"#Tajikistan produces more than 95% of its electricity with #hydropower and has a large potential to expand production. However, the country lacks fossil fuel resources and is highly dependent on imported fuel. In the #transport sector, these factors make shifting to electricity from fossil fuels very attractive."
This #Arizona utility company wants to build a new lake in the middle of the desert
"#SRP is considering two sites on federally owned land near #ApacheLake to construct a new dam and flood a portion of the desert to create the upper reservoir in what would be Arizona’s largest pumped storage #hydropower system. "
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied preliminary permit applications for hydropower projects on the Navajo Nation. The commission said it would no longer issue permits for projects on tribal lands without tribal support.
> .. #NuclearPower releases 3.5 times more CO2 per kilowatt-hour than photovoltaic solar panel systems. Compared with onshore #WindPower.. 13 times more CO2. When up against electricity from #HydroPower installations, nuclear generates 29 times more carbon.. similar results when considering entire life cycles. #MarkZJacobson.. at.. Stanford University, calculated a climate cost of 68 to 180 grams of CO2/kWh, depending on the #ElectricityMix used in uranium production..
On Saturday 2023-11-04 Finland produced 13.1 GW total electricity between 17.00-18.00, a new hourly record. Also, we produced 5.4 GW wind power between 15.00-16.00, also a new hourly record. On Saturday the top 3 means of production were: wind, nuclear and hydro. Finland has been rapidly building new wind capacity, which has now resulted in Finland being largely self-sufficient. Periods of calm cold winter days can still result in imbalance and need to import fair amount of electricity. https://www.fingrid.fi/en/electricity-market/power-system/#electricity#windpower#nuclearpower#hydropower
Although the EU experienced in 2022 a significant reduction of nuclear power output, this did not lead to a similar increase in power production with coal and natural gas.
Main reason is the reduction in overall EU power demand that year.
Graph from Global Gas Report 2023, IGU.
>Like most of the world’s 58,700 large dams, those in California were built for yesterday’s more stable climate patterns. But as climate change taxes the world’s water systems—affecting rainfall, snowmelt, and evaporation—it’s getting tough to predict how much water gets to a dam, and when. Dams are increasingly either water-starved, unable to maintain supplies of power and water for their communities, or overwhelmed and forced to release more water than desired—risking flooding downstream.
>But at one major dam in Northern California, operators have been demonstrating how to not just weather these erratic and intense storms, but capitalize on them. Management crews at New Bullards Bar, built in 1970, entered last winter armed with new forecasting tools that gave unprecedented insight into the size and strength of the coming storms—allowing them to strategize how to handle the rain.
>First, they let the rains refill their reservoir, a typical move after a long drought. Then, as more storms formed at sea, they made the tough choice to release some of this precious hoard through their hydropower turbines, confident that more rain was coming. “I felt a little nervous at first,” says John James, director of resource planning at Yuba Water Agency in Northern California. Fresh showers soon validated the move. New Bullards Bar ended winter with plumped water supplies, a 150 percent boost in power generation, and a clean safety record. The strategy offers a glimpse of how better forecasting can allow hydropower to adapt to the climate change.
>Modeling studies have long suggested that better weather forecasts would be invaluable for dam managers. Now this is being confirmed in real life. New Bullards Bar is one of a half-dozen pilot sites teaming up with the US Army Corps of Engineers to test how cutting-edge forecasting can be used to optimize operations in the real world. Early tests of the methods, called forecast-informed reservoir operations, have given operators the confidence to hold 5-20 percent reserve margins beyond their reservoirs’ typical capacity, says Cary Talbot, who heads the initiative for the Army Corps.
The Ministry of Forest and Environment has proposed a new procedure that would allow large-scale hydropower development inside protected areas, with fewer environmental safeguards and more legal loopholes....
‘Ticking time bombs’: Sikkim floods a reminder of why locals opposed dams in the Himalayas for years
The damage caused by the glacial lake outburst flood was compounded by the presence of a string of dams in the Teesta river basin in the Himalayan state.
What are Glacier Lake Outburst Floods? How do infrastructure projects like the Chungthang dam affect the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas? Can such events be predicted and prevented?
"Researchers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory said closed-loop #PumpedStorage#hydropower will have a lower carbon footprint throughout the lifecycle of the technology, from construction to decommissioning, than other renewable #EnergyStorage technologies like lithium-ion batteries. "
For a few years now, I've been nerding out on hydro dam engineering and visiting various projects in the Alps that are critical to the stability of Swiss grid, especially when more solar and wind capacity is added.
This video by B1M highlights some of the challenges of building these projects and brings you along for the journey if you cannot make it in person!
Just released!
New peer-reviewed article on the massive consequences of the destruction of Kakhovka dam and reservoir: impacts on ecosystems, water quality, lives and livelihoods, agriculture, and water supply.
Conservationists condemn Nepal proposal to allow hydropower in protected areas (news.mongabay.com)
The Ministry of Forest and Environment has proposed a new procedure that would allow large-scale hydropower development inside protected areas, with fewer environmental safeguards and more legal loopholes....