Water flowing up hill
So apparently this spring, something strange happened to PG&E. They made too much power.
See this article or this one
The short version is that the dam is supposed to spill water to allow baby salmon to pass safely. Too much water could also hurt the fish. The dams try to balance this with the min and max ranges of the powerlines. The powerlines were about at max due to wind farms feeding in, and the dams were already spilling maximum. The proper answer was apparently to ask the wind farms to go on "idle" mode . . .but it was the weekend, and all they got were answering machines at the farms.
They ended up dumping more water, and claim it likely didn't cause harm (but we're killing off the salmon in so many ways, I don't think this is true).
The Honey had this interesting theory, which we discussed at length. As we see it, the problem is not that the lines can't take the load of electricity, but that we can't store the energy.
So take a dry valley uphill of the dam, mine what little soil it has, seal it up, dam it up, and install pipes and pumps to the river. In times of high wind and high water - any spring around here - direct the extra power to the pumps and pump the water uphill to the holding tank. Store it there until we need more flow in the river - late fall around here - and then release it behind the dams. Any water loss to evaporation should cause additional rainfall east of the Cascades, which the farmers can only like in that area.
Ta Da, a kinetic energy battery. I wonder if it would really work.
See this article or this one
The short version is that the dam is supposed to spill water to allow baby salmon to pass safely. Too much water could also hurt the fish. The dams try to balance this with the min and max ranges of the powerlines. The powerlines were about at max due to wind farms feeding in, and the dams were already spilling maximum. The proper answer was apparently to ask the wind farms to go on "idle" mode . . .but it was the weekend, and all they got were answering machines at the farms.
They ended up dumping more water, and claim it likely didn't cause harm (but we're killing off the salmon in so many ways, I don't think this is true).
The Honey had this interesting theory, which we discussed at length. As we see it, the problem is not that the lines can't take the load of electricity, but that we can't store the energy.
So take a dry valley uphill of the dam, mine what little soil it has, seal it up, dam it up, and install pipes and pumps to the river. In times of high wind and high water - any spring around here - direct the extra power to the pumps and pump the water uphill to the holding tank. Store it there until we need more flow in the river - late fall around here - and then release it behind the dams. Any water loss to evaporation should cause additional rainfall east of the Cascades, which the farmers can only like in that area.
Ta Da, a kinetic energy battery. I wonder if it would really work.