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It's not even a big loss in clean energy. Oregon solar has been on a roll, their total solar capacity graph[1] shows a very hockey stick-shaped line for the pas

It's not even a big loss in clean energy. Oregon solar has been on a roll, their total solar capacity graph[1] shows a very hockey stick-shaped line for the past few years with no sign of letting up. I would wager the state will add more solar generation capacity than it lost from this dam in a matter of months if the trend (the graph ends in 2021) has held up. The eastern half the state is high desert and has plenty of sun. [1] https://www.oregon.gov/energy/energy-oregon/Pages/Oregon-Solar-Dashboard.aspx https://www.oregon.gov/energy/energy-oregon/Pages/Oregon-Sol...

LargeTomato 3y ago
Just for my own reference, is transferring power from Eastern Oregon to Western Oregon a reasonably efficient thing to do? How much power is lost when we move it across an area the size of Oregon?
- mjevans 3y ago
  Less of a loss than selling energy from Texas to California. Edit: Much more information generally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Losses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Lo... "For example, a 100 mi (160 km) span at 765 kV carrying 1000 MW of power can have losses of 0.5% to 1.1%. A 345 kV line carrying the same load across the same distance has losses of 4.2%."
- margalabargala 3y ago
  Wikipedia tells me that high voltage lines transmitting 1GW at normal grid voltages will have losses of about 1% over a distance of 100 miles, which is honestly quite a lot. That's 100kW per mile. Oregon is only a couple hundred miles across, so it's feasible, but with more losses than I thought when I looked it up to answer you.
Arrath 3y ago
There's also a goodly quantity of wind generation capacity in/along the Columbia gorge.
philwelch 3y ago
Yes but dams still work at night. In fact you can use them to solve that energy storage problem the solar industry keeps handwaving about.

LargeTomato 3y ago

Just for my own reference, is transferring power from Eastern Oregon to Western Oregon a reasonably efficient thing to do? How much power is lost when we move it across an area the size of Oregon?

mjevans 3y ago
Less of a loss than selling energy from Texas to California. Edit: Much more information generally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Losses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Lo... "For example, a 100 mi (160 km) span at 765 kV carrying 1000 MW of power can have losses of 0.5% to 1.1%. A 345 kV line carrying the same load across the same distance has losses of 4.2%."
margalabargala 3y ago
Wikipedia tells me that high voltage lines transmitting 1GW at normal grid voltages will have losses of about 1% over a distance of 100 miles, which is honestly quite a lot. That's 100kW per mile. Oregon is only a couple hundred miles across, so it's feasible, but with more losses than I thought when I looked it up to answer you.

Arrath 3y ago

There's also a goodly quantity of wind generation capacity in/along the Columbia gorge.

philwelch 3y ago

Yes but dams still work at night. In fact you can use them to solve that energy storage problem the solar industry keeps handwaving about.