US Pacific Northwest To Have Green Power Glut
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.20.06
This is really terrific news: good for salmon, electricity consumers, green power marketing, farmers, and paddlers. Courtesy of the Spokesman-Review of March 16th: "With snowpack back to normal, a surplus of river-generated electricity is now being predicted for the region, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. During summer's peak runoff, the surplus for the entire Columbia River Basin could be as much as 8,000 average megawatts, which is enough juice to power six cities the size of Seattle, according to the council's report.
"We have a whole lot more megawatts than we're going to have demand for," said John Harrison, spokesman for the intergovernmental agency that studies regional power needs". It's not only Mother Nature we have to thank. Good old fashioned TreeHugger style conservation deserves part credit. "Although part of the projected power surplus is due to a healthy snowpack, the situation is also caused by continuing weak demand, Harrison said. "Our demand for power has never really come back since the energy crisis of 2000-2001. We're still at 1989 levels." "
===== Update ======
Two important good-news beneficiaries were overlooked: prospective owners of plug-in hybrids and hydrogen synthesizers.
On the graphic: area residents will recognise the familiar peak of "Mount Enron" located mid-range in the chart. Who'd have have thought that the alledged power trade misbehaviors of a Texas firm that long ago would have free'd up all that lovely green power for the residents of today's Pacific Northwest?
Aluminum.....
In an anticipation of rising electricity costs, alot of aluminum refiners have left the PNW. that's probably a big part of the difference since '89
Aluminum amounted to as much as 3,000 average MW. I haven't looked into it lately, but last I heard, only 1 of the 10 smelters was still operating at significant capacity, and at full load, I would guess it amounted to only about 400 average MW.
Umm, hydropower isn't green. At least, it isn't green when you do massive dams that span the river and shred Salmon into little bits from the spinning turbines.
Waterwheels are green hydropower. Hydraulic dams aren't.
There are certainly ways to mitigate the problems with dams, but yes, they are not 100% green.
While dams aren't the most green, they are better than coal. Dams are a big one time loss, while coal is continually outputting death.
Also, it's unfortunate that you had to mention the plug-in hybrids. I do like this blog, but I feel cars are over-represented (especially "green" cars). Cars inflict many, many social and environmental issues on cities, so it would be better to see them disappear. You could have mentioned that it is good news for Metro because now all our trolley buses will cost less. Or that we can now sell cleaner power to California to run their AC.
==== author's reponse follows ====
Excellent comments. Sometimes we writers get in a grove following the page hit rates.
In the PNW we don't think of hyrdro as green, only that it's greener than coal. Dams are just too devastating.