Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and yet Unfashionable?

Re:Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and yet Unfashionable? by BatteryMountain on Friday October 28, 2022 @05:56AM (#33369502)

Check the one near Cape Town. It can run for up to 12 hours with two "small" dams and the altitudes for the dams are ~100m & ~350m respectively, connected by water tunnels & 4 turbines. It is located in the mountains, right next to the coast (which I think minimizes negatives further).

The the size and rainfall season matters for how long they can run. Cape Town has a winter-rain season that runs from roughly May to September.

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Re:Why Is Hydroelectricity So Green, and yet Unfashionable? by zizee on Thursday November 03, 2022 @08:35AM (#33450045)

This one? Looks interesting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steenbras_Power_Station

The capacity of the smaller of the two dams is 3,560 megalitres. I think a 1km X 350m X 10m deep is this capacity. So "small" is fairly subjective term, but you are right that it is not gargantuan. It is still not going to be easy to place such a setup just anywhere.

I would be interested in how much it cost to build and run to obtain the 180mwh capacity. A similarly size gridscale battery would cost in the vicinity of 25-30 million USD (using the $140 per kWh cost).

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