Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary | 63 comments (63 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary (none / 0)

LOL. That's a nice sub-thread.

We can't pump the water higher than 83 m, because the glaciers in the ice age didn't bring higher heaps of sand than that. A cooperation of southern Germany and Switzerland doesn't make much sense either, because all these pipes would be ugly, and a reservoir on each summit would be taking things a bit too far, I guess. No matter where you try, you will always have only very limited opportunities to build pumped hydro. We will need many more methods to store energy, combined with methods to steer demand.

by Katrin on Fri Aug 17th, 2012 at 03:04:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary (none / 1)

In West Virginia, the pumped hydro could be a means to also filter contaminated groundwater pumped up to wetlands that would filter the water as it then flowed to the reservoir or pond on each hill that has a turbine. There are a lot of hills and mountains in this part of the country.

A system that delivers energy (turbine), stores excess energy for late use (a gravity battery), filters groundwater (wetlands at every reservoir) and creates ponds and small lakes as a habitat for various wildlife to use, all while putting former strip mine workers to work could be a good way to address multiple problems with one solution.

What do y'all think?

by Mentatmark (mentatmark at gmail dot com) on Sat Aug 18th, 2012 at 12:49:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary (4.00 / 2)

Pumped water systems are not generally very good for the ecology of the reservoir, because the water level goes up and down daily. If the wetlands were just a filter, with a relatively constant flow rate, that could be ok. But the reservoir itself is mechanical system.

If you can use the towers of a wind farm as water towers, that could be a good thing. I suppose there are some unintended consequences that will come out over time...

by asdf on Sat Aug 18th, 2012 at 07:27:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary (none / 0)

In my minds eye, I see the wetlands as the filter, with the constant flow trough the wetlands going to a reservoir that would vary in volume. The hollow turbine towers could be that reservoir, but would require a second pumping operation to take the wetland drainage up into the tower. Depending on the geology, those reservoirs could be a dam or a quarry-like pit perhaps. Or something else.

by Mentatmark (mentatmark at gmail dot com) on Sun Aug 19th, 2012 at 01:14:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary (none / 0)

So convenient if the hilltops are gone anyway... Oops!

by Katrin on Sun Aug 19th, 2012 at 03:53:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hobet Mine Shutdown, a Photo Diary | 63 comments (63 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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