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Boulder/Hoover dam

C

cdsolar

caduceus
Joined
Dec 16, 2022
Messages
300
Location
Utah, USA
This is hydro, not solar, but I thought this community may have some interest. Boulder, now Hoover dam. We toured the innards yesterday. Here are the turbines on the Nevada side. These plus the ones on the Arizona side... 4 billion Kwh/yr. Paid off and self-funded.

They say the structure itself will last 3000+ years.
 

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CoolWill said:
Awesome. We used to build great things in this country. Now we just worry about which restroom to use. Sad.
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www.seia.org

Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act | SEIA

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most transformational clean energy policy in history. The passage of this historic legislation has had an immediate impact long-term outlook for the U.S. solar industry.
www.seia.org www.seia.org

"By 2033, the U.S. will have installed 669 GW of total solar capacity, more than 4 times the amount installed today"
 
webbbn said:
www.seia.org

Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act | SEIA

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most transformational clean energy policy in history. The passage of this historic legislation has had an immediate impact long-term outlook for the U.S. solar industry.
www.seia.org www.seia.org

"By 2033, the U.S. will have installed 669 GW of total solar capacity, more than 4 times the amount installed today"
Click to expand...
We'll see buddy. We'll see. In 2033, if all that gets installed, I'll come and leave a like on your post.
 
webbbn said:
www.seia.org

Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act | SEIA

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most transformational clean energy policy in history. The passage of this historic legislation has had an immediate impact long-term outlook for the U.S. solar industry.
www.seia.org www.seia.org

"By 2033, the U.S. will have installed 669 GW of total solar capacity, more than 4 times the amount installed today"
Click to expand...
The IRA has some good, and some bad. But one thing we know 100% for certain without any partisan debate..

The US Govt never meets their expected deadlines or budgets. So, while those numbers seem good, I'll 100% be surprised if those targets are met. Especially when you factor in the negatives that the IRA will inevitably cause.

That said, I'm not really sure why these types of posts always turn political. Both the left and right have lost their minds.
This is a forum about solar energy, for helping each other. hyrdo is only "mildly" offtopic, so I have no complaints about that. but politics seems *far* offtopic IMO.

Lets not worry about the bathrooms, civil unrest, inflation, etc in here, mmkay? :)

We all have a common interest in here, lets focus on those things that bring us together, not those that further divide us. We're divided enough!
 
n2aws said:
The IRA has some good, and some bad. But one thing we know 100% for certain without any partisan debate..

The US Govt never meets their expected deadlines or budgets. So, while those numbers seem good, I'll 100% be surprised if those targets are met. Especially when you factor in the negatives that the IRA will inevitably cause.

That said, I'm not really sure why these types of posts always turn political. Both the left and right have lost their minds.
This is a forum about solar energy, for helping each other. hyrdo is only "mildly" offtopic, so I have no complaints about that. but politics seems *far* offtopic IMO.

Lets not worry about the bathrooms, civil unrest, inflation, etc in here, mmkay? :)

We all have a common interest in here, lets focus on those things that bring us together, not those that further divide us. We're divided enough!
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There's nothing political about what I said. Some people make those subjects political. But it is an asinine subject to begin with. That was my point. We're lost in the clouds instead of doing meaningful things.
 
Do they still call it the hard hat tour? Did that before 9-11. Then it went away. In the dam it self was wet and entrusting to say the least. The generator room was cool. Was real loud by the discharge port.
 
CoolWill said:
We'll see buddy. We'll see. In 2033, if all that gets installed, I'll come and leave a like on your post.
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US solar generation was doubling every ~4 years before IRA. This forecast is a doubling every 5 years -- e.g. doubling once by 2028 and doubling again by 2033. It's harder to double from a larger base, so some slowdown of the doubling time is expected. It took wind 6 years to double from roughly the size solar is today (~200 TWh of annual generation). Solar's growth curve is faster than wind's was, and solar works economically in a lot more places than wind, so IMHO solar will easily double by 2028. Maybe even 2027. Will it double again by 2033? Maybe not, but it should get close.
 
i've been on that tour before! I believe it was 2008-2009 ish. It sure is a thing of beauty! I thought at that time the tour was actually quite in depth, they take you to alot of different places, unnerving is the staircase that goes both to the top and to the bottom in the water that almost looks as steep as old catholic church stairs!
 
myles said:
i've been on that tour before! I believe it was 2008-2009 ish. It sure is a thing of beauty! I thought at that time the tour was actually quite in depth, they take you to alot of different places, unnerving is the staircase that goes both to the top and to the bottom in the water that almost looks as steep as old catholic church stairs!
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You remember well. I wonder where all our hardhats ended up?
 
grizzzman said:
Do they still call it the hard hat tour? Did that before 9-11. Then it went away. In the dam it self was wet and entrusting to say the least. The generator room was cool. Was real loud by the discharge port.
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They do not let you on the floor with the turbines, only on an overhead walkway where the picture was taken We did see the staircase. The guide tells us that is how the guides initiate new recruits, by getting them to climb the stairs in less than 20 minutes. Our guide's first time was 45 minutes. We did get to look down the river from a vent in the center of the dam.
 
CoolWill said:
There's nothing political about what I said. Some people make those subjects political. But it is an asinine subject to begin with. That was my point. We're lost in the clouds instead of doing meaningful things.
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But we are doing meaningful things. No doubt the Hoover Dam was a huge engineering accomplishment of it's time, but there are likely many modern projects that compare. Technology has come a long way since then, though.

My point, though, is that we can build great things these days, but they come in a different form. We can get much more energy from large-scale solar arrays if we're willing to invest in it. Unfortunately that has turned into a political issue.
 
Do they still sell old round 2” copper bus in 3” sections at the gift store? Picked one up on 2011ish when we did a tour.

The tour just viewed the turbine hall from a far it was much less intimate than I wanted.

Travel up to the great white north to Sir Adam Beck 2 in Ontario on Niagara Falls for another similar tour. Just a little less capacity than Hoover, but is darn impressive knowing it and the US hydro units on the other side can stop all water flow over the falls if they wanted too.


Here’s another hydro facilty, only about 20MW of capacity that’s run of the river been in service since 1923ish.
889778A4-A5AD-4DF8-B1C4-72A0388756A9.jpeg
 
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If the water harnessed by the generator is flowing towards the ocean,
from higher ground where rain or snow is the source,
and that rain or snow comes from moisture in the air,
that originated in the ocean and evaporated,
due to heat from the sun on the water,
Then this IS solar power, is it not?
 
CoolWill said:
Or the solar powered gasoline engine.
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yeah if we count the sunshine and low oxygen environment of a few hundred million years ago. "ancient solar power"
even nuclear is 'solar energy' if we look at the original source of the heavy elements involved. Not likely to see too many super nova in our lifetimes though. LOL.
 
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