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How do hydroelectric plants unnaturally cool water going through them?
by dathanb82 6y ago
How do hydroelectric plants unnaturally cool water going through them?
- isbjorn16 6y agoMy reasoning would be that hydroelectric plants dam up the water and the water at the lower levels of the reservoir is that which spins the turbines (and is released). I would imagine the "original" depth of the water being discharged has a non-trivial impact on downstream river temperatures - though I lack any and all qualifications necessary to say this with any degree of certainty.
- dathanb82 6y agoHuh. I couldn’t find anything about it one way or the other.
- isbjorn16 6y agoAnecdotally, I know the water outflow from Lake Raystown in Pennsylvania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raystown_Lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raystown_Lake) is SIGNIFICANTLY colder than the lake surface is. I spent a week in the summer there one year and we spent a lot of time boating/swimming in the lake as well as tubing down the river and the days we spent tubing were much warmer air temperature but much colder water temperature. Edit: I also couldn't find any hard numbers!