3 ms·

Hydroelectric dams have a storied history of pissing people off, through death and displacement, at the very least. My ancestors (along with natives) were run

Hydroelectric dams have a storied history of pissing people off, through death and displacement, at the very least. My ancestors (along with natives) were run off from their valley home in PA when a dam was built. Out here in the Sonoran Desert, we've got a lake where the river should be, and the indigeneous (among others) are still pissed about the dam that was pretty much politically forced on all of us. Conversely, there are groups who absolutely rejoice when a dam is decommissioned and demolished. It's party time when that land is reclaimed, and the water flows again naturally.

caseyy 2y ago
Well, this is about pumped storage hydroelectric plants, which are not dams. These plants aren’t generally built on rivers because they require much larger water reservoirs. As with any land development, they require land, of course. But all power grid elements do.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > this is about pumped storage hydroelectric plants, which are not dams Damn or not, pumped hydro requires flooding and then unflooding, turning the Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools. That's disruptive.
  - caseyy 2y ago
    They don't turn Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools if you don't build them in Alpinesque ecologies. The truth is that we are developing a lot of land every year for different purposes, from industrial to residential. The question is whether we will develop it for everyone's benefit, or for some yet another tax exempt monopoly's warehouse. We could even build these plants in place of abandoned industrially exploited land, such as quarries, which conveniently already form quite large water reservoirs. We could reclaim a completely dead parcel of land and once we stop using the reservoir, it could blossom into a set of new natural ecologies. Don't take the worst case scenario and present it as the only one when there is a world of possibilities.
    - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
      > don't turn Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools Where do you think large, regular flows of water in natural valleys that can be economically dammed with large gravitational potential energy sit?

caseyy 2y ago

Well, this is about pumped storage hydroelectric plants, which are not dams. These plants aren’t generally built on rivers because they require much larger water reservoirs. As with any land development, they require land, of course. But all power grid elements do.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> this is about pumped storage hydroelectric plants, which are not dams Damn or not, pumped hydro requires flooding and then unflooding, turning the Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools. That's disruptive.
- caseyy 2y ago
  They don't turn Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools if you don't build them in Alpinesque ecologies. The truth is that we are developing a lot of land every year for different purposes, from industrial to residential. The question is whether we will develop it for everyone's benefit, or for some yet another tax exempt monopoly's warehouse. We could even build these plants in place of abandoned industrially exploited land, such as quarries, which conveniently already form quite large water reservoirs. We could reclaim a completely dead parcel of land and once we stop using the reservoir, it could blossom into a set of new natural ecologies. Don't take the worst case scenario and present it as the only one when there is a world of possibilities.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > don't turn Alpinesque ecologies into tidal pools Where do you think large, regular flows of water in natural valleys that can be economically dammed with large gravitational potential energy sit?