Modern Hiker notes that a utility company wants to put one up in Orange County:
Opponents of the dam are upset not only because the project would destroy one of the most popular hiking trails in the forest, but also because it would destroy prime hang-gliding airspace, eradicate a diverse riparian canyon, and wreak havoc downstream as far as Lake Elsinore. They also criticize the project for being purely for-profit. The company would pump water from downstream to the canyon reservoir at night, then use it to generate electricity during the day, when rates are higher.
Geeze, where’s Enron when you need it?
As an energy/engineering geek and, consequently, an employee of everyone’s favorite Norcal utility, I had to chime in on all this.
First off, electricity rates are not higher during the day unless you enroll in a special program with your utility. In the future “time of use” billing will probably happen universally as a means to drive conservation and spread demand more evenly across the day, but for now it’s a voluntary program (and most participants are large commercial and industrial customers). See this HowStuffWorks.Com article for more.
Secondly, “pumped-storage hydro,” is a very cool idea. I think the project described in your post is a terrible application of the idea, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The two important concepts here are that 1) at every instant, for every watt of electricity consumed there has to be a generator spinning somewhere that’s producing that watt (actually more like 3 or 4 watts because of inefficiencies) and 2) some power sources are always generating, irrespective of demand (nuclear plants, river-based hydro, wind).
Let’s oversimplify and say that my employer’s nuclear plant (2000 MW) and its pump storage plant (1400 MW) supply all of Fresno’s power, which on a summer day is 3000 MW. At night, the demand is only 1500 MW. Now the nuclear plant, which is always running, has 500 MW excess. If we use those megawatts to pump water uphill at the hydro plant, it can then generate daytime electricity all summer long, even if there’s no rain/snow melt filling its reservoirs (which can also be smaller, since they are continually refilled). That’s a much better idea, I think, than building another huge natural-gas plant somewhere to satisfy that daytime demand. By the way, PG&E’s pumped-storage facility, named Helms, is built inside a mountain in the Sierra, and uses two previously-existing reservoirs (Courtright and Wishon, which both make great jumping-off points for backpacking trips).
Thirdly, I’m surprised nobody has linked to the Environmental Defense study on restoring Hetch Hetchy. I like the work these guys do. They’ve gotten the ball rolling on lots of good ideas over the past 35 years, like letting utilities make money by helping customers conserve power, instead of by selling them more and more of it.
Lastly, if you’re still reading this incredibly long comment: go buy compact florescent light bulbs! And replace your old appliances! And ditch that extra refrigerator in the garage! The simplest way to fight power plant construction is to stop making utilities think they need more power plants.
I’ve been dealing with a lot of utility companies in my day job lately as a technology reporter. I have to say that Randy’s company, PG&E, is leaps and bounds ahead of other utitilites when it comes to energy conservation and education. I’m glad they’ve got people like him working there.
Randy: geeky but informative, thanx.
For clarification, electricity price do change throughout the day. My point was that small customers, like you and I, can’t really take advantage of it yet. You see, Tom, this is why I don’t have a blog…yet.
And Matt, thanks for the compliment. I think PG&E is way out in front on environmental/conservation issues, but it was a long and, at first, mostly involuntary process to get the company there. I think we’re going to see it happening again, but on a national scale. Just like Toyota is reaping benefits from its hybrid technology while competitors play catch up, PG&E is pushing its clean-and-green approach in the changing and, for now, very eco-aware marketplace.
In conclusion, and to tie this back to hiking, get a couple friends or family members together and volunteer at a CA State Park clean-up this Earth Day. My wife and I did this last year, and everybody got two free day-use passes. I know this blog is crawling with folks itching to give back at their favorite hiking spots: Angel Island, Castle Rock, Henry Coe, Mt Tam, Mt Diablo (full list here). You could even turn it into a springtime blogger ho-down.
Randy, good suggestion.
I’ll look over the list and see what seems promising for future get-togethers.
(maybe we should have T-Shirts!)