Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon
Conventional hydro works great with intermittent sources. The reservoirs act as a big battery and the generators can be adjusted rapidly compared to thermal. Hydro systems are ultimately dependent on how much water can go through the turbines, so those intermittent sources allow for the water use to be deferred.
Most of our hydro dams only average something like 50% of the peak capacity. They would run out of water if they tried to produce their peak capacity all the time. Using wind/solar/whatever to satisfy some of the demand just means you get to save that peak capacity for when you need it.
Wind, RoR and solar could be expanded many times over in BC before we get into peaking issues. Even after our current system is maxed out, there's probably more pumped storage potential in BC than in most other parts of the world.
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Correct in that hydro is great at reacting to demand, but natural gas power plants are just as quick. Most new natural gas power plants these days are in effect a jet engine bolted to the ground, where the gas turbine provides the bulk of the power, but the hot exhaust gas is at times used to provide heat for additional energy production by generating steam.
Gas turbines are a preferred power plant design for a natural gas power plant these days because it's so easily scalable (you can bring in additional generation capacity by literally plop down a new gas turbine power plant on the ground in a shipping container), are incredibly efficient (and this is always improving as new jet engine designs and technology always makes it down to other applications), and cheaper to build compared to traditional thermal natural gas.
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