Does electric power harm the environment in any way?

Answer 1

Yes. But it depends what you mean by electric power and what kind of harm we are talking.

The immediate impact of electric power are the environmental consequences of generation and transmission. And those are huge. Global warming, FF mining, sulfur and mercury emissions from power plants, wide scale destruction by hydro-power plants (think Three Gorges Dam), transmission lines and pylons...

Then there is a much smaller impact from electromagnetic fields. Studies about AC fields around power lines are inconclusive but there could be potential long term effects.
Effects from radar towers, AM and FM transmitter stations, on the other hand are quite well understood.

I would mostly worry about GW for now.

Answer 2

The act of producing the power usually has some effect, as most power is produced using fossil fuels - which have a carbon footprint, and for coal, also produce other pollutants such as mercury and sulfer dioxide which have to be reduced. Those have a detrimental effect on the environment in large quantities.
Transmission lines have an effect on the environment, as we have to cut down trees along the route, so there are broad strips of forest that is removed where lines route through forests. Is that harmful? It might be, or might not.
There was a concern that the electromagnetic fields from power lines adversely affected people and animals, but there has been a lot of study that suggests that is not the case.
To build the infrastructure to support the grid, we mine iron and copper, and other materials to build the plants and the transmission systems - that again has an effect on the environment - not necessarily 'harmful' but 'perturbated' from what would be otherwise.
Without electric power, much of our daily existance probably would be more detrimental to the environment - we would burn more forest to keep warm in the winter - if we used coal, it would be much less efficient than making electricity with it, and would not have the pollution controls we have on coal plants - creating much more pollution... to sustain the current standard of living, electric power probably has the lowest impact of a range of alternatives, but it does have an impact.

Answer 3

Generating electric power is usually polluting, especially with coal burning. This is the main cause of acid rain. Also high voltage power lines near farms can chop up pesticides being sprayed into charged and highly active and damaging molecules that stick to your lungs.

Answer 4

properly... i might say on a grand scale you're somewhat caught. it isn't the perfect potential source. the skill output from image voltaic stations has been extremely disappointing. And there are constrained places the place that is helpful to place a image voltaic station first of all. On good of that, there is not any large contingency plan for days of prolonged low production (loads of cloudy/dim days). we gained't shop potential that splendidly, so distinctly sunny days won't probable help you "top off". image voltaic stations merely are not extremely worth it. there's a pair nasty chemical components in contact and that they are quite high priced. i do no longer see many greater stations going up except our technologies improves. besides the incontrovertible fact that, your ace-in-the-hollow is that image voltaic is between the only techniques of "sparkling" skill production which would be used on a guy or woman foundation. If each and every homestead and company have been to place in image voltaic panels, that would decrease our worldwide's electrical energy requirement through on the brink of a 0.33. And that's no longer a decision interior the palms of skill agencies; that's something a guy or woman can do on their very very own. anybody. image voltaic is extremely efficient in that regard. ignore the image voltaic stations, and use it to in my view ease the load placed on different plant life. And, hi, it's going to decrease the electrical energy bill too.

Answer 5

It depends on the source of the electricity (Solar, Wind, Coal, Nuclear) and what it is converted into. A laptop computer for example would convert electricity into heat, light, kinetic, sound (and if the battery needed charging electric energy in chemical form) energy. Heat from computers might, just might contribute to global warming (mine warms my room to a comfortable temp of 26 Degrees Celcius during winter). But it all comes down to your source. Coal fumes are greenhouse gases and solar is using available energy and converting it to what you need it for.

Answer 6

By itself, no. But the way it's -generated- can do a lot of damage if we aren't careful.

Doug

Answer 7

perhaps, something to do with negative ions...not sure