“Troubling” Projections for Lake Powell
October 5, 2021
Best reporting on a lot of these issues comes from local TV stations. Here, report on Lake Powell’s reservoir from a Salt Lake City station.
with Peter Sinclair
Best reporting on a lot of these issues comes from local TV stations. Here, report on Lake Powell’s reservoir from a Salt Lake City station.
"The sharpest climate denier debunker on YouTube."
- TreeHugger
"@PeterWSinclair is a national treasure." - Brad Johnson, Publisher Hill Heat
October 5, 2021 at 5:41 pm
“UN weather agency warns of water crisis without urgent reforms.
Climate change is expected to increase water-related hazards such as droughts and floods while the number of people living with water stress is expected to soar due to growing scarcity and population growth.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/un-weather-agency-warns-water-crisis-without-urgent-reforms-2021-10-05/
October 9, 2021 at 4:59 pm
There’s one solution that will help some, if we can change water politics (and insistence on recreation) enough to use it.
Cover part or most of a reservoir with floating solar. Evaporation, a serious loss, will be reduced, and the PV will provide power during the day to replace some or all of the hydro power. The outflow can be reduced that amount during the day, saving the water to be let go at night to balance the solar power and provide steady generation. Reducing evaporation would at least partly compensate for the reduced outflow so it wouldn’t need to be reduced as much as it would otherwise.
Transmission is already there so capital costs would be lower than most projects of similar size, and in some cases the solar could provide power for pumped storage instead of diverting water power for it. PV could be built on both upper and lower reservoirs, increasing both the energy and evaporation savings it provided.