4 ms·

got get it up there ... places like Cali dont have a lot of rain that places itself up there and runoff is running out.

rtkwe 4y ago
That's the point you can pump the water higher using excess renewable energy (in the event we get past 100% peak renewable power) to be used later when there's a deficiency. It's a fairly efficient method of time-shifting renewables without having to mine huge piles of lithium.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  Pumped hydro if geography permits is very good storage method. Efficiency is not horrible, it is simple to ramp up and down. Technology is extremely mature. It scales pretty well. And as final bonus in some cases it can contribute to grid stability.
  - rtkwe 4y ago
    Yeah the biggest downside is the ecological impact of the flooding involved in creating a new hydro source. They could maybe look at retrofitting it onto an existing hydroelectric dam so it's not flooding a new area.
    - ncmncm 4y ago
      A hydro power reservoir doesn't need a watershed, so can have overwhelmingly less ecological impact.
      - rtkwe 4y ago
        It still needs volume to flood to hold the water though and unless we're building up artificially the cheap way to do that is to build fairly wide. All that area is habitat and covering it has an impact. In the end it's probably well worth it so long as we're not destroying rare habitats to do it but it is still destruction that has to be considered and weighed.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  Pumping desalinated water up to Sierra Nevada reservoirs would take a hell of a lot of pipe. We use canals and rely on gravity to move water, today.
hardwaresofton 4y ago
I'm going to assume you mean "up there" as in northern cali -- if we could get some clean hydrogen/electric transport trucking it shouldn't be impossible to move it around either!
ncmncm 4y ago
I wonder whether the most efficient way to get water to the Sierra Nevada reservoirs would be to pump ocean water onto the desert, and let evaporation take it from there. Siphoning from the ocean into Death Valley, you wouldn't even need to pump it.

That's the point you can pump the water higher using excess renewable energy (in the event we get past 100% peak renewable power) to be used later when there's a deficiency. It's a fairly efficient method of time-shifting renewables without having to mine huge piles of lithium.

Ekaros 4y ago
Pumped hydro if geography permits is very good storage method. Efficiency is not horrible, it is simple to ramp up and down. Technology is extremely mature. It scales pretty well. And as final bonus in some cases it can contribute to grid stability.
- rtkwe 4y ago
  Yeah the biggest downside is the ecological impact of the flooding involved in creating a new hydro source. They could maybe look at retrofitting it onto an existing hydroelectric dam so it's not flooding a new area.
  - ncmncm 4y ago
    A hydro power reservoir doesn't need a watershed, so can have overwhelmingly less ecological impact.
    - rtkwe 4y ago
      It still needs volume to flood to hold the water though and unless we're building up artificially the cheap way to do that is to build fairly wide. All that area is habitat and covering it has an impact. In the end it's probably well worth it so long as we're not destroying rare habitats to do it but it is still destruction that has to be considered and weighed.
ncmncm 4y ago
Pumping desalinated water up to Sierra Nevada reservoirs would take a hell of a lot of pipe. We use canals and rely on gravity to move water, today.

hardwaresofton 4y ago

I'm going to assume you mean "up there" as in northern cali -- if we could get some clean hydrogen/electric transport trucking it shouldn't be impossible to move it around either!

ncmncm 4y ago

I wonder whether the most efficient way to get water to the Sierra Nevada reservoirs would be to pump ocean water onto the desert, and let evaporation take it from there. Siphoning from the ocean into Death Valley, you wouldn't even need to pump it.