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The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

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Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#11

Post by xyzzyz »

dukoid wrote: post #4

With rising sea levels perhaps it might be an option to keep the levels in the mediterranen? Seems at least more feasible than the Norther European Enclosure Dam* *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_European_Enclosure_Da...

The rise in sea levels is extremely slow at human lifetime scale. We are looking at less than 1 meter (just over 3 feet) by year 2100 in the worst case scenario analyses by IPCC. This is not nearly enough to make Gibraltar power plant practical, as it is on the order of magnitude of existing difference between high and low tide.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#13

Post by dvh »

faebi wrote: post #12
dvh wrote: post #3

Smaller scale project - Czech dam (the red lines are dams): https://www.abclinuxu.cz/images/screenshots/7/3/242837-ceska...

Wouldn‘t that take forever to fill up?

Approximately 100 years. Then it would produce 2 PWh of power (300x average nuclear power plant). Volume 160x Three Gorges Dam. More here: https://prehrada.hrach.eu/en.html

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#14

Post by meroes »

Something like this kind of drew me into geology. The inside jacket of my intro textbook explained the Mediterranean used to be damned naturally at Gibraltar or whatever the inlet is called and that so much salt water evaporated there where miles deep salt land features. Was instantly hooked

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#15

Post by AlbertCory »

Someone with more engineering sense than I can debunk this:

The Baltic is dramatically less saline than the Atlantic. That's why the Vasa [1] was so well-preserved after 300 years at the bottom.

So could we not take advantage of that salinity difference, somehow?

[1] https://www.vasamuseet.se/en

Edit: Every engineering student sees the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing. To me, the Vasa is a much better career lesson: Marketing dictating a stupid Engineering decision.

"Hey, let's put another gun deck on that thing! It'll be so much more imposing."

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#17

Post by mongol »

AlbertCory wrote: post #15

Someone with more engineering sense than I can debunk this: The Baltic is dramatically less saline than the Atlantic. That's why the Vasa [1] was so well-preserved after 300 years at the bottom. So could we not take advantage of that salinity difference, somehow? [1] https://www.vasamuseet.se/en Edit: Every engineering student sees the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing. To me, the Vasa is a much better ca…

It is not the salinity as such that protected Vasa, but the absence of the ship worm, which does not like the Baltic brack water.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#18

Post by bandibus »

nickdothutton wrote: post #16

I get a feeling that the author may have a teeny-weeny ideological axe to grind. A large underwater turbine with totally predictable generation cycle might indeed be a useful thing for Europe and north Africa.

Hah. Not at all! If it sounds like that, I've misrepresented myself - I agree with you here, and the Strait is the perfect place to do it, using something like this: https://www.orkney.com/news/orbital-grid

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#20

Post by throwaway49374 »

100k wrote: post #10

Not mentioned in this article: In Philip K. Dick's alternative history The Man in the High Castle, in which the Nazis and Imperial Japan won World War II, the Nazis execute this plan and drain the Mediterranean. As the author mentions, there wasn't much care for what happened to the people living in Africa. In Dick's book, the Nazis visited some unspeakable holocaust on them.

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