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• PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Do some quick math. How much pumped hydro in terms of acre-feet would be required to power a hypothetical city like Chicago at night? Where would this theoretical reservoir be built?

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  • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s a completely unnecessary way to do things. The mistake you’re making is that this specific way must provide all power.

    It doesn’t. You combine methods for a reason. The wind blows at times when the sun isn’t shining, and vice versa. We have weather data stretching back many decades to tell us how much a given region will give us of each. From there, you can calculate the maximum lull where neither is providing enough. Have enough storage to cover that lull, and double it as a safety factor.

    Getting to 95% water/wind/solar with this method is relatively easy and would be an extraordinary change. Getting all the way to 100% is possible, just more difficult.

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    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Do the math, how much grid-level storage do you need to power a city like chicago assuming zero baseload generation.

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  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    acre-feet

    I can’t stop laughing at this as a unit of measurement

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    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I guess if you don’t understand units of water per area, then there is no reason to expect you to be able to do any kind of critical analysis about why “pumped hydro” is a problem.

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre-foot

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      • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Dude, people can laugh at a term while still being able to do “critical analysis” 🙄 “foot pound” sounds funny too. People can giggle about Uranus and still be astronomers.

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      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I am not American, so why would I use an American unit of measurement?

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    • MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s easier to visualize than kilo-gallons.

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• snoons@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Bet is extremely limited to specific areas with the right geography that are also relatively close to a population centre.

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  • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Not if you do HVDC lines. Which are a good idea, anyway.

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  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It isn’t so much limited by the geography but is made far more cost effective because of it. A long valley with a narrow exit means you don’t need to build much dam and store a vast amount of water.

    As far as distance from populated areas, I dunno, I live in the UK so its kinda close enough not to matter too much.

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