re post: Phill the Pill

[mustangman]

 LOL, MEB!! LOL

[myelectricbike]

Think of the watt hours! Tens, maybe hundreds of wattshours that could be generated at low tide! Say goodbye to those costly nuclear power plants, forever! Get rid of those unsightly and noisy windmills! Plus, think of the recreational benefits, swimming, boating, water skiing, diving, and fishling! Plus, fish are good to eat and a dietary requirement on Friday for many who live in Californ-i-a and parts of Texas. With fresh water fish even old foggies in danger of eating too much salt could include fish in their diet. Think of it, all of these benefits, the result of one little dam!

[mustangman]

Think of it, all of these benefits, the result of one little dam!

   Little Dam? That dam would have to be twice the size of the Hoover Dam.

[myelectricbike]

Not compared to Three Gorges Dam which is five times the size of Hoover Dam. 

[mustangman]

That dam in China is not a "little" thing by any standards.

[myelectricbike]

Anyway, I'm curious what the result might be if such a dam were created although no such dam will ever be. I'm curious as to how high (or deep) and how full the resulting reservoir would be and how much of the central valley it would put under water and how much electricity the inflow could generate once the reservoir was filled. 

[OneEye]

Fun thought, but it would actually be a very poor choice for a dam location.  The area of water inundated compared to the height/elevation difference available for power generation would be miniscule.  If you were trying to create a massive water storage area you would place a dam across the golden gate.  Of course, the surface area evaporating by the time you get much of the central valley full would probably give horrendous losses.

A better option for water storage would be a proposal advocated by a venture capital firm: take one of the "islands" of the delta, fill it with water during "wet" years with "too much" water, and then draw from it in "dry" years for irrigation and municipal water.  It is a similar concept to a few pump-to-groundwater / percolate-to-groundwater schemes that are also being proposed--use wet years to recharge the aquifer, and draw from it during dry years.

Maybe the golden gate would be a good place for tidal turbines on the floor of the bay.

[myelectricbike]

There definitely seems to be some potential energy there going to waste but most likely wind generator farms in the middle of Nevada would be more cost effective. Like tide, the wind in some locations on Earth, always blows.

[OneEye]

The Bay Area is one of those areas with a lot of wind.  The temperature differential between the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay, combined with the topography creates a near constant wind over portions of the Delta.  The wind farm at the Altamont Pass (I-205 between Tracy and Livermore) is currently the largest wind farm in the US.  There is also a large wind farm between Rio Vista and Suisun.  My wife complained constantly about the wind when we lived at Travis AFB, near Fairfield.

It's not perfect, though.  The wind current breaks down when a high-pressure system parks itself over the central valley.  Unfortunately this is also the time when temperatures in the Valley climb above 100 deg F, and the electrical demand spikes.

[mustangman]

  ...and the a/c repairman can count on overtime, doubletime and highway robbery time to fix those poor a/c units that can't take the heat. 

[myelectricbike]

This problem was easiest to minimize by duplicating and triplicating almost everything I own. I can't think of anything that is essential that I do not have two or three waiting to be used as replacements or as substitutes. This applies to all but rapidly changing computer hardware and software components for which I do not stock spares but rather maintain entirely separate systems with interchangeable parts.

[mustangman]

  This "throw away society" with all that is good and bad is actually based in economics to keep the money turning in the economy. That is why toasters and small electrics no not last as long as they use to.(Just throw it away any buy a new one) This philosophy is now being adopted by the auto makers.(build a cheap car that is affordable then, when it needs repair, it is cheaper to just buy a new one)

[myelectricbike]

Humm... support for the economic concept that money is just like blood and the economic system should be modeled to accomodate it. Yes, Hemo-economics!