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A comment on The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam. Parent comment

Re:The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at ... by Manuel_D on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @01:55PM (#32486360)
It's not an issue of river water levels. It's an issue of permissible river temperatures. They should rethink the impact of heating a river versus increasing fossil fuel emissions that heat the whole world.
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Re:The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at ... by baxuz on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @05:41PM (#32489343)
Cooling towers don't recirculate the drawn water back to the river as far as I'm aware. They only draw the water in the basin depletes. Looking at the sources, 2% of it is lost to evaporation, the rest condenses back on the bottom.
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Re:The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at ... by Manuel_D on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @11:05PM (#32491835)
If they weren't recirculating water downstream the river wouldn't be heating up at all. In France it's due to limits on river temperature: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/warming-rivers-threa...

Because apparently letting a river get above 28 degrees for a few kilometers is worth pumping more carbon dioxide into the air.

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