David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: One big problem with this concept is that there are not many locations > available to place new facilities.
These can be new, man-made facilities, such as a hole in the ocean. They have a lot of them in Switzerland where they make alpine lakes. It is like having a gigantic cistern far up in a mountain. Quote: "Today there are 556 hydropower plants in Switzerland that each have a capacity of at least 300 kilowatts, and these produce an average of around 35,830 gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum, 47% of which is produced in run-of-river power plants, 49% in storage power plants and approximately 4% in pumped storage power plants." http://www.bfe.admin.ch/themen/00490/00491/index.html?lang=en > And the few that remain are not likely to be near the generation > equipment. Another major problem is that new dams destroy wild streams > that are not too well protected. You do not need a stream, although in some cases they use existing natural streams. If the pumped storage lake is man-made, you stop the downhill flow completely while pumping up, or while waiting on stand-by. You cannot stop the flow in a natural hydroelectric plant. That would hurt the river wildlife. - Jed
