Posted on 07/25/2018 9:59:20 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
Accurate. This is a foolish pipe dream
A similiar plan for the Hudson/storm king mountain was shot down in 70’s. It kills too many fishes.
They probably could build a couple nuclear power plants for less money that would produce electricity 24 hours a day.
Nothing wrong with the storage concept - I wonder how efficient/cost-effective it is.
Just give the water back to Mexico. We stole it from them.
“an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space”
I tried storing electricity once in a huge bowl or water. Didn’t work and the next four years of skin grafts and PT soured me on the whole idea.
They can have any water that originates in Mexico.....I hear it ain’t safe to drink if your system isn’t already swimming with its own bacteria....
This absurdity immediately identifies this screed as another example of news that is crap...
I think it sounds fairly inefficient. Not entirely worthless, but it has the feel of a desperation measure to make use of wind/solar.
As daytime is peak hour, and solar does not work at night, how about they just use their solar during the day and reduce water usage. That way you dont loose 10% pumping it.
At first blush it is dam dumb. The cost of the renewables is expensive. Pumping the water creates more inefficiency. Thus making it even more expensive.
Couple that with the amount of carbon generated in their manufacturing process and the toxic materials that they are made of.
I am supplied by Pacificorp, which used to be Pacific Power. Their alternate powers sources which include wind and solar account for less than 1% of the power generated that Pacific uses to supply its customers.
And I’d bet $10, that they have spent hundreds of millions of US Taxpayers’ monies to build and deploy all those windmills and solar panels.
The issue is that you can pump water into the reservoir on a cool, sunny day in the spring or fall when most ACs and heaters are off and that water runs through the hydro plant in the middle of July on a 110 degree day when every AC in the area is on MAX.
I agree that you should use Solar on hot days to supplement the hydro, but there are days when the solar will produce more electricity than demand. A certain amount of water must flow through the dam to maintain flow anyway, so if that meets the electricity needs, the solar is essentially free once capital costs are met. Rather than dumping that excessive power into the ground, it pumps water back behind the dam.
It is a very effective method of smoothing supply since Solar and wind are not consistent.
Such an idea is old - we’ve had it in Bath County, VA for years.
Major issue IGNORED in this article is that there is not enough water downstream of the dam for all who want to use it - so where are they going to get the water to pump into the lake?
Did I miss it?
No you did not, you were spot on...
Take the water, cycle it through the turbines, capture it in pipes and using wind or solar pump it back behind the dam...
Rinse and repeat, and the river runs at a trickle if at all
“Yet every time I research the costs for parts and installation vs. energy saved (using their optimum numbers) it’ll take about 15 years to recoup the cost, whether it’s just one panel or 20 panels.”
I am with you on the home/solar panel prospect. 15 years is the BEST possible scenario. However, there is NO guarantee the local utility will not change the price they buy back the KHW from you. I saw something on TV about 6 months ago where the utility in Nevada decided to do just that. All the folks who had solar panels on their houses were all pissed off because their MATH didn’t work anymore.
My daughter and son in law got sold on putting a solar array on their property here in NH. His calculation was 15 years to pay off including the Federal and NH tax credits. I asked him what IF the electric company changes the price they are buying your electric back? He stated they could not do that. I said sure they can. They just need to get THEIR politicians to push the bill through the state house and the governor to sign it.
Plus the fact that there are only 2 areas in California that have a consistent enough wind flow to provide the power needed to drive the pumps to move all of the water, so it would in actuality remove available power for homes to use merely to pump the water back behind the dam to allow it to recyle and flow back through again.
And if I may to other in areas beyond California, the water source for most of the rivers is snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada range bordering California and Nevada. So that water due to lower snowfall rates has dropped significantly and even some of the marinas on the lakes have closed as the water level is too low to allow for boat launches and use. Then you have the downstream use of the water for agriculture as well as sharing with states co located on the whole waterway who draw from the same combined source per contracts stipulating how much they can remove annually. If you were to create a “closed loop” model of 100% re-use then all downstream are deprived of this resource, let alone the destruction of the river flow and impacts to the environment. The necessary solar arrays that would be needed bogggle the mind, and when the sun don’t glow the power don’t flow. Combine the 2 “power sources” and it would be better to dump the wind turbine idea (insufficient wind flow to drive them) and just use the power from the dam to run the pumps at a higher rate of power generation. But obviously from all the mathematical models that will not work, or if it would it will not be a big enough boondoggle to make the money flow for another train to nowhere project they can skim from and then run off with their ill gotten gains.
I say not only No, but Hell No!
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