211–220 of 397 posts
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Yup my opinion only. To me water is life and if you let it flow to the ocean where it’s only use is to dilute saltwater you’ve wasted a precious natural resource.
Dams does not save any water except the initial filling. Their inflow and outflow match over a seasonal cycle.
Obviously hydroelectricity is massively damaging to ecosystems. My day job includes designing hydroelectric control systems and even I can admit that. That's a big part of the reason that hydro is a non-starter in much of the western world, which is probably a reasonably good thing (although there are certainly some exceptions where hydro development seems like a no-brainer to me but I digress) What's not so clear to…
I think the main reason is that not everybody has the geography conducive for pumped Hydro. Here in Kansas we have a ton of wind energy production and we’re lucky enough to have a nuclear reactor as well. It’d really be nice to store that, but we have no mountains. We have a rolling plain in the middle of the state but even the highest/lowest delta is like 200-300 ft (I made that number up).
Obviously hydroelectricity is massively damaging to ecosystems. My day job includes designing hydroelectric control systems and even I can admit that. That's a big part of the reason that hydro is a non-starter in much of the western world, which is probably a reasonably good thing (although there are certainly some exceptions where hydro development seems like a no-brainer to me but I digress) What's not so clear to…
> hydroelectricity is massively damaging to ecosystems Sure, but compare it with the alternatives. Oil and gas are obviously very destructive of ecosystems. But so are lots of renewables. Here's what a silicon mine looks like (used to make solar panels): https://www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/anglogold-... Here's a lithium mine (used to make batteries): https://assets.telecomtv.com/assets/telecomtv/open-ca…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup my opinion only. To me water is life and if you let it flow to the ocean where it’s only use is to dilute saltwater you’ve wasted a precious natural resource.
Dams does not save any water except the initial filling. Their inflow and outflow match over a seasonal cycle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this supported by the report though? We have yet to build most of the solar we need, and IIUC almost half of new solar is now being built with storage: > At the close of 2021, there were more than 670 GW of solar plants in the nation’s queues; 285 GW (~42%) of this capacity was proposed as a hybrid, most typically pairing PV with battery storage (PV+storage represented nearly 90% of all hybrid capacity in the queu…
"almost half of new solar is now being built with storage:" I very strongly doubt this, storage is very expensive.
> Data on plants under development from the interconnection queues of all seven ISOs/RTOs plus 35 individual utilities suggest that these hybridization trends are likely to continue. At the close of 2021, there were more than 670 GW of solar plants in the nation’s queues; 285 GW (~42%) of this capacity was proposed as a hybrid,
Perhaps I'm mis-interpreting this (not my field), and it's plausible I suppose that these projects won't get approved uniformly. I'd be happy to get more clarity on this if the report is actually saying something different. (I acknowledge my original phrasing could have been better, the way I wrote it suggests "solar that has just been built" vs. "solar that is currently planned to be built". But I don't think that's the source of your surprise, it's surprising because batteries are supposed to be uneconomical any time soon.)
Anyway, if I'm interpreting this correctly it seems like quite big news; I certainly shared your priors/skepticism on battery storage prior to stumbling across this report.
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Dams does not save any water except the initial filling. Their inflow and outflow match over a seasonal cycle.
Also, they tend to cost water instead: the larger surface area increases the amount "lost" to evaporation.
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> hydroelectricity is massively damaging to ecosystems Sure, but compare it with the alternatives. Oil and gas are obviously very destructive of ecosystems. But so are lots of renewables. Here's what a silicon mine looks like (used to make solar panels): https://www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/anglogold-... Here's a lithium mine (used to make batteries): https://assets.telecomtv.com/assets/telecomtv/open-ca…
Your second picture is a coal mine. Most lithium is produced via evaporative pools. Same process as salt.
Obviously hydroelectricity is massively damaging to ecosystems. My day job includes designing hydroelectric control systems and even I can admit that. That's a big part of the reason that hydro is a non-starter in much of the western world, which is probably a reasonably good thing (although there are certainly some exceptions where hydro development seems like a no-brainer to me but I digress) What's not so clear to…
We certainly can use solar, wind & batteries to eliminate fossil fuels from our electricity system. Estimates are that we'd need about 300TWh of batteries, which is on the edge of feasible. Pumped storage would be a lot cheaper, though.
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Because you're not disrupting a river's flow and natural ecosystem, you only utilize the watershed some more during the initial filling period. After that, it's a closed system separate from the river ecosystem where only evaporation causes leakage.
That ship has already sailed as most power producing dams have been around for long time. Removing them would destroy the (now natural) ecosystem they have created. Plus dams have way more benefits to us than the extremely clean energy they produce - not just store.
Just think of this way, dams have a life span and for the most part, most of them in US have hit the end of their life spans and should be removed. They serve no purpose to anyone.
"Green", if you exclude absolute sacrifice of an entire downstream ecosystem.
There's not going to be a perfect solution. Probably not even a good one. Pumped storage (and hydro power in general) seems a pretty great option, compared to building ridiculously vast banks of batteries that need replacing every decade or two.