Re:Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and yet Unfashionable?
by pencilguin on Friday October 28, 2022 @02:16AM
(#33368243)
It is not "more sustainable". It is just, likely, cheaper.
Siting, operational, and land use concerns for pumped hydro are, generally, trivial. If one site is bad, another is good. There is absolutely no shortage of sites, so only the best need be even considered.
The question is, is this something that has been re-evaluated? Are there more site locations available than previously thought? Have the economics changed significantly? Was this a known-wrong assumption 15 years ago? Has the public perception changed re: the environmental costs vs benefits of this land use?
I would much rather we build a bunch of pumped hydro than a bunch of chemical batteries, on the belief that it is a much more sustainable technology. But I have seen a lot of online discussion about pumped hydro that treat siting, operational, economic, and land use concerns as if they don't exist, when often they are the primary reasons these projects don't get built.