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Why the scare quotes around reliable? Hydroelectric generation is reliable. So reliable that New York State generates approximately 70% of its electricity from

Why the scare quotes around reliable? Hydroelectric generation is reliable. So reliable that New York State generates approximately 70% of its electricity from hydro. Fashionably, the state government is planning to replace every hydro plant with wind or solar over the next 20 years.

alex_duf 4y ago
I'm assuming in this context OP made a reference to how solar + wind + battery is often seen as unreliable (intermittent). So by opposition hydro would be reliable. but describing renewables like wind and solar is missing the whole picture. Now I might be completely off track and putting words in the mouth of OP without any proof. Just a hunch.
onion2k 4y ago
Hydroelectric generation is reliable. Even when the dam is 70 years old?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- twiddling 4y ago
  Silt Happens
greendave 4y ago
Hydro _can_ be reliable. But out in the drought-prone west it has not been especially so. California generated 33GWh from large hydro in 2019 (14.6% of total production) vs. 15Gwh (7.5%) of total production in 2021. 2022 will likely be worse.
- elihu 4y ago
  Hoover dam kind of gets hit twice; not only is there less water moving through the system, but they've let the water levels drop to the point where the energy they could get by running, say, three gallons of water through the system now requires them to use four gallons because the altitude difference is less. (I don't know what the exact numbers are.)
richiebful1 4y ago
It looks like NYS produces most of its electricity from natural gas. https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 Washington State is the only one I can think of that produces that much hydro energy: https://www.eia.gov/state/index.php?sid=WA#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/index.php?sid=WA#tabs-4
- elihu 4y ago
  I suspect you're right, but maybe it's seasonal? The bar graph is from August, which one would expect to be low.
rowls66 4y ago
Not sure if NYS generates 70% of its electricity from hydro, but is possible that 70% of the electricity that NYS consumes comes from hydro. I believe that NYS imports a lot of electricity from Canada where it is generated from hydro.
Loic 4y ago
I put the quotes there because at least in Europe, during peak summer time and now during the winter, we cannot reliably use the dams because of the lack of water. The dams are not anymore as "reliable" as they used to be, not because of the construction, but because of the global evolution of the environment.
qball 4y ago
>So reliable that New York State generates approximately 70% of its electricity from hydro. Which, it's worth noting, is also the proportion Canada's national electricity production happens to be. And of that remaining fraction, half is nuclear. Canada has very favorable geography for hydroelectric generation to the point where they're synonyms (people will sometimes call it "the hydro" here). Having vast quantities of unproductive land on what's functionally bedrock is still sometimes useful.

alex_duf 4y ago

I'm assuming in this context OP made a reference to how solar + wind + battery is often seen as unreliable (intermittent). So by opposition hydro would be reliable. but describing renewables like wind and solar is missing the whole picture. Now I might be completely off track and putting words in the mouth of OP without any proof. Just a hunch.

onion2k 4y ago

Hydroelectric generation is reliable. Even when the dam is 70 years old?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
twiddling 4y ago
Silt Happens

greendave 4y ago

Hydro _can_ be reliable. But out in the drought-prone west it has not been especially so. California generated 33GWh from large hydro in 2019 (14.6% of total production) vs. 15Gwh (7.5%) of total production in 2021. 2022 will likely be worse.

elihu 4y ago
Hoover dam kind of gets hit twice; not only is there less water moving through the system, but they've let the water levels drop to the point where the energy they could get by running, say, three gallons of water through the system now requires them to use four gallons because the altitude difference is less. (I don't know what the exact numbers are.)

richiebful1 4y ago

It looks like NYS produces most of its electricity from natural gas. https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 Washington State is the only one I can think of that produces that much hydro energy: https://www.eia.gov/state/index.php?sid=WA#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/index.php?sid=WA#tabs-4

elihu 4y ago
I suspect you're right, but maybe it's seasonal? The bar graph is from August, which one would expect to be low.

rowls66 4y ago

Not sure if NYS generates 70% of its electricity from hydro, but is possible that 70% of the electricity that NYS consumes comes from hydro. I believe that NYS imports a lot of electricity from Canada where it is generated from hydro.

Loic 4y ago

I put the quotes there because at least in Europe, during peak summer time and now during the winter, we cannot reliably use the dams because of the lack of water. The dams are not anymore as "reliable" as they used to be, not because of the construction, but because of the global evolution of the environment.

qball 4y ago

>So reliable that New York State generates approximately 70% of its electricity from hydro. Which, it's worth noting, is also the proportion Canada's national electricity production happens to be. And of that remaining fraction, half is nuclear. Canada has very favorable geography for hydroelectric generation to the point where they're synonyms (people will sometimes call it "the hydro" here). Having vast quantities of unproductive land on what's functionally bedrock is still sometimes useful.