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They actually tried to get a form of this here in Utah. Being that there is no tide here, the idea was to pump water from Bear Lake, uphill during the evening hours when power use is lower, then release it during peak hours, to generate power. Anyone who passed high school physics might realize that this system would use more power than it harnessed, which is why it was shot down in large part by Gov. Huntsman.
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Originally Posted by yummi
They do that outside of LA with Pyramid Lake and Castaic Lake. The idea is cost per KWH / Demand Peak not actual energy creation. From that perspective I could see it.
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Once again a politition making decisions on projects he does not understand or understands and uses it as a ploy.
The reason those projects actually work good is at night loading is light and like in my earlier post it is not like just turning a dial to stop generating. Nuclear plants and other geo thermal type plants are not easy to reduce outputs and it takes a while to bring them up to speed once they are taken down. It is easier to run the plants and use the power to pump water up hill then during the day when loads are heavy that same water is used to turn turbines and generate power. There are many of these projects throughout the country and they work well. Look at it like charging a battery.
At night we actually put on reactors (reactor = big resistor not a nuc reactor) to reduce voltage levels or take lines out of service to regulate the voltage because of low power demand. So rather than pump water we are just bleeding it off so to speak not exactly but it explains it easier. Now can you see how it would make more sense to pump water up hill to use it later?
Mike