3 ms·
It takes generally a few years to fill up the reservoir, not two seasons. No one who relies on power from a dam cares that it doesn't always rain between 9 and
by fleitz 9y ago
It takes generally a few years to fill up the reservoir, not two seasons. No one who relies on power from a dam cares that it doesn't always rain between 9 and 5.
Solar output fluxes on 12 hour timescales, dams flux on 3 year timescales, that's three orders of magnitude in difference.
That said, pumping water into a reservoir is a pretty good way of storing solar energy so that it can stop mattering that it's not sunny at night, it's just that no one does it because mother nature already does it for us.
- DamonHD 9y agoThis is only the case in practice if you have far more (nominal) dam capacity than (yearly) demand. And let's leave out the important distinction between energy and power for this. Let me introduce you to the UK. We would only be in the position you describe if we flooded a lot of Scotland and the Lake District in the north of England. Various people would object. I was born and lived much of my childhood in the north of England and the world might IMHO be a better place for serious strategic flooding there, but that's a political issue out of scope of this article. B^>
- fleitz 9y agoI live in Vancouver we're so dumb that we protest dams so we can keep fossil fuel plants open. It must be nice to live in an area where people would choose hydro if it were available to them. The funny thing is the reservoir for the new dam is so tightly packed it will flow right to the base of the upstream dam. I think we've got 8 dams on that river already we just constantly reuse the same water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generating_stations_in_British_Columbia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generating_stations_in... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-un-panel-august-2017-1.4266109 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-un-pan...
- goodcanadian 9y agoSubstantially all of BC's power already comes from hydroelectric dams. I have serious reservations about the process (or lack thereof) used to approve the site C dam. There are also serious questions about whether BC needs the additional generating capacity. All that said, however, I think I am largely in agreement with you. What seems to be missed in the discussion is that substantially all of Alberta's electricity comes from coal power plants. It is rapidly changing to natural gas which is somewhat better I suppose, but still far from ideal from a global warming point of view. Alberta should be transitioning to hydro power generated in BC which would definitely supply the necessary demand to support site C. However, so far there is no such commitment . . . it doesn't seem to even get serious discussion.
- fleitz 9y agoSite C is going to be necessary as we transition to electric cars, unless we want to burn the fossil fuel centrally instead of distributed. We won't need it until it's painfully obvious we need it, and be we I mean all the places BC supplies electricity to (California). BC has plenty of generating capacity to meet only BC's demands.