Hydropower - Power of the future or relic of the past?

Hydropower has been the largest global provider of renewable electricity for over 100 years and represents the first mainstream source of renewable energy. However, many environmental groups don't view large-scale hydro as truly renewable. So what is it? Is hydroelectricity a foundation of our energy future or something better left in our past?

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[LiveTree]

Well said! We need to take it on a case-by-case basis and check under what conditions a type of technology is advantageous to apply in terms of benefits in energy production that must go hand in hand with environmental impact. You gave the example of Costa Rica, which other nations have or could benefit from hydroelectricity? #livetree #hydropower #3typesofpower #renewableenergy

[howardlitson]

Whatever is past or now or future, hydropower project is very great renewable energy

[smartguyak]

Fun fact: you're doing this for school. LOL! :D

[nousername]

All hydro is renewable. Renewable simply means that harnessing the energy won’t deplete it.

[muhendislikteknoloji]

Hello, I am doing a thesis on hydroelectric power plant design, but I could not find a clear enough source. If there is a source that explains the principles of hydroelectric power plant design step by step, could you suggest you know

[deepthought]

You are only seeing half the solution. Here’s my solution. Pumped Hydro is inefficient.

Hydro Battery Desalinator Dam


There are two main problems in Australia. No cheap power and not enough drinking water. This solves both at the same time.

Desalination in Sydney Australia costs $90 per household even when its turned off, and an extra $30-35 when its turned on...My way would solve the problem without any “holding” costs of such a plant...Mine also doesn’t use the same electricity required to power 30, 000 homes each day it operates so.

Renewable power is a pipe dream that despite decades of massive subsidies around the world they have only served to destabilise cheap existing energy networks because: -

1. Renewables are very carbon intensive and costs more energy and $ to create than they will generate in their lifetime. They are low energy density and have short 20-30 year life spans and are very difficult to decommission because they contains hard to recycle/expensive components (or in case of wind power are very large and expensive to pull apart safely when they rusts or break). They also take up huge tracts of useable land and destroy wildlife.
2. Solar and Wind only work intermittently are very weak producers and require more reliable backup power like coal/oil to work (very inefficiently) to support base power load when renewable suddenly stops supplying power. This sporadic use of coal/gas power stations causes them to work at roughly 3 times what it would cost to run them smoothly non stop and explains why our electrical bills have gone from being the cheapest to being the most expensive in the world.
3. Wind is most active at night when there is minimal demand on the grid, so the power must be given away or stored in very expensive and inefficient batteries that also use poisonous materials and are difficult to recycle/decommission. Otherwise the excess power could damage the transmission networks.

In Australia we are selling cheap coal to burn in China to import expensive diesel to burn here... why? It gets burned in the same atmosphere-that’s a huge impost on our economy for the sake of pretending we are more woke.

I have been saying for some time that as long as we stop building new dams while allowing our population to rise we are at higher risk of drought.

Firstly let me just say that I am not an engineer, I am only a problem solver who likes to help businesses reduce waste, by installing repeatable and effective processes that save them money and make them more competitive.

Defining the Problem.

My idea is a simple combining of two very successful and proven technologies currently successfully in use in the world to solve the dual problems of 1) fresh water and 2) inefficient power supply.

1) We are a huge continent of which 2/3 is desert but surrounded by ocean (salt and chemical containing water). The obvious solution is to convert the salt water and filter off the impurities and return clean drinking water into the environment. The way to hold large quantities of water is of course dams. Dams suffer from huge surface evaporation and would therefore operate more optimally under a roof structure. e.g. a salt still. This would also drain water from the oceans that are "supposedly" rising and store it on land. A salt still evaporates salt water and then uses a roof to cool and condense the fresh water and collect it in a separate container.


2) As we have moved to higher 'fluctuating' renewable energy sources we need to store or redirect the flow of current when it is not needed, to when it is needed. This requires the use of batteries, far bigger/dirtier than we can/want to currently manufacture. Batteries unfortunately wear out being able to hold less and less charge and contain rare and poisonous materials. There are also physical limitations and other considerations that make massive scale electric batteries uneconomical and unsafe. The obvious solution is to store power in a different form (Hydro Battery) which is limited only by the size of the water supply that powers it and never loses storage potency and stored as potential energy.


There are many hydro battery dams that are used in Europe and they are used in a very inefficient manner. Cheap off peak electricity is used to pump water up hill to a higher dam during the night and then sold at peak when it is released downhill during the day powering a turbine. The differential is the profit margin which is typically thin due to the loss in transfer of one energy to another.

Solution

Combine the two technologies in an effective and efficient manner that provided ongoing relatively maintenance free power and water.

This version is totally green so it uses an unreliable solar lens (perhaps backed up by some more reliable heating mechanism to use when there is little sunlight)... to heat (at minimal cost) the salt water into steam on the far bottom left of the diagram where the solar lens is. This superheated steam powers a turbine to generate some electricity with the steam eventually hitting the clear roof of the structure forcing it to rise and hence cool so that eventually it drips down over the higher dam as fresh water. This higher dam can then be used to generate hydro power in two ways. Firstly to the town water supply as fresh water, or as needed back to the salt contaminated tank to generate electricity as needed during peak usage.

The remaining concentrated salt water tank runoff can be regularly filtered for contaminants and salt scraped out to provide cheap salt for cow licks etc. The pumps needed to pump more salt water from the ocean into the system can be run from the Hydro Battery as needed (once it is initially primed). There is obviously a need to first develop a network of salt water pipelines to service these units, all over the country, wherever they are needed. There will also need to be some thought put into how to optimise the steam power produced to drive the turbines most effectively, but I leave that to the engineers.

[CousinJesse]

Some countries might be able to do it.. if they had a suitable area, the infrastructure, resources, and capital. But will it be worth it? How much is electricity going to cost? I mean Australia doesn't even have water inland to start with.

However, I hear the new generation of nuclear power plants don't even have radiation, although I don't know about that for sure, because what they do is hit an atom with lasers and heat it up. That's what gives you massive surplus energy without radiation or dangerous waste, and you can apparently have power like that in something that can be as small as a shipping container or two.

[godzilla]

Austin, TX, my home city has a few dams. I’d be okay with replacing them for nuclear power plants. Preferably ones that use thorium because it’s safer and more efficient than uranium.

[mariar]

Ohh nuclear energy came up again. I like this channel.

[anapaulamoctezuma]

The link to your sources shows up as non existent: The page you requested does not exist.

[mdgaming]

We got best hydropower future
It's called nepal

[howardlitson]

Artificial water production is biodiesel/pyrolysis oil generator powered atmospheric water generator to unlimited water production and unlimited water circle.

[howardlitson]

Of course exception biodiesel generator and diesel generator powered atmospheric water generator can unlimited water production resources, cloud seeding artificial heavy raining and cloudburst can also unlimited water production resources.

[simonbowman]

RDP Marine Australia for the new multi stage turbine update

[simonbowman]

you wish to make a difference??
Hydro electricity
The Frozen technology
An open letter to the world
By Simon Bowman
Australia
Since the beginning the growth of hydro science has been slow and we have made very little forward movement in the past 40 years.
The ideas that might make it leap forward with more efficient use of the water are stifled by education being thought of as immovable .
What was wrong yesterday will be wrong forever and new tech can't get around a problem.

This is not a problem solving mind set

Australia has forced many an idea to leave this country to grow
just because we have an issue with new ideas

A classic example was Metal Storm a new type of fire arm that had no magazine and no brass cartridges to hold the propellent.
all the bullets are held in the barrel and with this configuration the barrels can be stacked this gives it a rate of fire unmatched anywhere
It had to leave Australia to become a product or stay and die.

This I fear is the same story about to happen with the hydroelectric field
For the past two years RDP Marine Australia has been working on a system that can be retro fitted to all dams with tailraces longer than the turbine hall needs so it has to deal with a backpressure higher than is ideal creating a loss that can now be recovered

At this point it should also be noted that the inventor asks where is it written that water storage dams can’t make hydro power to ?

So is this inventor saying “This is the answer to all ur power needs?”

No of course not but like all good things it is a part of a solution it will fill the gap for base load green power
Lets not forget at the location where these units will be fitted has most of the infrastructure already in place to build the system

NOW TO THE ISSUES
There are three main issues right of the top that are the most commonly raised as why it will not happen
So lets stomp on them straight off

1, fit an item into the tailrace and backpressure will rise in the turbines
No this is not true as a this system if done right it can be fitted to be like a tuned exhaust for a car

2, There will be to little back pressure so RPM will not be constant
Again No if the system is correctly fitted this to is a dead issue

3, Dissolved gasses that are held in suspension
This is a minor issue and most chief engineers are well capable to work with this

4, NOW this one can be a deal-breaker it is to do with a what if question.
So what if the new set of turbines go down or just one ?
Well if one or all freeze up the main turbine hall will be unaffected and no issues flowing up hill
These four issues are the most common reasons I am told No

It is this closed thinking (knee jerk response) to a new idea from the same family of being blinded by their education that stifles the industry moving forward

The one question I have no answer to is time
How long to install?

How long to service the new turbines?
To service time i still don't know but the system is set to allow a swap out setup so actual down time for that turbine slot is less than two hours and the rest of the system remains running during the swap

How much will it cost?
I can guess only the price but the price is not so high as to be to costly

Whats its life span?
Well with servicing I can see it giving service for the life of the dam

NOW the big question Money!!
this is a fluid issue shall we say the rate changes and i have stated previously money values but the income is in two parts the improved tailrace efficiency and the second bank of turbines should be close to 10% extra income

The one main issue I find so wrong is the time line needed from this point to the world seeing a working unit.
The tech is there to make it
The skills are available to hire
The market is in need of this item

But the price will rise with demand as the population is getting bigger but the book keepers are happy to see it remain as a rare item with a limited output that pushes up the price

The first adopters have always been the biggest winners I wonder in this area if it will be the big four or will a player from left field run on and wipe the floor with the rest standing with their hands in their pockets confused as to what just happened

Well, I hope this has given you food for thought and made you pause your thinking and look into what I have said I do not expect you to just except what I have stated as fact nor do I know it all so I can learn a new thing to.

Please pass this around let the open minded look it over and pass judgment after all the driver in the end is the need and the ability to see what is needed down the road is the saving grace of the human species to plan ahead

If you think i have missed a point or you have questions please comment i will respond well within 24hr and as i have said many times i don't know it all and you never stop learning

[miaxie]

Very dangerous if there is an accident whole place will be flooded and ecosystems in the area will be destroyed