What is the BEST source of Alternative Energy? ?

Q: (with the LEAST disadvantages...) Example- Biomass Nuclear Solar Wind etc

A: Has nuclear become an alternative energy? Or natural gas? Or coal? OK, the alternative energy source with minimal disadvantages might be hydro where hydro is generated with no need for a dam. We have some major examples along the St Marys river, Niagara, and Hamilton Falls. When Hydro depends on storing a lot of water behind a big dam, there are a lot of negatives. But we can have a lot of water stored behind a tiny dam which will be intermediate. For instance if we put a dam across between Buffalo New York and Fort Erie Ontario, even a dam that raises Lake Erie by a foot would store enough water to make Niagara power usable as a peak power source rather than as base load, so much more valuable. But we do not have any very large projects to develop of the best kind. We have used them up. So, Quebec, Manitoba, and British Columbia are busily constructing high dams as one of our best of the worse options. Alberta does not have much opportunity to build big dams but has built wind farms, as is Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia. The big disadvantage with wind power is that it provides zero base load capacity and can not ramp up to supply extra demand when it is called for. It does not therefore fit in well with a nuclear power supply that does provide base load and needs extra capacity on demand. We have to use dam-based hydro to get that. Wind power can be used to pump water from below a dam to above the dam, so that wind power can in effect be stored for use within the dam based power source. We also have a lot of NIMBY problem with new wind deployments. Solar power is often too costly but at least it kicks in extra power in roughly the time period that utilities most need it each day, and most during summer when wind is often missing (here in Ontario). Solar can be sourced all over the grid so that we do not need so much main grid distribution. When added to a home, solar panels can provide all the heat the home needs as an unwanted byproduct from the electrical capture. But, solar panels suffer from heavy cloud cover and distance North in winter. Solar (not electric) for space heating can be very economical. My house is a passive solar design, with a wood stove that burns about 1 cord of garbage wood from the lot (limbs) and has as its main problem that we have to ventilate in mid winter if we have had 3 successive sunny days. My answer is that one uses whatever energy source is most readily available and that fits in with other systems available.

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