Power Generation:

Disadvantages to power plants that use coal, oil, and gas fuel:

They use up valuable and limited natural resources
They can produce a lot of pollution
Companies have to dig up the earth or drill wells to get the coal, oil, and gas


For nuclear power plants there are waste-disposal problems

Advantages to hydroelectric power:

Fuel is not burned so there is minimal pollution
Water to run the power plant is provided free by nature
It's renewable - rainfall renews the water in the reservoir, so the fuel is almost always there

However, since hydropower requires significant river flow, it becomes a regional solution, not a national one.

Some Example Large Scale Projects:

World's Biggest Hydro Power Plan (until recently)

Grand Coulee Dam

Hydro Power in California

Last time we discussed the evolution of Hydro construction in the state of Washington and identified three major period/trends:

• 1900 - 1930 gradual building of small dams
• 1930-1940 huge dam projects driven by Federal initiative
• 1955-1975 Post WWII large projects

  
  John Day                1969 2200 MW
  Niagara (NY)            1961 2000 MW
  The Dalles              1957 1800 MW
  Chief Joseph            1956 1500 MW
  McNary                  1954 1400 MW
  
  

Pacific Northwest has 58 hydroelectric dams 63% of total electricity generated.

The PNW Hydroelectric System:

Much of this regional resource is managed by The Bonneville Power Administration

But note that the resource has high seasonal variance (and now high annual variance due to variable snowpack)

And this whole situation is excarbated by the large scale western drought

Although it is unlikely that any future dams will be built (for a variety of reasons) it is nonetheless useful to assess the regional undeveloped hydroresource that is potentially available:

The averages from several studies yield the following:

• WA 11,000 MW (significant)
• OR 6,000 MW (respectable amount)
• CA 14,000 MW (that's significant)
• ID 9,500 MW (very significant relative to local demand)
• MT 5,000 MW

So that's a total of 45,000 MW is it possible to use other regional renewable resources to also get 45,000 MW of power? We will examine this issue later.