The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun

Re:The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun by kibwen on Friday January 12, 2024 @07:26PM (#38976039)

According to Wikipedia, the Elwha Dam had a hydroelectric capacity of 14.8 MW, which is about five wind turbines. For reference, the US currently has more than 71,000 wind turbines, and on average the US installs 3,000 wind turbines per year, which is 8 per day.

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Re:The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun by huytersd on Saturday January 13, 2024 @01:22AM (#38977776)

This is a great comment to visualize how little power is being lost here.

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Re:The largest US dam-removal effort to date has begun by keyboard_slap on Saturday January 13, 2024 @05:30AM (#38978702)

I thought comparing capacity factor instead of capacity would be more fair, but I got roughly the same result. Elwha's capacity factor was, at one point, 39% [0], and capacity factor for wind turbines in the US is ~35% [1]. However, we're still comparing a source of on-demand power to a source of intermittent power.

[0] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6536093 (page 14)

[1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=52038

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