3 ms·

What about hydroelectric? Is it not possible to ramp up and down there?

• dragontamer 6y ago
  Hydroelectric is great, but only when the geography + local water usage agrees with the construction project. For places like California which is facing a shortage of Water, Hydroelectric is a weaker option. Ex: if you run a dam in reverse for Pumped Storage, that implies sucking up the precious water from the lower-reservoir back up to the upper side. Realistically speaking, the near term future is Solar + Gas peakers. We should build out as much Hydro-electric as possible, but most good river sites are already built out. (IE: Rivers which have a large change in elevation to make a Dam project actually worthwhile).
  • legutierr 6y ago
    I read somewhere recently that if existing dams in West Virginia were retrofitted with hydroelectric capabilities, they could yield something close to the power requirements of New York City. Maybe hydroelectric isn't an option for California, but in the east, there might be much more of an opportunity.
    • dragontamer 6y ago
      Ish. The east already has the Bath County Pumped Hydro station (aka: "the largest battery in the world") Its not like the East needs more hydro / energy storage. They've already got GW-hrs of energy storage. That's the "problem" about geography-based solutions: the places where Hydro already makes sense are already built up 50 years ago. Not that that makes Hydro a "bad idea" or anything. If anything, it proves how Hydro has been tested for decades and is effective. It does mean that the East can build up more Solar Panels, since there's plenty of energy storage available.