Category: En_Ren_Hydropower_CN

Often overlooked by governments, a lack of effective market mechanism is holding new hydro and pumped storage back STORAGE NEEDS Electricity grids will require larger and longer storage options as the share of variable wind and solar generation grows

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line, will deliver 1,250 megawatts of clean electricity from Canada’s Hydro-Québec, the fourth-largest hydropower producer in the world, to New York City.

There are already signs of a difficult summer to come. Outlooks from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that hydropower would make up only 8% of the state’s total power generation, down from 15%, if California were not under drought conditions. The energy sector will have to use natural gas to fill in the gap left by the lack of hydropower.

Hydropower is by far the largest renewable worldwide, producing over twice as much energy as wind, and over four times as much as solar. And pumping water up a hill, aka “pumped storage hydropower”, comprises well over 90% of the world’s total energy storage capacity.

The severe drought in California threatens to significantly undermine the state’s ability to generate hydroelectric power, raising costs for families and driving up planet-warming emissions, according to a federal government forecast.

As the megadrought gripping the Southwest stretches into its third decade, energy providers are preparing for a future where hydropower is no longer a reliable renewable resource.

Water is flowing through two of three hydropower turbines in a blockish building at the base of Flaming Gorge Dam, so I can feel the floor buzzing — vibrations pulsating through my body — as Billy Elbrock leads me past the blue-and-yellow Westinghouse generators. The warehouse-like space is adorned with an American flag, and with the 1965 logo of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Hundreds of feet below a remote forest near Hudson Bay, Serge Abergel inspected the spinning turbines at the heart of the biggest subterranean power plant in the world, a massive facility that converts the water of the La Grande River into a current of renewable electricity strong enough to power a midsize city.

NEWS THAT LAKE Powell, a reservoir on the border of Arizona and Utah, is slowly but surely drying up has spread far and wide. Behind the 1,320-megawatt Glen Canyon Dam and power station, Lake Powell plays an important role in providing power for some 3 million customers in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

Ocean boosters like to compare the kinetic energy stored in the sea to a ginormous oil reserve that’s never going to run dry. It doesn’t matter if the sun shines or the wind blows. The tides turn. You can set your watch to them.