Reading JRG's Blog on the "Wants, not needs" got me back on the Hydro track, well...... that and a morning inside enjoying the AC.
Bob brings up the point " We were supposed to have an equity partner in place by late June, early July at the latest. Guess what? July ends Saturday."
Today is August 1st so let's crunch some numbers.
Here is the information that I retrieved off the rivergages.com for this years thru 7/31/10.
Pool is river level at Quincy Filter plant, Tailwater is from L&D 21 and Fall is the difference between the two. The OEM of the Hydro generating turbines states that the minimum fall needed to produce electricity is 1.4 meters or 4.5'. The Chart here has the results color coded as below 4.5' as red and above 4.51' as green.
As you can see that there has been only 35 days so far this years that the multimillion dollar Hydro project would produce electricity. This is 212 days into the year.
Do the math and this is a whopping 6% operational efficiency.
Maybe that explains why the partners are not beating a path to city hall.
Thinking Michael may add some input ???
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13 comments:
What?Oh,ye of little faith!If they build it,the Fall will come!
I think they'll just say this was an unusual year. And it has been unusual with all the flooding but who's to say high water isn't the new normal?
.....crickets chirping......
On the fat chance this system does work, what would be the pay back rate/time
Roberta
looks like this blog has went to shit
Roberta:
Not in out lifetime.
Roberta,you are correct in asking about the payback.It does not and never will.NO privately held company makes money generating green energy.They make money PROVIDING dams,solar energy and wind,but they don't OWN the generating facility/machinery. They build them with "green" grants and tax money.There are no investors for our hydro,unless they are getting a cut from the city,and it would never be enough for a serious investor.Look at the wind farm guys,they are using all government grants,or money the government will give us as pork to build "green".Do some research and you'll find out "green' only gets done by the government,or by benevolent,altruistic billionaires like Bill Gates, T.Boone Pickens, The Rockefellers,etc.
7:37
...or misguided city goverments being driven by engineers who are profiting off this venture whether it runs or fails.
Going to take a long time to pay off the lawnmower if it only cuts grass once every two weeks.
Still not making Electric today either.......
August 12, River rising to 19 feet. Going to run out and see if I can get an early bird special on winterizing the ole' Evinrude. Boating season is over this year and turbine season percentages continue to grind down.
Such a boondoggle.
Please note: 1.4M is not the minimum head necessary to generate electricity. They do expect to produce power down to less than 3 feet. Not that it makes much difference on the data for this year.
This has been a very wet year which was predicted as one of the worst case scenarios. So no surprise...
And there's more head that can be produced with upper weir control. The Corps only sets the gates once per day right now.
An earlier analysis I did showed about 30 years to be positive cash flow -- much earlier if electric rates skyrocket like Obama wants...
Great,so the city or its' investor buds will make more money if my electric bill skyrockets!The payback from green energy is supposed to go to the consumer!So,actually,there will never be any payback.
Who in the world told you "green" was supposed to pay back the consumer????
All the green stuff costs more than what we now have. Hydro is the only green that can pay for itself (and even then they're still looking for a government handout to make it more financially feasible).
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