Posted on 07/25/2008 8:23:14 AM PDT by twistedwrench
its well known that lightening strikes on transmission towers add around 2% to the electricity supply, as long as the strike is in the right direction.
The Seneca installation is very interesting & I can see the advantages of having so much extra head. However, it wouldn’t always be necessary to have a separate storage “lake” at a higher elevation; when you already have a large reservoir and power station.
The wind-generated electricity could simply be used to pump water back up to the reservoir; where it would be available for the hydro-powered generators to use. You would essentially be creating an additional supply of water for the hydro generators. Given that hydro plants are limited only by the head and quantity of water available; this approach would allow additional hydro-powered generating capacity to be installed.
LOL!!!
is it the fact that the storage lake is a lot higher than the lake behind the dam what makes it work?
Very interesting!
Could something like that be done on a much smaller scale for a single residential property that has the required slope?
Yes but I doubt the economics for the electrical and mechanical equipment would be cost effective.
The difference in head (elevation) provides significant energy storage with less volume as compared to a lower storage unit.
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