News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Tearing down Klamath dams: The largest dam demolition by poulsbohemian on Thursday August 31, 2023 @03:28PM (#37342455)
You are probably right, but maybe not quite for the reasons you imagine... many of the dams in the northwest run at only a tiny percentage of their possible output because increasing their productivity could have poor outcomes for fish, etc. So they have already ratcheted back much of their output as a compromise. But - we also have a lot of anti-solar, anti-wind people who try to block those projects for reasons I would call unscientific and emotional. So you can't outright replace the dams just yet either. The dams are also really good at providing a base load, as even when the wind doesn't blow that water just keeps moving.
Re:Tearing down Klamath dams: The largest dam demolition by teachrdan on Thursday August 31, 2023 @05:14PM (#37343774)
With increasing drought and general weather variability, I wonder if they are still reliably provide a base load. For an extreme case, see Lake Powell drying up so much last year it generated little power: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/30/us/west-drought-lake-powell-h...