At Forbes. Not too techie. More a narrative of the how hydropower works and fits into the world on a day-to-day basis - link

Quote from: arpad on October 20, 2011, 08:01:21 PM
At Forbes. Not too techie. More a narrative of the how hydropower works and fits into the world on a day-to-day basis - link

I live on the Columbia river, just 500' above it.   I live in-between two Dam's so I see the working of it everyday.  There is wind generation all around us with-in 50 miles.  Thank God we can not see them from our place.   

I hope the bats are safe.  :P

Hydro used to be the lifeblood in Ca; though its been many years ago, our gas and electric bill were no more that 2 dollars a month, that is until the Dims took over the State and destroyed our infrastructure and stopped all dam building in the Country.

This is just more proof as to why I say the Dims have made themselves an endangered specie, people are sick and tired of being the ones to sacrifice, every time some nut finds a new cause D'jour...

Whether it be a teat mouse, or a snail, life happens and shit dies off, but it needn't be humans that do the suffering.
Lets build some dams, damnit!

Build the damn damns!!!

I spent nearly six years out of college working in the hydropower field. Sorry, kids, the good dam sites were all taken long ago. A few little cherries still dangle out there, but as Solar points out, the mantra today is: Thou Shalt NOT Build Dams.

We need to be looking other places anyhow. There's really no large-scale hydro left to harvest in the U.S. We could go get it all and it wouldn't make a 5% difference. And the left already owns it -- that's why it's so expensive.

Quote from: tbone0106 on November 07, 2011, 06:16:31 PM
I spent nearly six years out of college working in the hydropower field. Sorry, kids, the good dam sites were all taken long ago. A few little cherries still dangle out there, but as Solar points out, the mantra today is: Thou Shalt NOT Build Dams.

We need to be looking other places anyhow. There's really no large-scale hydro left to harvest in the U.S. We could go get it all and it wouldn't make a 5% difference. And the left already owns it -- that's why it's so expensive.

I can't speak for the rest of the Nation, but Ca has several huge possibilities.
Right down the road from my house is the American and Rubicon confluence whuch are all ready for a dam, but the leftists make all the wild claims over its construction.
But you're right, the biggest projects have been accomplished.

Not only do they keep them stalled, they want to deconstruct existing ones, which I find hilarious, seeing how one of them supplies the Bay area with their power and water needs. :))

What about tidal power generation? I hear that has great potential in places such as Florida.

Quote from: Dan on November 09, 2011, 01:24:19 PM
What about tidal power generation? I hear that has great potential in places such as Florida.

Siemens is investing heavily in a tidal unit that can be lifted in and out easily for cleaning and maint.
Maintaining these behemoths has been one of the obstacles, from Kelp to carcases, it doesn't take long for them to stop producing.

Quote from: Solar on November 09, 2011, 01:55:16 PM
Siemens is investing heavily in a tidal unit that can be lifted in and out easily for cleaning and maint.
Maintaining these behemoths has been one of the obstacles, from Kelp to carcases, it doesn't take long for them to stop producing.

If they can make that economical to produce and maintain then it's really gonna help high energy consumers like Florida. They key will be where this shakes out in terms of cost per kilowatt hour when you factor everything into the equation.

Could that technology work on a modified basis for large, slow moving rivers like the Mississippi and Amazon?

Quote from: Dan on November 09, 2011, 02:18:07 PM

If they can make that economical to produce and maintain then it's really gonna help high energy consumers like Florida. They key will be where this shakes out in terms of cost per kilowatt hour when you factor everything into the equation.

Could that technology work on a modified basis for large, slow moving rivers like the Mississippi and Amazon?

Not really, in that its an obstacle to boats, and dead trees under the surface tangle up and its costly to remove them.
Thats why dams have been the main source, the water can be screened first.

There's been an on-going experiment in the East River in New York to develop hydropower from tidal currents. The latest article I could find on it was from 2007 - link - so I've no idea what the status of the project might be.

Solar, I think the big problem with an idea such as this is the variability of flow rates.

A dam has a predictable pressure head but what kills the idea of wind power, and probably this idea as well, is that the flow rate can vary widely. Wind turbines have a fairly narrow range of wind speeds in which they're efficient and safe. If the wind's too slow they don't produce any power and if the wind's too fast the turbines can be destroyed. I'm going to guess that underwater "wind turbines" suffer from the same problem - a narrow range of fluid speeds and no way to control that speed.

Quote from: arpad on November 10, 2011, 05:08:10 AM
There's been an on-going experiment in the East River in New York to develop hydropower from tidal currents. The latest article I could find on it was from 2007 - link - so I've no idea what the status of the project might be.

Solar, I think the big problem with an idea such as this is the variability of flow rates.

A dam has a predictable pressure head but what kills the idea of wind power, and probably this idea as well, is that the flow rate can vary widely. Wind turbines have a fairly narrow range of wind speeds in which they're efficient and safe. If the wind's too slow they don't produce any power and if the wind's too fast the turbines can be destroyed. I'm going to guess that underwater "wind turbines" suffer from the same problem - a narrow range of fluid speeds and no way to control that speed.

I agree, though wave action seems to hold the most promise, but its still the lib mentality, that anything is better than coal, nuke, and oil.
This is Siemens, a corp. rooted in Europe where the socialists dictate their direction.

Honestly, I doubt they would be going down this road if it weren't for the subsidies and threats, as a business move it makes no sense, to a lib, sense is never a requirement.

Quote from: arpad on November 10, 2011, 05:08:10 AM
There's been an on-going experiment in the East River in New York to develop hydropower from tidal currents. The latest article I could find on it was from 2007 - link - so I've no idea what the status of the project might be.

Solar, I think the big problem with an idea such as this is the variability of flow rates.

A dam has a predictable pressure head but what kills the idea of wind power, and probably this idea as well, is that the flow rate can vary widely. Wind turbines have a fairly narrow range of wind speeds in which they're efficient and safe. If the wind's too slow they don't produce any power and if the wind's too fast the turbines can be destroyed. I'm going to guess that underwater "wind turbines" suffer from the same problem - a narrow range of fluid speeds and no way to control that speed.

I would think like wind turbines you could control the flow of water (speed) some way.  But like win turbines they would not last long.   There must be about 300 wind turbines with in 75 mile of me in Washington and Oregon and I only see about 5 to 10 of them working at once 75 % of the time.  I have yet to see all of them in one of the areas working all at once.  Why have 15 or 20 of then in one area and only have 4 or 5 running.   

Quote from: walkstall on November 10, 2011, 05:28:05 AM

I would think like wind turbines you could control the flow of water (speed) some way.  But like win turbines they would not last long.   There must be about 300 wind turbines with in 75 mile of me in Washington and Oregon and I only see about 5 to 10 of them working at once 75 % of the time.  I have yet to see all of them in one of the areas working all at once.  Why have 15 or 20 of then in one area and only have 4 or 5 running.   

There is a good reason for that, they don't need them, they have a shit load of hydro in the West coast.
Then there is the issue of lack of wind when they do need them, like hot dry Summer days, when the wind isn't blowing.