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A comment on A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery. Parent comment

Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by gpm on Sunday July 29, 2018 @08:49AM (#17637859)
Niagara falls (Erie -> Ontario) is already a huge hydro eletric power generator with variable flow. Instead of storing water though they decide how much water to allow over the falls for tourists. More during the day, less at night.

Thinking about the terrain, it would probably be relatively easy to setup a dam somewhere that acted as a battery, downstream is basically already a giant bowl... I suspect the tourist industry would complain though.

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Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by ulfw on Sunday July 29, 2018 @02:03PM (#17639417)
They create more electricity at night when less electricity is generally consumed? Odd. But interesting.
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Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by londons_explore on Sunday July 29, 2018 @02:13PM (#17639462)
They want niagara falls to look great for tourists.

When nobody is looking at night, it pretty much stops.

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Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by Scoundreller on Sunday July 29, 2018 @03:07PM (#17639735)
Not only that, but so much water gets diverted during the night that the tourist ships could not operate.

Reducing water flow helps to preserve the falls too. The water has substantially changed their shape, even over a time period of 2-300 years: https://www.marriottonthefalls.com/blog/2015/02/06/rate-eros...

During the Post-Great Big Blackout period, the Falls power generation ran with night-time levels of diversion during the day-time. The tourist boats that go near the falls got furloughed.

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Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by Scoundreller on Sunday July 29, 2018 @03:13PM (#17639762)
I want someone to do the math one day: What's the value of the tourist industry, and what's the value of the lost electricity production?
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Re:A $3B Plan to Turn Hoover Dam into a Giant Battery by mabbo on Monday July 30, 2018 @08:08AM (#17643845)
That's just lane Erie though. There's still 4 more. Michigan is completely inside America so less political hurdles there.
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