the single largest consumer of power in california is the DWR's pumping plants. don't underestimate the energy costs of pumping a state's worth of water up sev

the single largest consumer of power in california is the DWR's pumping plants. don't underestimate the energy costs of pumping a state's worth of water up several hundred meters. which really puts into perspective how insane desalination, with it's order of magnitude higher energy costs is. why spend all that energy when we could simply build more infrastructure to capture more peak runoff from the sierras