CA: PG&E pushes 'pumped hydro' for energy storage

[phantom power]

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric on Friday filed a request with state regulators to fund a feasibility study for adding a pumped hydro facility which could store as much energy as a power plant can supply.

PG&E has identified the Mokelumne River watershed in Amador County, Calif., as a location. The utility wants to study placing a pumped hydro facility sized between 400 megawatts and 1,200 megawatts. One thousand megawatts is the size of one large or two medium-size power plants.

Typically, pumped hydro facilities have two reservoirs with water pumped uphill during off-peak times and released during peak times. PG&E said that adding more storage will allow it to better accommodate wind and solar power, which are variable sources of power.

There are at least three other pumped hydro storage projects under consideration in California, according to the PG&E company blog Next 100.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20014426-54.html

[wtmusic]

1. "store as much energy as a power plant can supply"

:silly:

One day we'll see a mass-media report by someone who knows the difference between power and energy.

[phantom power]

2. Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath for that

x(

[Dead_Parrot]

4. No, he's right...

It's an unfortunate quirk of English that the things that produce energy are called power plants. If he said "store as much energy as an energy plant can supply", everyone would be hitting the dictionary to find out what this energy plant thing is. If he said "store as much power as..." I'd be forced to kill him him before he finished the sentence.

It annoying, but there's worse.

[wtmusic]

5. He's incorrect.

A power plant can supply an unlimited amount of energy if it's kept in operation (power is the rate at which energy is delivered).

His statement is equivalent to saying "This bucket holds as much water as this hose can squirt."

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Ahh, with you.

Evaporation?

:hide:

[wtmusic]

6. delete

[Nihil]

9. Thanks for that!

:spray:

That photo is winging its way to some of the colonists in our company as I write!

:applause:

[Ernesto]

3. PG&E..... To know them is to hate them. nt

[XemaSab]

8. I had a long talk with my boss about this a few weeks ago

It's mostly about making the green.

[madokie]

10. Our local power company, GRDA, built a pumped back lake back in the late '60s

finally opened it for fishing in about 78 and I spent 5 years chasing the ole large mouth bass that live in it. Anyway they say it is the best thing they ever done as it doesn't actually make them money but it actually saves them money. They have plans to add a second one that would make the first one quit small in comparison but for some reason after all these years they still haven't done that one yet.

[wtmusic]

11. There's a large initial outlay

but at 75% efficiency it's the most cost-effective solution for storing energy on that scale.

[madokie]

12. Heres a link to it if you care to read about it

http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/255995/articles/power-engineering/volume-110/issue-5/departments/managing-the-plant/salina-pumped-storage-project.html

I like the idea of building a battery such as this for that off peak energy that they have with their two coal plants and three hydro dams. this project here they damned up a big ass hollow. My depth finder shows that at the deepest part it is 185 ft deep. Lots of energy stored there. I hope that they someday finish the project by building the other one that will make this one look like childs play. Leakage is one of the problems they've had and have been trying to stop since early on. Lots of caves and underground caverns around here.

[wtmusic]

13. Hmm didn't think about that.

When I was a kid in Illinois a creek was dammed up for a recreation area, and all the water just drained down to the water table when the creek was slow upstream. So they tried lining it with clay, and when that didn't work they used "Bentonite", some gooey crap that got all over you if you went swimming. But it held the water, and there was some good bass/bluegill fishing for awhile.

Not sure how they deal with water supply, seems like that would be a problem in much of the West.

[XemaSab]

14. Bentonite

is a type of very sticky clay.

[Dead_Parrot]

15. Dirt nerd

;)

[XemaSab]

16. It's true

:P

[phantom power]

17. Dirt nerd --> Earth Goddess

(The phantom provides his personal-marketing consultations pro bono)

[XemaSab]

18. .

:D





























:pals:

[Dead_Parrot]

19. What, 4,000 years old and slept with her son?

Ewww.
:hide: