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Once again, making me proud to pay CA taxes. If they do not take large hydro into account when calculating this 100%, I wonder what we'll do with the dams. Des
by Tuxer 8y ago
Once again, making me proud to pay CA taxes.
If they do not take large hydro into account when calculating this 100%, I wonder what we'll do with the dams. Destroy them to let the rivers free-flow again? Dams would have been a great store of energy for this project by pumping the water up during the day using solar/wind.
Tesla Energy must be salivating at all those batteries that will need to be constructed.
- guelo 8y agoI think you misread. Hydro will be allowed under this bill.
- Tuxer 8y agooh I must have, I read this sentence "The state currently gets about 44 percent of its power from renewables and hydropower." as continuing with the current thought that hydro wasn't 100% clean. Pump it up then.
- twright 8y agoWill hydro be viable if the rainfall gets worse? Lake Mead is about 40% capacity, I can't imagine other dams are doing much better.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoThere is a proposal to convert the Hoover Damn and Lake Mead into pumped storage. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/los-angeles-considers-3b-pumped-storage-project-at-hoover-dam/528699/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/los-angeles-considers-3b-pu... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/24/business/energy-environment/hoover-dam-renewable-energy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/24/business/ener...
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoI thought they were already used as pumped storage? I know the grand coullee has the ability to pump water up into its reaovoir, at least they talked about this in a high school class I took 25 years ago.
- ocschwar 8y agoTHey can build transmission lines into WA and OR and get hydrop from there.
- craftyguy 8y agoAssuming those states want to sell power to CA. I suppose they would if CA is willing to pay for it.
- oasisbob 8y agoA ton of pacific northwest hydropower is already flowing into California through the BPA's intertie system: https://www.bpa.gov/news/pubs/FactSheets/fs-20170726-BPA-sets-wholesale-rates-for-fiscal-years-2018-2019.pdf https://www.bpa.gov/news/pubs/FactSheets/fs-20170726-BPA-set...
- pastor_elm 8y agoMeanwhile, NYC's plan is a measly 80% reduction in carbon emissions in city run operations alone by 2050. We'll be going backwards once Indian Point is decommissioned.
- blang 8y agoThough to be fair the state of new york has lower per capita carbon emission than California, though I think that mostly has to do with the density of new york city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_...
- oftenwrong 8y agoTo be really fair, policy choices influence population density, and vice versa. California is fairly sprawling and favours sprawl over dense settlement.
- laurentMiguel 8y agoAre metal/chemical batteries “clean” though? In the atmospheric climate context, possibly. But if we optimize only for that, is there not a potentially serious trade off in the likelihood of irresponsible disposal?
- icebraining 8y agoYou can greatly reduce the danger of improper disposal by implementing a https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit-refund_system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit-refund_system
- laurentMiguel 8y agoThat is an honor system. Hope. Promises, promises.
- icebraining 8y agoHonor? No, it's based on cold, hard cash; you charge upfront a fee (as if the person had dumped it illegally), then refund that fee if they properly dispose of it.
- gregable 8y agoUnfortunately, dams really don't represent that big of an energy store in practice.
- snowwindwaves 8y agoIf you ever see the level in the reservoir behind the dam go up then energy is being stored. If the level goes down then stored energy is being released. The level of your favourite reservoir over time is probably available on line. Is there a massive annual pattern of high levels in spring and lowering level in fall and winter?
- moneytide 8y agoMaybe not as many batteries as we think. Local generation (Photovoltaics or turbines) set up nearby the channel where water will move uphill could run the pumps directly, without much voltage drop because of close proximity. On cloudless days it "charges" the reservoir. Batteries still necessary to smooth things out, but not to run pumps 24\7
- village-idiot 8y agoAs a fly fisherman, I sure hope we can eliminate some of those dams. They can be useful, but we've also overdone it a bit.
- aphextron 8y ago>As a fly fisherman, I sure hope we can eliminate some of those dams. They're not all bad. Some of the best gold medal sections in the country are tailwaters. It's some of the most challenging, technical fishing you'll ever do as well. Landing a 10lb trout on size 24-28 nymphs and 8X tippet is an art itself.
- village-idiot 8y agoI agree, they're not all bad. It's the salmon run ones that bother me the most.