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Hydro Power: Possibilities & Problems

Started by RE, Apr 05, 2024, 01:15 AM

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RE

The oldest major form of renewable electricity proction is Hydroelectricity.  The Hoover Dam, Niagara Falls and the Tenesee Valley Authority all still stand today with massive Dams producing gigawatts of carbon free electric power year in and year out.  Even so, they have environmental costs and are dependent of the climate to keep providing sufficient rainfall to fill the reservoirs behind the dams.

Lake Mead water level was dropping steadily for a decade, coming just a few feet short of reaching dead pool level, where the water would be too low to generate any power at all.  Just recently in the last couple of years, atmospheric rivers hitting the west coast have dropped record rainfalls, somewhat replenishing the dangerously low water supply.

Most of the really good sites where dams can be built to create reservoirs with enough volume and altitude drop  to run big turbines have already had hydro plants built.  The one place in the FSoA that hasn't happened yet is Alaska, and the fight is now on to build a big dam on the Susitna river.  Supplies of natural gas for heat and electricity are running out in Prince William Sound, and piping NG down from the North Slope would require a whole new pipeline to be built.  Besides, that still burns carbon.

Nevertheless, most of the opposition to the dam comes from environmentalists and native residents who still live by subsistence fishing of the salmon that spawn each year in the lakes that feed the river systems we have.  Tourism companies dependent on  hunting and fishing also mostly oppose it.

For myself, I have mixed feelings about it.  We clearly need some new source of electricity if we are to continue living the industrial lifestyle up here.  Of the 3 alternatives, building a nuke plant, bringing NG down from the slope or building a dam, Door #3 seems the best.  But can it really be done without completely crashing our salmon runs, which are already in danger?  How much time will it buy us?

The author of this article thinks it can be.  Whether they can findthe money to finance it and build it is another question.

https://www.adn.com/opinions/2024/04/04/opinion-reimagining-the-susitna-watana-hydropower-project/

OPINION: Reimagining the Susitna-Watana hydropower project

RE

RE

The Niagarra is Amerka's best known river?  I thought it was the Mississippi?  Minor quibble.

On the plausible, positive front, the development of hydro power systems from rivers that are slower moving and/or do not have suitable geography with a rapid drop in altitude and place to build a dam does provide an as of yet undeveloped source of renewable energy.  There are many more locations that could be tapped for energy harvesting using this method.

On the negative side, no really big project has yet been built to demonstrate it's power and cost-effectiveness.  Its also bound to have some as yet unknown ecological blowback.  For instance if it was used in the Yukon or Susitna rivers up here, what would happen to all the salmon trying to swim upstream to spawn?  I'm sure the intakes  and exhaust pipes are protected by screens so the fish can't actually swim into the turbines, but it would change the river flow which might confuse the fish.

Minor annoyance, the writer calls this an "electric battery" which obviously it's not.  Batteries store electricity, they don't produce it.  It's appalling how scientifically ignorant so many of the writers and editors are doing this propaganda.

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/energy-niagara-river-america/2376/

America´s best-known river surprises scientists: has the most sought-after energy at the bottom

RE

RE

Dams & Hydroelectric power are always considered an important part of reducing our dependence on FFs.  As this article demonstrates though, they have their own set of problems which are just about as bad.

There's no Free Lunch.  Every technology going right back to the control over Fire by Homo Sap has negative blowback, and the more complex the tech, the worse the blowback.

https://slate.com/business/2024/08/construction-traffic-cars-driving-transportation-highway.html

RE