, efficient wind farms.
Latest Answers