Re:Tearing down Klamath dams: The largest dam demolition
by rootusrootus on Thursday August 31, 2023 @08:52PM
(#37345460)
Yeah, these made sense in 1925, when we produced just a fraction of what we produce today. But at this point maybe we should just start tearing out the ones that aren't providing any other valuable service and budget for solar & wind to replace their output.
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Re:Tearing down Klamath dams: The largest dam demolition
by Gibbon1 on Friday September 01, 2023 @02:00PM
(#37354197)
I think so. How little power some of these old dams produce is a bit shocking by modern standards. I remember the allies during WWII went to a bunch of trouble to knock out a some dams on the Ruhr. I think one of them produced 5MW of power.
So these dams produce a round error amount of energy[1]. But the effect on the watershed is not a rounding error. And a lot of them are old which brings costs due to maintenance and engineering analysis. And that applies to the 60 year old power lines to tie these to the grid.
[1] Compare with fish. Friends mom lived in Idaho which is popular with fishermen. Some state analysis showed fish tourism generates about $1000 per fish caught.